MOSCOW, March 10. /TASS Correspondent Dmitry Osipov/. "Face to face with the past" is how Yakut scientists dub a project to make a 3D model to reconstruct the appearance of an archer warrior who lived 4,000 years ago, in the Late Neolithic Period, on the territory of modern Yakutia. Director of the Northeastern Federal University's Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography Lilia Alekseeva is a co-leader of the project - "Digital Visualization of Yakutia's Neolithic Warrior: archaeological and anthropological reconstruction of the Kerdyugen burial site."
40 years in science
When a student, Lilia Alekseeva participated actively in excavating settlements of the first Russian explorers and sailors on the Alazeya and the Kolyma Rivers. She joined the museum in 1991 as a graduate from the Yakutsk State University's History Department (presently, it is the Northeastern Federal University, NEFU).
For about 40 years, the archaeologist spent practically every summer in the fields, on excavations. "Over that many years, field seasons become not just a job, but rather an integral part of life, without which, like without a breath of air, it becomes impossible to live and - even more - it becomes uninteresting," she said.
The biggest value, in her opinion, is professional qualities, like in any other field, industry, or direction. "This is above all! Even the joy of discovery or bitterness from defeat should rather be experienced next to those who can share and feel it. Those close, in terms of spirit. As for values - they are always the same - love, loyalty, dedication, patience, and finally... Once this all is brought together, we may say the field season was successful," she continued.
Heat, rain, and a lack of everyday conveniences eventually cease to be taken as difficulties and grow into the natural backdrop of field life. "Right, inconvenient, but that's it! I can bear it stoically," the scientist said.
Reconstructing the antiquity
The museum, founded in 1972, emerged from Professor Georgy Basharin's history society. The exhibits were materials from the History Department's first archaeological expeditions. The exposition objects were growing in number thus pushing for a museum to demonstrate the amazing finds related to Yakutia's ancient history and culture.
The museum displays archaeological materials from the Early Paleolithic Period, found in Yakutia's Olekminsky District, finds from the Late Paleolithic and Mesolithic Periods. The exposition features objects from one of a few ancient cave monuments in Yakutia, the Khayyrgas Cave.
"Among stone and bone materials at a human site, I would note, seemingly quite ordinary objects - bone needles, punctures, and pincushions. Nevertheless, without these items, the development of the North with its harsh climatic conditions depended entirely on availability of high-quality sewn clothes, equipment and housing. Thus, the North was conquered not by a male hunter with a spear, but by a woman with a needle," Liliya said.
For thousands of years, hunting and fishing were the existence of ancient people living in Yakutia. This is confirmed by numerous artifacts - arrowheads, fragments of bows, fish hooks, harpoons, sinkers, knives, fragments of bones of hunted animals.
A valuable source of information about the material and spiritual life of the ancient people in Yakutia is the Toyon-Ary drawing on the left bank of the Lena River, near the village of Bulgunnyakhtakh. On a sheer cliff, at a height of about 5 meters, there are several drawings - where in the center are huge moose, painted in a skeletal style typical of the Bronze Age. Moose and hunting objects, as well as objects of religious beliefs and ritual practices are on the drawings.
We were talking in an office equipped with special refrigeration systems to store archaeological finds. For many years, the museum staff participated in archaeological research of Yakut pre-Christian burials. The refrigerator is used to store and preserve finds, especially objects of bone, wood, fabric, and iron.
"The thing is those objects that have been in stable, homogeneous conditions for many years begin to collapse very quickly when exposed to oxygen. Iron rusts, organic matter decomposes. Changed humidity deforms objects and they crack. Therefore, in our case, freezing allows both preserving objects and minimizing the processes of artifacts destruction," the museum's director said.
The dream to "revive" the Kerdyugen warrior
Lilia can remember absolutely clearly the landmark summer of 2004. "Yes, in 2004, during field reconnaissance, our small detachment of YSU (the Yakutsk State University) archaeological expedition near Kerdyugen, 9 km north of the village of Churapcha, discovered a warrior's burial. At a depth of 7 cm from the modern-day surface (the relief surface before the start of archaeological works) Alexander Stepanov (our museum's "golden" shovel) discovered bone plates, of, as we learned later, a shield. Back then, we could only guess that with every lifted centimeter, we were getting closer to a world-class find. The burial's maximum depth was 35 cm, not deep at all," the archaeologist said.
