The coincidence of orientalism and earth science in <placeName xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" ref="https://edition-humboldt.de/H0010218 https://www.geonames.org/2016590">Siberia</placeName> blurred the boundary between cultural and natural landscapes, as between antiquarian and geological methods. As <persName xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" ref="https://edition-humboldt.de/H0020377 https://d-nb.info/gnd/131674919">Pratik Chakrabarti</persName> has shown, colonial geologists of the period sometimes treated archeological digs, ancient texts, and indigenous mythology as geo-historical references, documents of “deep nature,” which might also aid in the pursuit of mineral wealth.<note xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" place="foot" xml:id="ftn35" n="35"> <bibl corresp="https://edition-humboldt.de/X52ISPDP">Chakrabarti 2020</bibl>, 19–20, 122–23, 188–90.</note> Similarly, in the <placeName xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" ref="https://edition-humboldt.de/H0002407 https://www.geonames.org/1516401">Altai</placeName>, Humboldt corroborated mineralogical evidence with the manuscripts, myths, and artefacts he encountered there. The very meaning of <placeName xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" ref="https://edition-humboldt.de/H0002407 https://www.geonames.org/1516401">Altai</placeName>, as the “golden mountains,” had been devised by a suite of German scholars as the restoration of ancient oriental knowledge. According to Chechesh Kudachinova’s essential studies of Siberian geography, Humboldt’s works helped canonize the “golden mountain” mythology, which took shape during several decisive moments in <placeName xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" ref="https://edition-humboldt.de/H0010689 https://www.geonames.org/2017370">Russia</placeName>’s metallurgic conquest of the east.<note xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" place="foot" xml:id="ftn36" n="36"> <bibl corresp="https://edition-humboldt.de/IWJ8JAVE">Kudachinova 2015</bibl>, 124–125, 144–145; <bibl corresp="https://edition-humboldt.de/895L2J9L">idem. 2020</bibl>, 29–39.</note> The first reference to the golden mountains, in <persName xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" ref="https://edition-humboldt.de/H0013514 http://d-nb.info/gnd/11903705X">Johann Georg Gmelin</persName>’s account of the Second Kamchatka Expedition across Siberia (published in 1747), coincided with the establishment of the <placeName xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" ref="https://edition-humboldt.de/H0000450 https://www.geonames.org/1502823">Kolyvanskie</placeName> “Cabinet Lands.” A precious metal mining fiefdom of the Tsar, Kolyvanskie served as a foothold of Russian power in the north <placeName xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" ref="https://edition-humboldt.de/H0002407 https://www.geonames.org/1516401">Altai</placeName>. Gmelin was followed by <persName xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" ref="https://edition-humboldt.de/H0020209 https://d-nb.info/gnd/118953362">Friedrich Müller</persName> and <persName xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" ref="https://edition-humboldt.de/H0001770 http://d-nb.info/gnd/118591371">Pallas</persName>, who located Altai’s etymology in the Mongol and Manchu-Chinese languages. Though based on loose readings of Mongolian and Turkic languages (which make no reference to precious metals) and false Chinese translations, the golden mountain myth was apparently confirmed by the prosperity of the Kolyvanskie mining operations. Here, as in <placeName xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" ref="https://edition-humboldt.de/H0005133 https://www.geonames.org/1510853">Barnaul</placeName>, travelers purchased golden artefacts exhumed from ancient barrows. In both sites, antiquarian trade cast Russia’s mineral empire as a resurrection of golden empires past.<note xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" place="foot" xml:id="ftn37" n="37"> <bibl corresp="https://edition-humboldt.de/895L2J9L">Kudachinova 2020</bibl>, 35. </note>