were provided with leather or felt masks made to resemble animals, with stag antlers or rams’ horns often incorporated in them. Many of the trappings took the form of iron, bronze, and gilt wood animal motifs either applied or suspended from them; and bits had animal-shaped terminal ornaments. Altai-Sayan animals frequently display muscles delineated with dot and comma markings, a formal convention that may have derived from appliqué needlework. Such markings are sometimes included in Assyrian, Achaemenian, and even Urartian animal representations of the ancient Middle East. Roundels containing a dot serve the same purpose on the stag and other animal renderings executed by contemporary Śaka metalworkers. Animal processions of the Assyro-Achaemenian type also appealed to many Central Asian tribesmen and are featured in their arts. Certain geometric designs and sun symbols, such as the circle and rosette, recur at Pazyryk but are completely outnumbered by animal motifs. The stag and its relatives figure as prominently as in Altai-Sayan. Combat scenes between carnivores and herbivores are exceedingly numerous in Pazyryk work; the Pazyryk beasts are locked in such bitter fights that the victim's hindquarters become inverted. Genetics A 2015 study analyzed the DNA of two closely-related males from the Pazyryk culture. The two individuals were found to belong to the East Eurasian maternal haplogroup C4. Their paternal haplogroup was assigned to the East Eurasian haplogroup N. On the basis of both the maternal and paternal lineages, it was determined that the two individuals were extremely closely related, although it is also clear that they could not be father and son, suggesting some other variation of close kinship. A 2017 study analyzed the maternal ancestry of several remains from the Pazyryk culture. 52% of these lineages were of East Eurasian origin, while 48% were of West Eurasian origin. The authors of this study also analyzed the paternal haplogroup of one Pazyryk male, who was determined to belong to the West Eurasian haplogroup R1a-Z93. With regards to autosomal population ancestry, around 50% of Pazyryk ancestry was related to East Asians, while the rest was related to West Eurasians. See also Aldy-Bel culture Karasuk culture Pazyryk burials Tagar culture Tashtyk culture Scythians References Citations Sources External links Nomadic Art of the Eastern Eurasian Steppes, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Pazyryk culture Archaeological cultures of Siberia Archaeological sites in Russia Animals