Kazakhstan’s Iron Age ‘Golden Man’ and Other Elite Scythians of Eurasia Inherited Their High Social Status, Ancient DNA Suggests

Researchers have long wondered whether upper-class members of the ancient nomadic warriors earned their social status through individual achievements or birthright

Margherita Bassi | Daily Correspondent

July 9, 2026 12:04 p.m.

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Around 2,300 years ago, an elite individual was buried in a chamber in modern-day Kazakhstan alongside thousands of luxurious artifacts, including a gold-embroidered headdress, gold ornaments and iron weapons. The person was dubbed the “Golden Man” despite uncertainties about their sex.

Now, an analysis of ancient DNA suggests that the buried individual was, indeed, probably male and that membership in his high-status class was passed down through family lines rather than earned through individual achievements. The findings were published on July 3 in the journal Science Advances.

“This paper does a fantastic job of integrating genetic, archaeological and textual findings to support their interpretations of lineage-based status,” Alicia Ventresca-Miller, an anthropologist at the University of Michigan’s Museum of Anthropological Archaeology who did not participate in the study, tells CNN’s Mindy Weisberger. “An elite system … is a very important finding, as wealth was passed down across generations.”

During the early Iron Age, nomadic tribes referred to as Saka people by Persian and Indian texts and Scythian people by the ancient Greeks lived in Central Eurasia. Traditionally, Scythians generally refer to the western tribes near the Black Sea, and Sakas refer to the eastern ones in Central Asia, but they were all characterized by nomadic herding, notable military prowess and a particular art style.

They also built huge burial mounds called kurgans—including one that housed the Golden Man’s remains—throughout the Eurasian steppe for their deceased. Kurgans for the elite could be up to around 50 feet tall and 350 feet wide with elaborate passageways and chambers inside. These hulking landmarks contrast with the smaller, simpler graves of non-elites from the same period.

According to researchers, the differences point to increasing social inequality and the development of a powerful upper class. But they didn’t know whether high-ranking status was inherited or earned through a meritocratic system.

So, the authors of the new study investigated the complete set of DNA, or genome, of 38 elite and 47 non-elite Central Eurasian Iron Age people, including the first genome-wide data from the Golden Man. Among the elites, the team found genetic signs of close relatives at different cemeteries, such as a man buried tens of miles apart from his grandchildren. His brother was buried in another distant location.

The findings suggest that high-class standing was kept within family networks.

“We did not expect to find that social status was passed down from generation to generation,” says study co-author Ainash Childebayeva, a genetic anthropologist at the University of Texas at Austin, in a statement. “But it was clear that high-status individuals were more related to each other, even when buried at different archaeological sites, than to people of lower status who were buried at the same sites with the elites.” 

Additionally, elites were buried more closely to one another than non-elite people were. Perhaps this indicates that high-ranking individuals were laid to rest in a geographically centralized location, Childebayeva tells Kristina Killgrove at Live Science.

One grand kurgan held a 1-year-old child—who probably hadn’t earned their rank through an achievement—further hinting that members of the upper class got their rank through birthright, she tells CNN. What’s more, women made up almost half of the elite individuals in the study’s dataset. Since the team didn’t find clear signs of husbands or wives moving in with one another, the large proportion of female remains suggests that high standing among Scythians was complex and not differentiated by gender.

While the researchers don’t know what brought about the inequalities that created the social classes, the new findings “highlight hereditary status transmission and the emergence of social stratification in ancient nomadic societies,” the researchers write in the paper.

Margherita Bassi | Read More

Margherita Bassi is a freelance journalist and trilingual storyteller. Her work has appeared in publications including BBC Travel, Discover magazine, Live Science, Atlas Obscura and Hidden Compass.