Archaeological research in Northern Kazakhstan

The North-Kazakhstan archaeological expedition (North-Kazakhstan Regional Museum of History and Local Lore and the Petropavlovsk Pedagogical Institute) continued in the Middle Ishim region. During two field seasons, at the Yavlenka I settlement of the end of the 2nd millennium BC three semi-dugout dwellings 1, 2, 3 with an area of ​​160, 140, 196 square meters, respectively was investigated. Dwellings are fan-shaped and face the central part of the village; two are connected by a corridor-like passage about 2 m long and 1.6 m wide. In the dwellings, there are two hearths. Next to them, there are usually laying out of clay bricks and stone. The exception is semi-dugout 3, where eight hearth spots were recorded, six of which are located along the room's long walls. Seasonal research yielded rich ceramic material, a bronze knife, a fragment of a stone casting mold, various bone and stone tools.                                                                                                  

 Another dwelling of the Bronze Age was discovered near the village of Ilyinka, Lenin district. It was located in the peripheral part of a large village, washed away by the river's waters. Ishim. The dwelling is a semi-dugout room with about 270 square meters with well-fixed pillar structures. In the central part, there is an enormous hearth made of clay and stone, among the inventory - stone pestles, bone knives and rattles, bronze piercings. More than a thousand fragments of ceramics found in the dwelling allow us to attribute it to the last period of the existence of the Andronovo tribes.                                                                                                      

The Bronze Age sacrificial site was explored on the second terrace of the left bank of the Ishim river near the village of Petrovka. A significant part of the monument was destroyed by a sandpit. The excavation unearthed 25 sacrificial pits from the modern surface, 0.8 - 0.9 m deep. They had a rectangular shape (0.8-1‚2*0.4-0.8 m) and were relatively stably oriented along the east-west line with their long sides. At the bottom of the pits, usually in the northwestern corner, there were one, two, and rarely three vessels. Next to them were animal bones, sometimes coal. Here, on the territory of the sacrificial place, three burials were recorded - one inhumation and two cremations. A bronze adze and a knife were found, as well as 30 vessels decorated with simple compositions of various triangles, flutes, and, less often, meanders covering the walls of the vessels and the bottoms.                     

The expedition continued excavations of a significant burial ground of the Bronze Age - Buruk I, located on the right bank of the Iman-Burluk river (right tributary of the Ishim River). A group of 13 structures was opened. The basis of the burial structure is a stone ring fence with a diameter of 3.5 to 6 m surrounding the grave pit. The fence is laid out on the buried soil or at the exit from the grave pit. In some cases, the construction is supplemented by a mound 20-25 cm high. The grave pits are oriented mainly along the northeast-southwest line and have shoulders. They contain both corpses and cremations. Of greatest interest is mound 13, 60 cm high, where fences 3 m in diameter adjoin an ordinary ring fence with a diameter of 6 m on the northwestern and southeastern sides. The entire structure is one-time. Each of the rings contains one burial - cremation in the center, funeral in the northwestern round, cremation in the southeast. Most of the burials were robbed, the primary material being vessels.                                                                                   

 In the area with Yavlenka, seven burial mounds were unearthed, five of which date back to the turn of our era. Mound mounds are surrounded by shallow ditches with one or two passages. Burial pits 1.5-2 m deep sometimes have a lining, oriented by long sides along the east-west line. The buried lie stretched out on their backs, with their heads to the west.                                                                          

 Burial in kurgan 6 differs in its originality - the corpse, laid in precisely the same way as in other mounds, was burned inside the grave pit. Bones lying in anatomical order are completely calcified. The entire pit is filled with red baked clay interspersed with the remains of funeral pyres. The clothing material of the burial ground is represented by bone arrowheads, bronze and iron buckles, and paste beads. Clay vessels have a bomb-shaped shape and a narrow neck and are ornamented with carved hatched triangles.                                                                                      

Exploration detachment of the expedition examined the banks of the Ishim river from the borders of the Kokchetav region to Ilyinka village, Tyumen region. 27 new settlements were discovered, among which: Neolithic - 6, Bronze Age - 18, Early Iron Age - 3. Dozens of stone fences, barrow groups, and single barrows were discovered or re-examined. In the settlements of the middle of the 1st millennium BC Borki I and Borki II carried out reconnoitering excavations.