18 July 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Tutankhamun of Kazakhstan, “Golden Man”

The Golden Man, the main symbol of Kazakhstan’s independence, is a warrior’s costume from about the 5th century BC that was found in a Saka tomb near Issik settlement, about 60km east of Almaty.

When his remains were discovered in 1969 during an excavation at the Issyk burial mound in southern Kazakhstan, along with exquisite gold-embroidered armor and other priceless funerary artifacts, archaeologists quickly nicknamed him the “Golden Man”.

The discovery was made by a farmer from the Issyk collective farm while preparing the land for planting. The central tomb in the kurgan had been plundered in antiquity, but the robbers had missed a rich burial hidden in the side of the mound.

The Kazakh Institute of History, Ethnography, and Archaeology (now the Kazakh Institute of Archaeology) sent Kemal Akishev to Issyk to promptly begin systematic excavation of the kurgan after the farmer discovered it. Within a sarcophagus made of massive fir logs, Akishev and his associates soon found a skeleton covered in 4,000 gold ornaments. The rich find of jewelry left researchers so taken aback that they largely overlooked the human remains.

The so-called Golden Man, dubbed the ‘Tutankhamun of Kazakhstan’ by scientists, is believed to be an 18-year-old Saka soldier. Covered with thousands of pieces of gold, the suit is composed of a shirt, boots, and headgear and it is presumed that the golden earrings and rings from the grave also belong to him.

One of the excavated kurgans at the Issyk Kurgan site in Kazakhstan. Source

Warrior’s costume is made of more than 4000 separate gold pieces, many of them finely worked with animal motifs, and has a 70cm-high headdress bearing skyward-pointing arrows, a pair of snarling snow leopards and a two-headed winged mythical beast.

The conventional wisdom is that the skeleton found inside the costume was that of a young Saka prince killed in battle. But there is a strong countercurrent of thought that the Golden Man was in fact a Golden Woman, and that Kazakhstan’s nation-makers have deliberately misrepresented the gender to suit Kazakh stereotypes.

In her 2002 book Warrior Women, archaeologist Jeannine Davis-Kimball makes the case that other artifacts found in the tomb indicate the deceased was a woman, even though the body was too severely damaged to identify its gender.

Golden Man

The ‘women’s equipment’ includes a mirror, beads, a spinning wheel for processing wool, and a scoop. The high conical headdress, decorated with branches of gold foil and shoots, is a reference to the fertility ritual. Janine suggests that this is not just a warrior, but a priestess. In her opinion, the gender has been deliberately misrepresented to satisfy stereotypes.

A fascinating school of thought links the Golden Woman to Tomiris, a queen of the Massagetes tribe who drove out the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great’s invading army.

Horse. Burial mound Issyk (5th–4th centuries BC)

The bones were only rediscovered recently at a forensic institute, stored in a cardboard box with a scribbled note reading “The Golden Man, May He Rest in Peace”. The bones are in a bad state. They have been kept in a cardboard box for 50 years and have been exposed to all sorts of bacteria and viruses, including modern ones. It seems difficult to make a healthy analysis at the moment.

Many archaeologists say this cannot be ruled out, given the rudimentary nature of the study of the remains, and the similarity of some of the Issyk artifacts to those found in female Scythian burial mounds in the southern Urals area of Russia.

Gold plaques in tiger form, Issyk Kurgan, Kazakhstan

Whoever wears it, man or woman, the suit is created with exquisite craftsmanship using battering, stamping, carving, and granulation techniques. According to the findings, the Golden Man can be dated to the late Bronze Age or early Iron Age.

Since independence in 1991, Golden Man has become a symbol of Kazakhstan’s national heritage. He appears atop independence monuments throughout the country, including Astana and the financial capital Almaty, as well as on the presidential standard and commemorative coins.

Related Articles

Göbeklitepe Monolith will be Exhibited in the United Nations

15 May 2021

15 May 2021

A copy of one of the famous ruins of Göbeklitepe, known as the oldest temple in the world, will be...

Important archaeological find in the seas of Sicily: Archaic stone anchors found off Syracuse

24 November 2023

24 November 2023

During a joint operation by the Maritime Superintendency of the Sicilian Region and the Diving Unit of the Guardia di...

Jordan’s mysterious ancient wall “Khatt Shebib”

22 October 2022

22 October 2022

The accomplishments of ancient civilizations are typically woefully underappreciated because we stereotype them as primitives who only wore loincloths, and...

Mothers in the prehistoric were far more skilled at parenting their children than we give them credit for

24 November 2021

24 November 2021

The death rate of newborns in ancient cultures is not a reflection of inadequate healthcare, sickness, or other issues, according...

A 4000-Year-Old Trading Port was Discovered in Istanbul

4 May 2021

4 May 2021

Archaeological excavations carried out on a peninsula in the middle of Istanbul Küçükçekmece Lake unearthed a very important 4,000-year-old trade...

Remnants of ancient fire temple discovered in heart of Alborz mountains in Iran

26 June 2021

26 June 2021

An Iranian archaeology team has discovered relics of an ancient fire temple in Savadkuh county, located in the center of...

Egyptian Pharaoh Slain in Battle Because of the Hippos

17 February 2021

17 February 2021

The mummy of Pharaoh Seqenenre Taa II, found in 1880, was re-analyzed. When it was found, the deep wounds on...

Mysterious Handprints Found in the Ancient Mayan Cave

1 May 2021

1 May 2021

In Mexico, home to ancient civilizations such as the Maya, Aztec, and Inca, archaeologist Sergio Grosjean found dozens of mysterious...

Archaeologists may have found Lyobaa, the Zapotec Land of the Dead

1 July 2023

1 July 2023

An archaeological team from the Lyobaa project has confirmed the existence of a vast Zapotec underground complex in their study...

A 2,000-year-old whistle was found in a child’s grave in the ruins of Assos, Turkey

18 October 2022

18 October 2022

A terracotta whistle believed to be 2,000 years old from the Roman era and placed as a gift in a...

500-year-old board game discovered carved into a stone slab in a Polish castle

12 September 2023

12 September 2023

A board game carved into stone was discovered by archaeologists investigating the castle at Ćmielów in the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship in...

A woman was buried in a canoe on her way to the ‘destination of souls’ 800 years ago

25 August 2022

25 August 2022

According to new research, Up to 800 years ago, mourners buried a young woman in a ceremonial canoe to represent...

‘Miniature Pompeii’ found beneath Astra cinema in Verona

15 June 2021

15 June 2021

Archaeologists have uncovered a “miniature Pompeii” in the shape of a well-preserved ancient edifice near Verona, Italy. An old Roman...

2000-year-old quarry discovered in Jerusalem that could be the source of Second temple stones

5 September 2021

5 September 2021

Archaeologists have discovered a 2,000-year-old quarry in Har Hotzvim, now an industrial park in Jerusalem. The Israel Antiquities Authority said...

A 4,000-year-old treasure map of France’s

17 October 2023

17 October 2023 1

Overlooked for millennia, a rock fragment adorned with enigmatic inscriptions has emerged as a valuable “treasure map” for archaeologists. After...