Research in East Kazakhstan

The East Kazakhstan Regional Museum of Local Lore expedition continued archaeological exploration in Ulan, Glubokoye and Shemonaikha regions. It has been established that many previously recorded monuments in Ulan and Glubokoye districts were destroyed by intensive plowing.

Near Lake Shalkar (Ulan District), three mound groups have been identified, including from 30 to 45 stone mounds, 5 to 30 m in diameter, and 0.2-2.0 m high occupy the entire valley from the southern shore of the lake to the spurs of Koktau. In the Glubokoye district, four mound groups were recorded on the right bank of the Irtysh River, west of Berezovka, numbering from three to six stone mounds (diameter 16-20 m, height 0.3-1.0 m) located on a plowed field. A group of five stone mounds (diameter from 10 to 30 m, height 0.2-0.5 m) was recorded northwest of the village of Predgorniye. The burial ground of the Bronze Age (northwest of the village of Kozhukhova) includes five rounded fences (diameter 5-12 m) made of slate slabs dug on edge. In the center of the destroyed fence 1, a triangular-shaped grave pit (2.6×2.5 m, depth 1.3 m) was found, oriented by the sides to the cardinal points. A paired burial of a man and a woman was opened in a crouched position facing each other. The woman is buried on her left side, head to the north. Under the skull and near the chest, 29 barrel-shaped beads made of light blue and dark gray vitreous paste were found. On the left temporal bone, there is a bronze hairpin in the form of a rod rounded in diameter with a pointed end (length 5 cm, diameter 1.5 mm). The remains of leather and four poorly preserved bronze beads were traced near the feet. The buried man lay on his right side, without things.

In the Shemonaikha district, on the left bank of the Uba river, four kurgan groups were discovered southeast of the city of Shemonaikha. Two (2 and 3) consisted of three stone mounds stretched in a chain from north to south. Groups 1 and 4 include five and six stone mounds, stretched in a chain from the north-northwest to the south-southeast. In barrow group 1, on the mound of barrow 1, there was an anthropomorphic stele (length 2 m) of light pink fine-grained granite.