Karaoba, a complex of burial mounds and mausoleums

The monument is located 18 km away from the village of Krivinka along the Krivinka-Semiyarka highway (Beskaragai district, East Kazakhstan region). It is a complex of funeral and ritual constructions of the Bronze Age and early Iron Age, located on the edge of the root terrace of the right bank of the Irtysh River. It consists of two parts: mud brick mausoleums of the Bronze Age of the XIV-XV centuries BC and an early Iron Age burial mound located to the south-east of the barrow.

This complex is a part of the Krivinka-Semiyarka archaeological district, which includes dozens of objects of different epochs, located along the right bank of the Irtysh River for about 50 km. It has been studied since the end of the last century by the Pavlodar archeological expedition and then by the Toraigyrov Pavlodar State University expedition led by V.K. Merts.

The first group of buildings from the Bronze Age is of the greatest interest. There are four brick structures fixed on the surface, including a barrow-shaped elevation with a back in the center and the remains of burnt bricks, representing the main mausoleum. In this complex, two square cysteelike crypts of up to 5.5×5.5 m in size, made of mud and burnt bricks, deepened in the ground up to 120 cm, were fully studied. In one of them, not only the walls, but also the floor were laid with two layers of mud brick, burnt in the process of performing the funeral rites associated with the use of fire. In the process of excavation, a large number of stucco and pottery ceramics belonging to the Sargara, Begazy, Yelovsk and Irmen types of the late Bronze Age of Kazakhstan and Western Siberia were obtained. The collection also includes bronze items, glass and stone ornaments. Analogues to this monument are known only in the Southern Aral Sea area on the necropolises of Northern and Southern Tagisken, so for the North-Eastern and Eastern Kazakhstan this complex is unique.

The monument is a necropolis of the Begazy-Dandybay and Saka elite. Their joint location within one complex reflects the continuity between the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age cultures. In addition, it is connected with the earliest stages of formation of the steppe civilization, the largest center of which existed in the Irtysh region. This is evidenced by other late Bronze Age monuments of this archeological district, including dozens of settlements, among which Semiyarskiy occupies a special place. It is an urban-type settlement of up to 70 hectares, including the remains of several hundred structures. The uniqueness of the funerary structures studied on the necropolis of Karaoba allows us to consider them as a sacred object of special importance for national and world culture. In this regard, there is a need for its further study and museumification.