Back in the 1970s a Soviet tractor driver, innocently plowing a field in the central Siberian Republic of Khakassia, pulled up a hoard of 271 Iron age relics buried in a cauldron. They date to around 200 BCE.
These included belt buckles with a dragon motif.
Which made it into the Siberian Times because a Russian archaeologist has studied these forms and determined that they are Siberian originals, not copied from Chinese models. Which is a big deal in Siberia because so much Siberian art is copied from China that anything truly home grown is news. And they're so cool.
I'd like to see this analysis verified by non-Russian sources before we agree with the conclusions, given the bias inherent to the scenario.
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