The original settlement of the Scythian and Saka cultures rooted in the area of the Altay mountains (look at the globe, the Altay mountains fall in the eastern Kazakhstan, northern China, and western Mongolia area). It's first display can be seen in the Monolith with mask picture I have. This sketch is a bit of a no-no so keep it under your shirt.

(Altay Republic, Tuva, the Minusinsk Basin, and Mongolia)

South Siberia includes present-day Altay Republic (formerly the Gorno-Altayskaya Autonomous Oblast'), Tuva, and the Minusinsk Basin. It is a geographical term distinguishing the northern Altay and Sayan mountainous region, with its northward flowing rivers, from the regions of East Kazakhstan and Mongolia. The latter two regions are usually referred to as within Central Asia or a northern Central Asia. From the point of view of Bronze Age and the early nomadic culture of the early Iron Age, however, there was a general unity between South Siberia, northern Mongolia, and the region east of Lake Baykal, known as Transbaykal. The early nomadic cultures of all these regions inherited cultural and artistic traditions in common from the Baykal Neolithic, from the Afanasevo and Okunev Aeneolithic cultures (late third millennium- early second millennium BCE); from the Bronze Age Karasuk culture, centered in the Minusinsk Basin, and from the Andronovo culture, which spread from West Siberia and Kazakhstan eastward, as far as Mongolia (see Okladnikov 1959; Jacobson 1993). From all these cultures, the Early Nomads inherited an ancient and impressive tradition of rock carving, of the biuilding of surface structures (frequently of huge size) from stone, and of the raising of megalithic stones. The largest surface structures associated with Bronze Age cultures are known as khereksur, while their exact function remains uncertain, their directional aspects make it seem probably that they were used as altars in community ceremonies to seek order on earth and in the cosmos. These khereksur appear to have continued in use, and as a part of the active tradition of community building, down into the early Iron Age, that is: into the age of the Early Nomads. The smaller altars frequently associated with these large structures were, also, a continuous tradition down into the age of the Early Nomads, and beyond. The anthropomorphic stones of the first millennium BCE, often monumental in size and frequently marked by or covered by stylized deer images, derive from an ancient Siberian tradition of megalithic stones in association with altars. In the Minusinsk Basin, these stones could rise above the earth as much as 4 meters, and were carved with masks of a frequently zoomorphic and female reference. Deeper consideration of these surface structures and stones, as well as of the related petroglyphic traditions of great artistic merit, would carry this discussion well beyond an examination of the portable art of the Early Nomads and beyond the scope of this study. For the serious student of Eurasian nomadic art, however, those materials must be considered to be a requisite background for what is included here. At this time it is enough to say that the surface structures, the stelae and deer stones, and the petroglyphic sites across South Siberia and Mongolia indicate the strength of sculptural stone traditions across that vast region and earlier than the Scytho-Siberians. In form, function, and image, they point to powerful, commonly held mythic traditions connecting Iron Age cultures back to the Bronze Age and joining contiguous cultures over a vast region.

Notice the similarities of all three of these monoliths. Each were found in the Minusinsk Basin and were built around the Third Millennium BCE and faced the East (the rising sun). Each show a feminized-looking mask with antlers and star-like designs along the sides. At the bottom are circular formations that have been interpreted by many as breasts. The animal shape seen on one of the three is probably an Argalid ram, an animal found continuously in the wild of the Altay Mountains. Over time, many of these symbols will fade but will continue into the Saka and Scythian cultures are the importance of rams and the deer antlers plus the importance of the eastward direction.