Excavations of the Kok-Mardan necropolis
The Kurgan detachment of the South-Kazakhstan complex expedition of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR investigated the burial ground near the Kok-Mardan settlement.
The burial ground consists of two groups separated by the ancient channel of the Arys River. The first group is located 300 m east of the central knoll of the settlement and includes three kurgan-shaped mounds with strongly sagging mounds 15-20 m in diameter and 0.7-1.2 m high. Three types of tomb structures were noted in the second group. Mounds (four) with a platform or a fence are extended in a chain along the western boundary of the burial ground. The mounds are 16-30 m in diameter and 1.5-2.5 m high. Their diameter with a platform or enclosure is 40–60 m. The height of the platform or enclosure is 0.3-1.0 m., - recorded at the eastern boundary of the burial ground. The shaft slopes are gentle, the tops are even, almost flat. In some areas, the contours of small mounds and shallow saddles between them are noticeable, indicating the formation of a rampart due to the merger of many earthen tomb structures. The width of the rampart is 15-25 m, the height is 0.5-1.5 m, and the length is 700 m. Separately standing and randomly located kurgan-shaped hillocks (10) are located in the central part of the group. Their diameter is 10-30 m, height 0.5-2.0 m.
Burials were made in grave pits built of pakhsa (three) at the horizon level, on pakhsa platforms (two) and in ground pakhsa crypts (60). Inventory: ceramics, weapons, belt and belt buckles, jewelry and amulets. Ceramic products are represented by tableware, kitchen utensils (jugs, mugs and tripods), and miniature toy vessels. All jugs have handles, sometimes tubular spouts. Among the jugs and mugs, there are specimens with cone-shaped protrusions in the upper part of the handles, sticks in the form of a snake, scratched tamga-shaped signs, covered with strokes and drips. Most of the vessels are stucco, some are made on a circle. Weapons are represented by iron three-blade stalked arrowheads, complex bows (bone plates were found), short swords and single-edged daggers. The buckles are iron and bronze, with movable tongues, with and without a shield. Among the jewelry are stone, metal, glass and gold beads, gold crescents with a stone insert, with grain, earrings (silver with a stone insert, framed with grain; bronze with a glass insert), bronze hryvnias (wicker and chains of small rings), hairpins, mirrors, bells, antimony. Amulets very realistically convey the poses of a standing goat, a floating bird, an open palm.
The materials of the cemetery and Kok-Mardan settlement are similar. The burial ground was left by the population of Kok-Mardan settlement and dates back to the 3rd-5th centuries.