A RUSSIAN farmer has unearthed a bizarre 2,000-year-old skeleton of a “laughing” man with a deformed skull and perfect teeth.

Rustam Mudayev made the surprising skeleton discovery, alongside a hoard of ancient jewellery and weaponry.

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Stunning gold and silver jewellery, weaponry, valuables and artistic household items were found next to the chieftain’s skeleton in a grave close to the Caspian Sea in southern Russia.

Mudayev’s spade made an unusual noise and it emerged he had struck an ancient bronze pot near his village of Nikolskoye in Astrakhan region.

He instantly took it to the Astrakhan History museum.

DATES BACK TO 2,000 YEARS AGO

The museum’s scientific researcher, Georgy Stukalov, said: “As soon as the snow melted we organised an expedition to the village.

“After inspecting the burial site we understood that it to be a royal mound, one of the sites where ancient nomads buried their nobility.”

The burial is believed to belong to a leader of a Sarmatian nomadic tribe that dominated this part of Russia until the 5th century AD.

Among the bodies found is that of a “laughing” young man with an artificially deformed egg-shaped skull and excellent teeth that have survived two millennia.

Stuklatov added: “We have been digging now for 12 days.

“We have found multiple gold jewellery decorated with turquoise and inserts of lapis lazuli and glᴀss.”

INTRICATE BELONGINGS FOUND

The most “significant” find is a male skeleton buried inside a wooden coffin.

This chieftain’s head was raised as if it rested on a pillow and he wore a cape decorated with gold plagues.

Archaeologists found his collection of knives, items of gold, a small mirror and different pots, evidently signalling his elite status.

They collected a gold and turquoise belt buckle and the chief’s dagger along with a tiny gold horse’s head which was buried between his legs, and other intricate jewellery.

Nearby was a woman with a bronze mirror who had been buried with a sacrificial offering of a whole lamb, along with various stone items, the meaning of which is unclear.

Another grave contained an elderly man, and buried with him was the head of his horse, its skull still dressed in an intricate harness richly decorated with silver and bronze.

The burials date to about 2,000 years ago, a period when the Sarmatian nomadic tribes held sway in what is now southern Russia.

Govenor of the region, Sergey Morozov, said: “These finds will help us understand what was happening here at the dawn of civilisation.”

Excavation is continuing at the site.

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