Facial reconstruction of a 4,000-year-old Proto-Aryan He belonged to the Volga–Ural group of the Proto-Indo-Iranic Abashevo culture, which included previously known materials from the Samara Trans-Volga region and the forest-steppe Cis-Urals (the cemeteries of Syezzhee I, Churakaevsky, and the more recently discovered Malo-Yuldashevo I, Krasikovo I, and Imangulovo-2e II). Ground burials at Mount Berezovaya (Bulanovo I) in the Orenburg Cis-Urals have also been tentatively attributed to this group, where rituals and artifacts characteristic simultaneously of the Abashevo, Sintashta, and Seima-Turbino populations were recorded (A.A. Khokhlov, A.P. Grigoriev). Excavations of Kurgan Cemetery I near the village of Krasikovo in the Krasnogvardeysky District of Orenburg Oblast were carried out by the Orenburg Archaeological Expedition of Orenburg State Pedagogical University. The site was discovered in 1977 by N. L. Gabelko (Morgunova). The cemetery is located north of Krasikovo, on the steep left bank of the Tok River (a right tributary of the Samara River), and consists of six earthen kurgans measuring 13–40 m in diameter and 0.25–2 m in height. In 2015, two kurgans (Nos. 1 and 3), situated in the southern and central parts of the cemetery, were investigated. Kurgan 3 was excavated manually; its diameter was 18 m and its height 0.25–0.3 m. The mound was constructed on a level platform; no surrounding ditch was identified. Stratigraphy: turf layer; mound fill (dark-gray humified sandy loam, 10–50 cm thick); buried soil (brown humified sandy loam, 30–50 cm thick); subsoil (brown loam). Within the mound fill and at the level of the buried soil, human bones (from the destroyed Burial 2), animal bones, a rounded stone artifact, and fragments of a single pot-jar–shaped vessel were found. The ornamentation of the vessel consisted of fingernail impressions beneath the rim and cord impressions forming a “herringbone” pattern. Four burials were identified in the kurgan: two intrusive burials (Nos. 1 and 2) at the level of the buried soil, one of which (Burial 2) was completely destroyed, and a complex consisting of Burials 3 and 4, over which the mound was constructed. In intrusive Burial 1, the skeleton lay extended on its back, head oriented to the southeast, and was accompanied by small fragments of resin. To the right of the skull stood a handmade pot-shaped vessel with a carination in the upper third of its height, an everted rim, and a pronounced internal ridge. The rim was decorated with zigzag lines; the body from the rim to the ridge was ornamented with horizontal fluting; below the ridge, a band of slanted lines was applied, underlined at the bottom by a double zigzag. The ornament was made with a toothed stamp, whose comb impressions covered the lower part of the vessel. In the upper part beneath the rim, the vessel had been repaired with two bronze clamps. Based on the vessel, Burial 1 of Kurgan 3 dates to the Sintashta period (Evgenyev A.A., Morgunova N.L., Kryukova E.A., Kharlamov P.V.). The individual (Krasikovo I, 3/1) had a large cranial length of 194 mm, a medium-large cranial breadth of 146 mm, and a large cheekbone breadth of 145 mm. #ancientdna #indoiranian - @ancestralwhispersdotorg