ASTANA, August 7. /TASS/. Archeologists working in the remote Tarbagatai Mountains in East Kazakhstan have discovered a ‘golden man’ mummy dating back to the 8th-7th centuries B.C. in the Yeleke Sazy burial mound.

"Anthropologists say the mound is a burial place of a young man aged from 17 to 18 who was some 165-170 centimeters tall. All the burial items are well-preserved making it possible to visualize his garments and appearance. When buried, the young man was dressed in gold, with all of his clothes being embroidered with gold beads. The man was buried with a massive gold torc around his neck (suggesting his noble origin) and a dagger in a golden quiver beside him," Kazakhstan’s ministry of information and communications said in a press release on Tuesday.

According to archeologist Zeinolla Samashev, who led the research team, much is to be done to study the burial. "We will do facial reconstruction from the skull of this young man, extract DNA from the bones to find out the environment people lived in back then, to learn about their everyday life and habits," he said.

Meanwhile, Yegor Kitov, an invited anthropologist from Moscow’s Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, surmised that the body had been mummified. "The finds and the size of the mound suggest that the young man buried inside had a high social status. The body was mummified to allow time for those coming from far away to say farewell to the man," he said.

The local authorities plan to display the unique artefacts unearthed over the past three year in East Kazakhstan at a new museum. "The finds indicate the high level of technological development in gold jewelry production in the 8th century B.C., which, in turn, suggests the high level of civilization at that time," said Danial Akhmentov, head of the East Kazakhstan regional administration.