@ancestralwhispersdotorg: Facial reconstruction of a 1,200-year-old Yenisei Kyrgyz Their earliest historical mention comes from Chinese chronicles. The Book of Han mentions the lands of Jiankun/Gekun (堅昆). They were Iranic Scythian peoples associated with the Tashtyk and Tagar cultures. In the north, they were conquered by and submitted to Modu Chanyu, leader of the Turkic Xiongnu. Some time later, another wave of Turks conquered the Gekuns. These Turks came to be known as the Yenisei Kyrgyz. Having assimilated a large portion of these Scythian populations, the Yenisei Kyrgyz became a syncretic people with strong local Iranic Scythian influences. Chinese historical records, such as The Book of Tang, written contemporaneously with the time of the Yenisei Kyrgyz, refer to the land of the Kyrgyz as the former territory of Gekun - implying descent from those earlier peoples. Chinese sources describe the Yenisei Kyrgyz as red-haired, likely a testament to their significant Scythian ancestry. Modern descendants of the Yenisei Kyrgyz are the inhabitants of their traditional lands - such as the Khakas, Shors, and Chulym peoples. The Russians referred to these groups collectively as Tatars, a general term for steppe nomads, or more specifically, as Kyrgyz in an ethnic context. The Yenisei Kyrgyz male cranial series from a burial near the Tashtyp River show, on average, a medium-large cranial length of 181 mm, a large cranial width of 148 mm, and a large cheekbone width of 139 mm. #ancientdna #turkic

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Wednesday 29 October 2025 12:18:00 GMT