A fragment of a bronze cup from the Medieval times was discovered in the Gydan Peninsula by a team of explorers set to monitor the permafrost. The artefact is 1000 years old and comes from Persian Iran. The place of the discovery is located in the area of Lake Parisento and the Yuribei River, located beyond the Arctic Circle.

The discovery consists of a fragment of the cup with a ceramic vessel and a bronze knife handle. Surprisingly, artefacts from this era have been found in West Siberia before, but never so far in the northeast. Further studies are to determine the exact age of the cup. The discovery was possible due to the erosion and melting of the permafrost. The place of the find was eroded by wind. The cup was probably brought to northern Siberia some 200 years after it was made, which is estimated to be in the 10th or 11th centuries AD. The people who brought it might have been 6th and 7th century Central Asian merchants who began to appear in the Upper Kama region exporting walrus tusks and hunting birds and exporting fur from the North.

(after Siberian Times)