This makes the art at once more mysterious and more significant as evidence.

Every choice made by Pazyryk artists — every animal figure selected, every composition arranged, every textile pattern woven — was made within a specific cultural framework that we are trying to reconstruct from the objects themselves.

The challenge of reading a culture’s art without its accompanying texts is familiar to archaeologists working with prehistoric and non-literate cultures generally.

The approach involves comparing the art across multiple objects and sites to identify patterns — what figures appear repeatedly, in what combinations, in what contexts.

It involves looking for parallels in neighboring cultures that do have texts.