The Issyk Golden Cataphract Warrior, is a suit of armor consisting of thousands of gold pieces found by chance in 1969 during the construction of a garage and road improvement works at the Issyk burial mound in the south of the country of

Almaty Almaty, formerly Alma-Ata, is the List of most populous cities in Kazakhstan, largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population exceeding two million residents within its metropolitan area. Located in the foothills of the Trans-Ili Alatau mountains ...

. It was recovered from the

Issyk kurgan The Issyk kurgan, in south-eastern Kazakhstan, less than 20 km east from the Talgar alluvial fan, near Esik, Issyk, is a burial mound discovered in 1969. It has a height of and a circumference of . It is dated to the 4th or 3rd century B ...

, which was examined by a team of archaeologists from the Kazakhstan Institute of History, Ethnography and Archaeology headed by

Kimal Akishev Kimal Akishev (also spelled Kemal; ; 1924–2003) was a Kazakhstani scientist, archeologist, and historian. Akishev was a fifth generation descendant of the Argyn tribe head Chorman-bi. His parents were Abu Ali, or Akysh, and Gaziza Chorman. He wa ...

. It is thought to have belonged to the

Scythians The Scythians ( or ) or Scyths (, but note Scytho- () in composition) and sometimes also referred to as the Pontic Scythians, were an Ancient Iranian peoples, ancient Eastern Iranian languages, Eastern Iranian peoples, Iranian Eurasian noma ...

"The dress of Iranian-speaking Saka and Scythians is easily reconstructed on the basis of... numerous archaeological discoveries from the Ukraine to the Altai, particularly at Issyk in Kazakhstan... at Pazyryk... and Ak-Alakha" or

Sakas The Saka, old , mod. , ), Shaka (Sanskrit ( Brāhmī): , , ; Sanskrit (Devanāgarī): , ), or Sacae (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: were a group of nomadic Eastern Iranian peoples who lived in the Eurasian Steppe and the Tarim Basin from the ...

. The Golden Cataphract Warrior is thought to be a Saka prince or princess around the age of 18, since he dates to the 4th century BC and the region where the kurgan was found was ruled by the Sakas in the 4th century BC. The armor was exhibited in Ankara for 2 weeks in 2019 and then moved back to Kazakhstan. Today, it is exhibited in the

National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan The National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan (, ''Qazaqstan Respýblıkasynyń Ulltyq mýzeıi''), is located in Astana Astana is the capital city of Kazakhstan. With a population of 1,423,726 within the city limits, it is the second-lar ...

References

Works cited

* {{cite book , last=Kuzmina , first=Elena Kuzmina , date=2007 , title=The Origin of the Indo-Iranians , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x5J9rn8p2-IC , publisher=BRILL , isbn=978-90-04-16054-5 , author-link=Elena Efimovna Kuzmina 1969 archaeological discoveries Scythology Asian armour Individual suits of armour Archaeology of Kazakhstan