Sergei Ivanovich Rudenko (; ; January 16, 1885,

Kharkov Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

, Russian Empire – July 16, 1969,

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

, USSR) was a prominent Ukrainian, born to a noble Ukrainian family, and

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

anthropologist and archaeologist who discovered and excavated the most celebrated of

Scythian The Scythians ( or ) or Scyths (, but note Scytho- () in composition) and sometimes also referred to as the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern Iranian equestrian nomadic people who had migrated during the 9th to 8th centuries BC fr ...

burials, Pazyryk in

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

. Rudenko was a follower of

Paul Broca Pierre Paul Broca (, also , , ; 28 June 1824 – 9 July 1880) was a French physician, anatomist and anthropologist. He is best known for his research on Broca's area, a region of the frontal lobe that is named after him. Broca's area is involve ...

's "French School" of anthropology. He participated in the

Russian Geographical Society The Russian Geographical Society (), or RGO, is a learned society based in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It promotes geography, exploration and nature protection with research programs in fields including oceanography, ethnography, ecology and stati ...

's (IRGO) Map Commission established in 1910. In that year he participated in an expedition to the

Ob River The Ob (; ) is a major river in Russia. It is in western Siberia, and with its tributary the Irtysh forms the world's seventh-longest river system, at . The Ob forms at the confluence of the Biya and Katun which have their origins in the Alta ...

basin in Western

, where he studied the

Khanty people The Khanty (), also known in older literature as Ostyaks (), are a Ob-Ugric languages, Ugric Indigenous people, living in Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug, a region historically known as "Yugra" in Russia, together with the Mansi people, Mansi. I ...

. In 1917 he was a founder participant in the Commission for the Study of the Tribal Composition of the Population of the Borderlands of Russia (KIPS), along with several colleagues of the IRGO Map Commission. Rudenko delivered lectures in the

Leningrad University Saint Petersburg State University (SPBGU; ) is a public university, public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the Great, the uni ...

from 1921 to 1954. In 1947-1950 and 1954 he was sent by the Soviet Archaeology Institute to explore the

kurgan A kurgan is a type of tumulus (burial mound) constructed over a grave, often characterized by containing a single human body along with grave vessels, weapons, and horses. Originally in use on the Pontic–Caspian steppe, kurgans spread into mu ...

s in the

Altai Mountains The Altai Mountains (), also spelled Altay Mountains, are a mountain range in Central Asia, Central and East Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan converge, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob River, Ob have their headwaters. The ...

. During the excavation of Pazyryk tombs, he discovered the world's most spectacular

tattoo A tattoo is a form of body modification made by inserting tattoo ink, dyes, or pigments, either indelible or temporary, into the dermis layer of the skin to form a design. Tattoo artists create these designs using several tattooing processes ...

mummy A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and Organ (biology), organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to Chemical substance, chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the ...

. In deference to the work of Rudenko and his anthropological usage, what was found is now said to belong to the Pazyryk Culture which flourished between the 7th and 3rd centuries BC.

Herodotus Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...

and other ancient writers referred to the Altai as "the golden mountain". It was there that the impregnable citadel of the

s (or Sacae) lay hidden for centuries. Rudenko, however, was cautious enough not to assign his findings to the Scythians. He attributed the kurgan finds to the formidable Iron Age horsemen and warriors, whom he dubbed the "Pazyryks". Although they left no written records, Pazyryk artifacts are distinguished by a sophisticated level of artistry and craftsmanship. The Pazyryk

tomb A tomb ( ''tumbos'') or sepulchre () is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called '' immurement'', alth ...

s discovered by Rudenko were in an almost perfect state of preservation. They contained

skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of most animals. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is a rigid outer shell that holds up an organism's shape; the endoskeleton, a rigid internal fra ...

s and intact bodies of horses and embalmed humans, together with a wealth of artifacts including

saddle A saddle is a supportive structure for a rider of an animal, fastened to an animal's back by a girth. The most common type is equestrian. However, specialized saddles have been created for oxen, camels and other animals. It is not know ...

s, riding gear, a

chariot A chariot is a type of vehicle similar to a cart, driven by a charioteer, usually using horses to provide rapid Propulsion, motive power. The oldest known chariots have been found in burials of the Sintashta culture in modern-day Chelyabinsk O ...

, rugs,

clothing Clothing (also known as clothes, garments, dress, apparel, or attire) is any item worn on a human human body, body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin s ...

jewelry Jewellery (or jewelry in American English) consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment such as brooches, ring (jewellery), rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the ...

musical instrument A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make Music, musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person ...

amulet An amulet, also known as a good luck charm or phylactery, is an object believed to confer protection upon its possessor. The word "amulet" comes from the Latin word , which Pliny's ''Natural History'' describes as "an object that protects a perso ...

s, tools, and an "apparatus for inhaling

hemp Hemp, or industrial hemp, is a plant in the botanical class of ''Cannabis sativa'' cultivars grown specifically for industrial and consumable use. It can be used to make a wide range of products. Along with bamboo, hemp is among the fastest ...

smoke". Also found in the tombs were

fabric Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, and different types of fabric. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is no ...

s from

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, which the Pazyryks must have obtained on journeys covering thousands of miles. In 1925, in an essay he wrote with , he developed a theory (contrary to

Fedir Vovk Fedir Kindratovych Vovk (, 1847–1918) also known as Khvedir Vovk () was a Ukrainian anthropologist-archaeologist, the curator of the Alexander III Museum in St. Petersburg... Vovk graduated from Kyiv University in 1871. He was an active ...

's theory) that the Ukrainian population consisted not of one racial ( Dinaric) type but of at least six European racial types (although with the Dinaric type predominant).Rakovsky, Ivan A.
Encyclopedia of Ukraine.

References

*S.I. Rudenko, ''Kul'tura naseleniia Gornogo Altaia v skifskoe vremia'' (Moscow and Leningrad, 1953) 1885 births 1969 deaths Scientists from Kharkiv People from Kharkovsky Uyezd Ukrainian archaeologists Russian archaeologists Soviet archaeologists Russian ethnographers Russian scientists Recipients of the Order of the Badge of Honour {{Russia-archaeologist-stub