That was a man who was buried completely covered by a shield of more than 100 bone plates. At his feet lay a piece of armor partially covered by the shield, and arrowheads that once had been in a quiver. By the right shoulder was a slate adze, and presumably a bag with household items by the left leg.
A comparative analysis prompted the find was of Yakutia's Late Neolithic Era.
Burials of such unique preservation have not been found either in Yakutia or in neighboring regions, the expert added.
"Everything about this burial was unusual, not to mention the shield and armor. Firstly, the anatomical order of bones was disrupted, greatly stretched in the vertebral part, as, when measured, the backbone amounted to 192 cm! A massive shape of the skull with a wide lower jaw, no teeth on the right side, completely tightened alveoli, traces of improperly fused fractures. Another interesting discovery of this burial site was that we found bones of the second person collected in a pile, and the missing right femur. That was something to think about! How unusual was that man, how mysterious, and how full of mystery was that time so far away from us!" the archaeologist said.
In 2006, specialists of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography (the Russian Academy of Sciences' Siberian Branch), led by Tatiana Chikisheva, conducted anthropological studies of Kerdyugentz. "They aged the buried man - he was 40-50 years old, which was quite an age for a human of that time. The skull's morphological features turned out to be close to the Arctic race. By the size of long bones, the experts calculated the body length - 165 cm, not a giant, of course," the museum's director said.
The described skeleton was the foundation to reconstruct the buried man's lifestyle. The nature of injuries (fractured bones of arms, legs, compression fractures of shoulder and elbow joints) prompted the warrior's extreme lifestyle. Anthropologists explain the injuries by a direct strong stub on the limbs or a jump from a great height.
"The muscular relief, well-developed muscles and bones of the shoulder girdle, chest, back, arms, especially the right side, suggested the man could have been an archer warrior. This conclusion is confirmed by the accompanying objects in the burial. There is a term - dogs of war. It is likely applicable to this man," she said.
In 2008, six radiocarbon dates were obtained from the University of Arizona (the US). "All of them, but for one, confirm the preliminary dating and are consistent with Yakutia's Yyyakhtakh culture. The find's age was determined to be 3.800 ± 400 years," the scientist continued.
According to her, this is one of the most informative burials in terms of its content, and its research gives a wide range of material to study the socio-economic aspects of society, which made it possible to identify among hunters and fishermen the warrior-leaders who had undergone combat training. "The bone armor and a shield with numerous holes indicate quite frequent and serious collisions. Moreover, making the shield and armor required incredible skills, hence people skillful in making them," she added.
Another very important evidence of complex socio-religious beliefs in the Ymyakhtakh people is that fragmented bones of another person were found in the Kerdyugen burial. "That may indicate human sacrifice, accompanied by an act of cannibalism. The burial ceremony is also interesting. The skull examination showed that a small bonfire was lit under the head of the buried man, and that fire was set after the deceased was laid. The conditional head burning obviously indicates that the person's soul was in the head or in the hair. The use of fire in funeral practice is presumably associated with the soul's going to heaven. In addition, fire had purifying functions. That's how amazing 20-years-old find has turned out to be," the archaeologist said in conclusion.
Creating a 3D model
Back in 2004, while excavating the burial, the scientists could not afford dreaming to "revive" the Kerdyugen warrior. In 2023, the university and the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology started the thorough 3D scanning of burial materials under a joint project to digitalize and reconstruct the Neolithic population of Yakutia.
Led by Ravil Galeev of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, the Museum of Archeology and Ethnography, the NEFU Mammoth Museum, the Institute of Physics and Technology, and the History Department digitized more than 400 archaeological materials.
They scanned fully the skeleton, shield, armor, and accompanying objects. The specialists used Mikhail Gerasimov's face reconstruction method, the obtained digital images to re-create the most realistic appearance of an ancient man.
The Kerdyugen warrior is one of the central exhibits in the museum. It is located in the center of the hall. The shield plates are made of tubular bones of a large animal, most likely an elk. Through holes and cavities from arrows are seen clearly on the plates. Fragments of arrowheads were found stuck in six plates. The shield's left side is well preserved, while the right side is partially damaged by rodents. How did they fix the shield plates? "There are no mounting holes, which suggests the bone plates were cut out, carefully fitted, and glued, apparently, onto a leather base," the researcher said.
"After 4,000 years, we managed to look into the distant past to see a man who has been stirring our imagination for more than 20 years," Lilia Alekseeva said, stressing the Kerdyugen warrior research is far from complete.