The discovery was made in a giant tomb in Kemerovo region with the remains belonging to the mysterious Tashtyk people, famed for their elaborate funeral rites.

Fragments of as many as 20 death masks made of a soft mineral called gypsum were found in a crypt along with the bodies of 30 adults.

Russian scientists hope to reassemble some of the masks to provide new insights into how these people looked.

Previously unearthed Tashtyk death masks are among the most prized possessions of Russian museums including the Hermitage in St Petersburg.

Some experts have expressed surprise that members of this warrior race, which held sway in a large swathe of Siberia from the second century BC to the 6th century AD, had a European rather than Asian appearance. 

Dr Pavel German, who led the excavation said the masks were made soon after death and placed with cremated human remains in the Shestakovo-3 crypt.

‘The remains were put inside dummy bodies made of leather or fabric.

‘Next the gypsum mask - showing the likeness of the recently departed man or woman - was put on the dummy,’ he told The Siberian Times. 

‘We have here a lot of fragments, but we hope to restore them.

‘For example we've got rather big fragment - half of one mask,’ said Dr German, from the Institute of Human Ecology in Kemerovo.

‘This crypt was very large, and we spent two seasons excavating it.’

He explained that to make the burial chamber, the people first ‘dug a hole in the ground, built a stone wall around it, made a decking and covered this with logs.

‘Then gradually the crypt was filled with the dummies (containing the remains of the dead).

‘They held some rites there, funeral feasts.’

(dailymail.co.uk)