Archaeologists emerged with what appears to be a jewel-studded case for an iPhone from the depths of Russia’s “Atlantis,” a fabled archaeological site in southern Siberia that has intrigued many over the years.
According to Siberian Times reports, the black rectangular object measures approximately seven inches (18 centimeters) in length and nearly four inches (9 cm) wide. Despite resembling an electronic accessory, it is, in fact, an ancient belt buckle made of jet – a gemstone made from pressurized wood. It is embellished with small beads of mother-of-pearl, carnelian, and turquoise.
Scientists from the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) Institute for Material Culture have discovered the object in a woman’s grave, placed on a skeleton’s pelvis.
The scientists named the woman “Natasha” and dubbed the artifact “Natasha’s iPhone,” according to The Siberian Times.
Although the buckle was discovered years ago, it recently drew renewed attention because Pavel Leus, one of the dig’s archaeologists and an RAS researcher, shared the image on Instagram. Leus told Live Science in an email.
The grave that held the so-called iPhone lies in the Siberian territory of Tuva, near the border of Mongolia.
There, archaeologists identified two burial sites — Terzin and Ala-Tey — dating back to the Xiongnu period around 2,000 years ago. The discovery corresponds to a study co-authored by Leus and published in 2018 in the journal Asian Archaeology.
However, there are only a few weeks each year when archaeologists can access these historically important locations, according to the Russian Geographic Society (RGS).
The burial sites lie in a flood zone, and they are covered by the Sayan Sea — an artificial reservoir — except when the floodwaters recede, from the end of May through the first half of June, the RGS reported.
“Burials at both sites include many decorations for belts and clothing, beads, pendants, Chinese wu zhu coins, and Western Han mirror handles and their fragments,” the scientists wrote in the study.
In recent years, they found large and small jet buckles in three graves. The “massive” iPhone-like buckle had holes on the short sides, “with the two round holes on one side for fixing the buckle to the belt and one oval hole on the other side, probably for clasping,” the researchers reported.
Radiocarbon dating suggests that the graves’ contents date to between 92 B.C. and A.D. 71.
Jet objects from this period are rare but some have surfaced in Russia’s upper Volga region; in Transbaikalia, a mountainous zone to the east of Russia’s Lake Baikal; in Mongolia; and in Central Asia, Leus said.
It’s possible that this type of ornament was common in Xiongnu culture and was brought west as these nomadic people migrated across the Eurasian steppes, he explained.
Bronze buckles, adorned with many of them carved with animal designs, have been discovered with diverse designs. These buckles have also been found in graves and settlements in Siberia, Mongolia, and Central Asia. A report on this topic was published in 2011 by the University of Bonn in Germany.
Bronze and jet buckles are sometimes found in female burial sites in some parts of this Central Asian region, “they are generally found in well-furnished graves of warriors,” the scientists wrote.
Questions still linger about Tuva’s graves and their contents, but more discoveries are expected to be announced in the coming months, Leus said in the email.