Russian farmer unearths unusual 2,000-year-old skeleton

The rich grave yielded gold and silver jewellery, weaponry, valuables and artistic household items. They were found next to a chieftain’s skeleton in a grave close to the Caspian Sea in southern Russia. Among the bodies is a “laughing” young man with an artificially deformed egg-shaped skull and excellent teeth.

A gold and turquoise horse head

The burial is believed to belong to a leader of a Sarmatian nomadic tribe that dominated this part of Russia until the 5th century AD.