Excavations on the western slopes of Karatau

The Besaryk detachment of the South-Kazakhstan complex expedition of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR investigated burial grounds located along the Bes-Aryk River on the Talap state farm lands Yany-Kurgan district, Kyzyl-Orda region. The work was carried out on two burial grounds (Turganbay and Berkutty), belonging to the early nomadic and medieval periods.

Monuments of the early nomadic period are represented by small stone and earth mounds 0.2–0.4 m high and 6–8 m in diameter and ring stone enclosures inscribed one into the other. In the center of the smaller ring, there is a blockage of stones above the grave pit, oriented along the east-west axis. Dirt pits, subrectangular in shape, 0.5–1 m deep. The buried lay with their heads to the west, stretched out on their backs. The inventory is represented by clay vessels (three in each burial): mugs cauldrons in small jugs. The bottoms of all are rounded, and the handles are broken off. Pottery is similar to the dishes of the Usun burials of Semirechie, which allows us to attribute them to the monuments of South Kazakhstan.

The early Turkic era is represented at the Berkutty burial ground by memorial enclosures formed by stone slabs placed on edge. Their internal filling consists of fragments of limestone and pebbles. The fences are subsquare in shape, measuring 2 X 2 in 1.5 X 1.3 m. A stone stele 1.2 m high adjoins the northwestern side of the fence. Fragments of ceramics, barrack bones, pieces of coal are collected; ash spots are fixed. The burial mounds of the medieval period are stone and earthen, round and oval. The stone rings have also been discovered. The mounds are 6–10 m in diameter and 0.3–0.7 m high. There are burials with horses and horse burials. In two cases, cenotaphs are marked. Burial pits up to 2 m deep are covered with stone slabs and oriented from east to west. In mound 9 of the Berkutty burial ground, the skeleton of a horse and the skeleton of a man lay with their skulls in opposite directions (to the west - east, respectively). Between them was a partition of small stones not placed on edge. Horses in all burials lay on their right side. In the teeth were ringed two-piece iron bits. Stirrups, girth buckles, a bronze mirror were found. A bronze earring in the form of a question mark with a pebble was found in mound 8 of the Turganbai burial ground.

In the Berkutty burial ground of, a burial mound with a “mustache” was investigated - stone layings 0.7 m wide and up to 90–95 m long, stretched from north to south. There are small stone mounds at the ends of the "mustache". Under the mound of the left mound, a scattered skeleton of a horse was found with the remains of an iron bit, stirrups and girth buckles. Ash stains can be traced under the mound of the right barrow; fragments of pottery and ram bones were found. The main barrow consisted of a stone ring with a diameter of 6 m. At a depth of 0.35 m, an oval stone laying was traced in the center of the ring. At the northern edge of the pit, ringed iron bits with a cheek-piece were placed, and at the eastern edge, an earthenware jug. A tamga-shaped sign in the form of a trident is drawn under the vessel's handle. The skeleton lay at a depth of 1.8 m stretched out on its back, with the skull to the west. The described burial complex dates back to the 7th-8th centuries AD.