But there are differences as well — in specific burial practices, in the types of objects that appear most frequently, in the genetic makeup of the populations involved.

The Scythians and the Pazyryk were culturally related but distinct peoples, occupying different ends of the steppe corridor.

To the east and south, toward Mongolia and what is now China, lived other nomadic groups whose relationships to the Pazyryk are complex and still being worked out by archaeologists and geneticists.

The Xiongnu — the nomadic confederation that the Han Chinese faced on their northern frontier and that played a role in the broader migrations of the first century B.C.E. to first century C.E. — eventually came to dominate the eastern steppe after the decline of the Pazyryk culture.

The Pazyryk were thus part of an interconnected steppe world — sharing artistic traditions, burial customs, and possibly religious practices with peoples from the Black Sea to the borders of China.