Research in the Dzhezkazgan region

A detachment of the Central Kazakhstan Expedition of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR researched monuments in the intermountain valley of Koishoky (Zhanaarka district).

The valley is bounded from the north and northeast by the river Temir and the Old Kzyltau mountain range and from the south - the Uishoky and Ulken Akmay mountains. Here are concentrated monuments of different times (from the Neolithic to the late Middle Ages).

At the Bronze Age burial grounds of Koishoky I-IV, seven enclosures and one sacrificial structure were investigated. 118 single and double burials were found in the enclosures. Most of them have been robbed. At the burial ground of Koishoky II in enclosure 3, burial in a ground pit was unearthed. The buried lay in a crouched state on her left side, with her head to the east. Near the skull and on the cervical vertebrae, there were more than 50 small inlay beads, and on the wrists, there were bronze bracelets with spirally curled slightly convex ends. Near the ankle joints were low round bronze beads. In another nearby burial, made in a stone box, in addition to scattered human bones, an Alakul-shaped pot and two bronze two-blade socketed arrowheads 8.5 and 10 cm long were found. Two clawed pendants, fragments of a wide bronze a bracelet with a protruding spiral end and two pots with a tray and geometric patterns made with a comb stamp.

A paired burial of teenagers in a stone box was studied at the Koishoky IV burial ground. The dead lay in a crouched position with their heads to the east. A pair of bronze bracelets were on the hands, similar to the bracelets from the fence 3 of Koishoky II. There were also three Alakul-shaped ceramic vessels: two of them were pots decorated with transverse patterns and with ledges on the shoulders, the third was a jar with rows of wide flutes.

The sacrificial structure from Koishoky I was circular in terms of layout, made of white quartz. On the east side stood a pink granite menhir.

Two excavations were laid at the settlement of Akmay, located 1.5 km south of the mentioned cemeteries. At excavation 1 (32 sq. m.), a production site with two pits was unearthed, apparently serving as copper-smelting furnaces. A large amount of copper slag was recorded around the pits. The second excavation (60 sq. m.) revealed a part of an oval dwelling with two hearths. The material (ceramics and a double-edged bronze knife) makes it possible to determine the time of the functioning of the settlement by the late stage of the Alakul time.