Artem Nedoluzhko, head of the Paleogenomics Laboratory, Svetlana Pankova, a research associate at the same laboratory, and their colleagues conducted a DNA analysis of the grasses stuffed in a funerary doll from the Oglakhtinsky burial ground. Information about this discovery appeared in a report on the N+1 portal.
Radiocarbon dating of grass from the stuffing of the burial doll indicated the 3rd to the first half of the 5th century.
Here is an excerpt from the publication on N+1:
To determine what herbs the Tashtyk people used to stuff this funerary doll, possibly made from goatskin, the researchers turned to genetic analysis. They collected a small amount of plant remains preserved inside the mannequin and sequenced their DNA, which they then analyzed using several methods. Apparently, the stuffing consisted primarily of common meadow grasses, among which the geneticists identified bukharnik ( Holcus sp. ), timothy grass ( Phleum sp. ), bluegrass ( Poa sp. ), and feather grass ( Stipa sp. ).
At the same time, the researchers also identified some rather unexpected remains. For example, they found in the DNA sample the small rhododendron ( Coleanthus subtilis ), a rare plant listed in the Russian Red Book. Currently, it is found in our country in the Novgorod region, the Volga delta, the Tyumen and Tomsk regions, Yugra, and the Amur basin, but not in Khakassia. The scientists' data not only suggest that approximately 1,700 years ago, the rhododendron's range extended to southern Siberia, but also suggests that the burial doll may have been stuffed with grass somewhere on the banks of the Yenisei River, as this plant is found on banks protruding from the water or in the shallows of rivers and oxbow lakes.