Millstones on Siberian Scythian mound reveal grain ritual tradition

September 12, 2026RussiaExcavationShare

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Key facts

• Discovery announced September 7 by researchers from the Center for Rescue Archaeology at the Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences
• Site is Kurgan Tukuy Yuzhnyy (Tunowo), an early Scythian burial mound in Tuva, southern Siberia, near the Mongolian border, dating to approximately 2,800 years ago
• Team from St. Petersburg had worked at the site for nine field seasons with support from the Russian Geographical Society
• Two millstones found side by side while dismantling part of the mound's stone covering in August
• Position and completeness of the set indicate deliberate placement on the mound's surface, not reuse as building material
• Millstones are almost never found in Scythian burial mounds; previously known examples come from later sites built several centuries after Kurgan Tukuy Yuzhnyy
• Previously, evidence for ritual activity at the mound had pointed exclusively toward horses, horse breeding, and mobility (the cult of the horse)
• The find suggests the mound surface may also have been used for ritual centered on grinding grain and food preparation
• Researchers suggest Kurgan Tukuy Yuzhnyy may have been built by a broad confederation of tribes each bringing distinct traditions to its construction
• Greek historian Herodotus described Scythian customs in the fifth century BC including drinking horse milk, accounts modern science has partially supported

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