Scythian Culture - Preservation of The Frozen Tombs of The Altai Mountains (UNESCO)

Foreword
Koïchiro Matsuura
Director-General of UNESCO
The safeguarding and protection of the world’s cultural heritage has long been considered one
of UNESCO’s foremost achievements. Since its creation some 60 years ago, the Organization has
responded to numerous threats confronting heritage, whether they result from armed conflicts,
natural disasters, uncontrolled modernization, touristic development or other factors. In recent years,
a new threat has emerged as the focus of great international concern, namely climate change. In keeping
with its mission to safeguard the world’s cultural diversity, UNESCO has consistently sought to rise
to all of these challenges over the past six decades.
In this context, the project presented in this booklet – the Preservation of the Frozen Tombs of the
Altai Mountains – is especially timely. Undertaken by UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre in collaboration
with a distinguished international team of partners, this initiative is among the first of its kind,
addressing, as it does, urgent cultural issues related to the environment and climate change. As stated
in its title, the project’s principal aim is to ensure the preservation and conservation of the remarkable
frozen tombs that lie scattered across the Altai Mountains, which spread over China, Kazakhstan,
Mongolia and the Russian Federation. These ancient tombs, or kurgans, contain unique relics of the
vast Scythian civilization that once flourished on the Eurasian steppe and have been preserved intact
in the permafrost, or frozen ground for over 2,500 years. The tombs contain the remains of mummified
human bodies and sacrificed horses, as well as a range of everyday artefacts including saddles, furniture
and textiles.
However, these precious objects are now under threat from various factors, most notably global
warming, which is precipitating the meltdown of the permafrost that has guaranteed their preservation
over millennia. To meet such new challenges, the World Heritage Committee requested the
World Heritage Centre to develop a number of innovative strategies to assist States Parties to more
effectively deal with the consequences of climate change on cultural and natural sites. The outcomes
of the project on the frozen tombs of the Altai Mountains have been very useful in the process of elaborating
such strategies.
It is my hope that the project for the preservation of the Frozen Tombs will inspire those countries
with territory in the Altai Mountain range to strengthen their efforts to safeguard the region’s
immense heritage. We are pleased to note that the Russian portion of the Altai Mountains was
inscribed as a natural site on the World Heritage List in 1998. UNESCO heartily encourages all of the
countries concerned to work together to ensure that the natural and the cultural value of the entire
Altai Mountain region is recognized internationally and protected accordingly.
Thus far, this project has served to focus wider international attention on the larger problems
confronting other natural and cultural heritage sites affected by global warming and climate change.
Indeed, this project has already enriched the international debate on this issue. I am confident that
this booklet, with its insightful articles on the Altai region by several eminent specialists, will stimulate
further reflection on matters related to conservation, sustainable development and climate change to
the benefit of heritage in other regions of the world.
I would like to express my gratitude to the UNESCO/Flanders Funds-in-Trust for its generous
contribution to this landmark project and to the publication of this booklet. My sincere thanks also go
to all of the contributing authors and institutions, which have graciously lent their time and expertise
to ensuring the quality of this booklet.
Swan. Felt; applique.
H. 30 cm Pazyryk
Culture. 5 th - 4 th
century bc.
Inv. no. 1687/262.
© The State Hermitage
Museum, St. Petersburg.
Koïchiro Matsuura
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