smithing along with caches of iron ore deposited in pits in the region. Some Sakha informants spoke of their ancestors being forced from Lake Baikal to the north and during this movement abandoned the Old Turkic alphabet. Ovchinnikov concluded that the ancestral Sakha migrated from Baikalia to the Lena during the time of Chinggis Khan. In 1918 Petri became acquainted with Ovchinnikov at the Irkutsk city museum. They shared their archaeological findings and conclusions about the ancient history of Eastern Siberia. Petri reported that a frequent topic discussed was the origins of the Sakha. These conversations were "jokingly dubbed" the "Yakut problem" as the two scholars speculated on the Sakha ethnogenesis. Kurumchi blacksmiths In the 1920s Bernhard Petri published his interpretation of the artifacts found in the Murin River valley. He concluded that a hitherto unknown society produced the archeological remains. Iron items were discovered in their settlements which led to Petri calling them the "Kurumchi blacksmiths." A pupil of Petri's, Pavel Khoroshikh, stated the research performed by his teacher substantiated the southern origin of the Sakha people theory previously proposed by Vladimir I. Ogorodnikov, Mikhail P. Ovchinnikov, and Wacław Sieroszewski. He also noted the similarities between pottery discovered in the Murin River Valley and Olkhon Island. In autumn 1923 Petri led an expedition to Lake Khövsgöl and found ceramic remains he considered from the Kurumchi. Territory Petri saw Lake Baikal as the center of Kurumchi activity. He proposed that their northern cultural boundary was formed by the Lena headwaters, contemporary Balagansk on the Angara, and the river mouth of the Kichera; while the southern ran from modern Tunka to the Uda. Iron smithing According to Petri the Kurumchi were sophisticated blacksmiths. While their iron kettles were of Chinese origin, they were capable of repairing cracks with external patches. Kurumchi cliff drawings include figures possibly adorned in chainmail. Okladnikov detailed the Kurumchi iron-smithing techniques:"The furnace had the appearance of a large thick-walled vessel with a round bottom. In the pot there were two openings for nozzles, and it also contained ore and charcoal in layers. During smelter, air was forced into the vessel through the nozzle with bellows attached, and from above coal and softened [preheated] ore were gradually added. In the process of smelting, the iron settled, and a large iron ingot was formed, its lower part rounded and the upper surface flat." Old Turkic writing Two coal spindle