Exploration in the Kyzylkum region of Kazakhstan

In the current season, a detachment for the study of Stone Age monuments worked in the valley of the Syr Darya River and its tributaries. The work was carried out from the lower reaches of the Arystand River (the right branch of the Syr Darya) to the villages of Bayyrk-Kum in the Syr Darya valley. Preliminarily, it is possible to trace the area's settlement from the Mousterian era to the end of the Neolithic. Finds of chalcedony artifacts in the village of Darbazkudyk, in the basin of the old channel of the Shagalysay river (elongated triangular blades and flakes, mainly from deeply patinated chalcedony) are similar to the Mousterian localities of the Karatau ridge.

An interesting site of the Mesolithic era, located near the Chayan (Zhanachilik) River, 7 km south of the village of Tortkul, where small chalcedony items (points, segments, trapezoids, and other geometric shapes of tools) are collected. 24 Neolithic sites have been identified near the former springs of the Syr Darya.