The race is on to save astonishing treasures from a Russian 'Atlantis' which has risen from the depths of a vast made-made lake in Siberia.
Water at the reservoir retreats for a few weeks each summer, letting archaeologists examine the graves of long dead civilisations that called the site home.
By early July, the water will rise and cover the graves up to 50 ft (15m) deep water, frozen in winter, until it retreats again briefly next summer.
Archaeologists have uncovered both ancient human remains and artefacts from civilisations dating from the Bronze Age to the time of Genghis Khan at the site.
Especially rich in finds are necropolises from an era when an ancient Hun population held sway around 2,000 years ago.
They include two prehistoric 'fashionistas', women decked out in the finery of their age and surrounded by the tools of their trades.
This extraordinary Atlantis site is in the mountainous Tuva Republic in southern Siberia, a favoured vacation destination for Russian president Vladimir Putin.
The sites are on the so-called Sayan Sea, a giant reservoir upstream of the Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam, Russia's biggest power plant, on the 3,445-mile-long Yenisei River.
The reservoir covers 240 square miles but in summer the water level falls some 50ft, with 110 burials appearing on an island in the reservoir at Ala-Tei site.
Another site called Terezin has at least 32 graves and is closer to the shore.
Last year a 2,000-year-old mummified ‘sleeping beauty’ dressed in silk emerged from one of the stone graves.
She was originally believed to be a priestess or noblewoman, due to the quality of her wares, but scientists now say she was likely a leather worker.
This time around experts discovered the body of another woman, also draped in finery, who they say was a Hun weaver.
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Other burials from the long-ago Bronze Age and the Genghis Khan, less than one thousand years ago, are also here.
'This site is a scientific sensation', said Dr Marina Kilunovskaya from the St Petersburg Institute of Material History Culture, who led the Tuva Archaeological Expedition.
'We are incredibly lucky to have found these burials of rich Hun nomads that were not disturbed by grave robbers.'
Both the fashionista mummies 'were found with fragments of leather, threads and a spindle which could have carried a special role in Huns society,' Dr Kilunovskaya told The Siberian Times.
'Huns cherished women. It wasn't a matriarchy, yet women - mothers and skilled artisans – were treated with great respect.'
Finds included masterpieces of the infamous animal style with female belt buckles depicting scenes of tigers fighting dragons, and beautifully made bronze bulls, horses, camels and snakes.
Other treasures from the underwater necropolis came from ancient China.
These were silk, mirrors and coins made during the Han dynasty - 206 to 220 AD - which is described as a golden age in Chinese history and culture.
The so-called Sleeping Beauty was laid to rest wearing a silk skirt held by a beaded belt with a precious jet gemstone buckle.
Her rich funeral meal included a pouch of pine nuts prepared for her afterlife, and inside an intricately-made stylish wooden bag was her Chinese mirror.
Other treasures were turquoise beads used to decorate the belt, a set of much smaller purple beads, fragments of a belt's ring made of copper alloy, a bone belt buckle with beautiful engraving and an iron knife with a ringed handle.
The 'weaver' was buried with sparkling glass beads, two stone pendants and two belt buckets made of bone.
While this ancient Hun civilisation was nomadic, at the same time, they had settlements, places where they lived permanently.
'These were the bases of rich people, and we are digging up their graves', said Dr Kilunovskaya.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
