Arzhan, in the Uyuk river valley on the Siberian steppes, is the site of an enormous kurgan necropolis from the 1st millennium BC.
The Arzhan 2 kurgan was excavated by the DAI’s Eurasia Department in cooperation with the State Hermitage Museum of Saint Petersburg from 1998 to 2003. The project attracted worldwide interest, as the kurgan – which was made for members of the ruling elite – was found to contain twelve inhumations with opulent grave goods and one horse grave with 14 animals. The graves contained thousands of mainly gold artefacts like jewellery, weapons and horse harnesses, which lend Arzhan 2 special significance in Eurasia.
The central grave was reserved for a double burial (man & woman) of members of the highest social strata of the early steppe peoples. The major part of the many grave goods were objects cast in gold, with figures in the Scythian-Siberian animal style.
The man’s head headdress is decorated with animal figures cut from gold sheet. Crowning it was the figure of a belling deer (Photo: DAI Eurasia Department) 
The man’s upper garment and the woman’s cape are adorned with nearly 5,000 gold figural attachments. The man’s are cast, while the woman’s are made from thick gold sheet (Photo: DAI Eurasia Department)