Hundreds of thousands of vacationers from across the country visit the resort town of Belokurikha each year, yet few are aware that thousands of years ago the surrounding area was a multicultural center of ancient populations. Recent discoveries by researchers at Altai State University shed light on this little-known past.
The Altai State University Publishing House released an article titled Materials from the Scythian-Saka Period in the Northern Foothills of Altai (Based on Data from the Ulyanovka 3 Cemetery)” in its journal Theory and Practice of Archaeological Research. The study demonstrates that the territory of present-day Belokurikha has been inhabited since the Stone Age, while later burial sites hold secrets related to the Scythians.
The authors of the article are Yaroslav Frolov, Director of the Altai Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography and Candidate of Historical Sciences; Svetlana Svyatko, PhD in History and Research Fellow at Queen’s University Belfast (UK); Alexander Fedoruk, Leading Researcher at the Laboratory for the Interdisciplinary Study of the Archaeology of Western Siberia at Altai State University; and Dmitry Papin, Leading Researcher at the same laboratory.
The Ulyanovka 3 archaeological site was discovered near Belokurikha during a survey of land designated for the construction of infrastructure for the new Belokurikha-2 resort.
“We began work in and around Belokurikha in 2014. Representatives of the resort approached us with a proposal to conduct archaeological research in the surrounding area to identify what additional value the resort could offer beyond its wellness services. That same year, we carried out extensive reconnaissance to the west of the town, along the foothills and as far as the Peschanaya River. An analysis of the existing scientific literature confirmed the presence of numerous significant archaeological sites in the area. Later, when construction of the Belokurikha-2 complex began, we actively participated to ensure that cultural heritage sites were preserved during development,” says Dmitry Papin.
In 2017, researchers from Altai State University were invited to survey the area during the construction of a high-voltage power line. It was discovered that a burial mound was located at the exact site planned for one of the transmission towers. While archaeologists were working to define the boundaries of this site, they discovered a nearby ancient settlement, the lower layers of which date back to the Upper Paleolithic—the period when Homo sapiens first appeared in Altai Krai.
“During the rescue excavations, we confirmed our initial assumption that the earliest layers dated back to a very ancient period. We later established that this area contained several habitation horizons: the earliest dates back to the early Upper Paleolithic, followed by the Early Stone Age, then the Early Bronze Age, and finally the Scythian period. During the Scythian period, a large necropolis existed at this site for a considerable length of time,” says Dmitry Papin.
This archaeological site has been named Ulyanovka-3: Settlement and Burial Ground. It is located 200 meters west of the outskirts of Belokurikha, in the northern foothills of the Altai Mountains, on the left bank of the Berezovka River where it flows onto the Pre-Altai Plain. Archaeologists discovered five burials during the excavation, including a child’s grave, one of which was situated beneath a burial mound. Furthermore, the cultural layer yielded fragments of pottery, part of a bronze awl, a bone bead (ornament), and animal bones.
“We realized that this represented a rather unusual situation, with flat graves located in close proximity to a burial mound. How are they connected? To understand this, we formed a research team comprising archaeologists, paleogeneticists, anthropologists, and isotope geochemists who specialize in radiocarbon dating. Regarding cultural interpretation, the first confirmed evidence indicates that the kurgan is associated with a population linked to the Altai Mountains—the Pazyryk culture. This is quite unusual, as it represents the northernmost extent of Pazyryk presence deep into the forest-steppe zone of Altai,” the archaeologist notes.
The burial ritual indicates that the kurgan contained people of the Pazyryk culture: the deceased was placed on his side with his legs bent. Notably, two people were interred in this grave, but not simultaneously. The first was a man aged 40–50, and the second a woman of a similar age. The arrangement of the bones suggests that the woman was buried later. The female skeleton was located in the central part of the pit, positioned on her right side with her back facing upward and her head oriented to the southeast. Her arms were extended along her body. Behind her, along the wall of the grave, the man’s bones were found in a disordered arrangement. They had apparently been shifted. Radiocarbon dating showed that the two burials were separated by approximately 150 years. They may have been related.
“Our team also analyzed nitrogen and carbon isotopes from bone samples, which provide insight into the ancient individuals’ diet. The results showed relatively high values, indicating their place within the so-called C4 food chain. This suggests a diet largely based on grains, particularly millet. No evidence of fish consumption was found in any of the analyzed samples. Overall, the isotope analysis showed that the people buried at this site practiced diverse livelihoods, including both pastoralism and early forms of crop cultivation,” the scientist emphasizes.
The researchers examined only a small portion of the Ulyanovka-3 site. The four remaining graves contained adult individuals and one child. The burials are dated to the 8th–3rd centuries BC.
“I would especially like to highlight the interdisciplinary approach used in this study. Archaeologists provide the foundation—the material culture and the primary historical source—while a team of specialists from related fields, including isotope geochemistry, ancient DNA research, and anthropology, each contributes their own perspective. By gathering bits of knowledge, we obtain new historical data. Without this collaboration, archaeologists could only establish that the burial ground dates back to the Scythian period, of which there are many in Altai. However, thanks to our colleagues’ research, we can see that different tribal groups coexisted in the same territory, united by certain principles, and used the same burial ground over a period of five hundred years,” concluded Dmitry Papin.