Central Kazakhstan expedition

The expedition of the Institute of History, Archeology, and Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR, together with the Republican Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments and Karaganda University, continued research on the Bronze Age monuments in the upper reaches of the Atasu River in the Agadyr district of the Dzhezkazgan region. The main work was carried out at the settlement of Atasu I. An excavation (588 sq. m.) in the northeastern part of the central core of the settlement unearthed two rooms (16, 17), connected by a corridor 2 m long. The area of ​​​​the large room is 95 sq. m. m, small - 53 sq. m. Two utility pits were found in the first and three in the second. Both rooms were outbuildings. During the clearing of the floor of the southeastern extension (57 sq. m), adjacent to the ceramic workshop (excavations in 1977), three pits more than 1 m deep with stone slabs were unearthed. A layer of wood ash has been preserved around the pits, and the walls bear traces of powerful calcination. Between rooms 1 and 26, two pits-furnaces with a diameter of 1.6 and 2.0 m, respectively, and a depth of 10.8 and 1.2 m, were cleared.

Shallow grooves 5 m long, covered with flat stone slabs, extend from these pits to the southeast. A similar structure was also found in room 12. Its purpose is still unclear. Numerous pits 5–10 cm deep and 2–4 cm in diameter in the upper part were found near the pit furnaces. Pieces of slag rich in copper were found in them. Ceramics and inventory are similar to the materials of the excavations of 1977. We note only the finds of a polished stone hammer with grooves for fastening to the hilt, bronze spears with a roller on the border of the blade and the handle and a knife with a loop-shaped pommel, a bone cheek-piece, ruffles with zoomorphic decoration, miniature clay vessels, bone stamp.

Excavations have begun at the settlement of Myrzhyk, 12 km southwest of the settlement of Atasu I. With an area of ​​4 hectares, the settlement has up to 40 depressions (dwellings). The excavation unearthed a ground-type dwelling. Among the finds are ceramics of the Late Bronze Age, three bronze two-pronged socketed arrowheads, ruffles made from the jaws of large animals, a stone grain grinder and a hoe, bone items with finely carved ornaments, and animal bones. The study of the ancient mine workings of the Atasu trough in the tracts of Sarybulak, Kenkazgan and Ogyztau continued. During the excavation of the dumps of three workings of the ancient Sarybulak mine, a stone hammer and fragments of vessels similar to the ceramics of the Atasu I settlement were found.

In the burial ground of Sangury II, nine burial structures were investigated - rounded, oval and rectangular fences made of horizontally laid or vertically dug granite slabs containing stone boxes and cists oriented in the latitudinal direction. The rite is inhumation and cremation. Inventory: Andronovo pots, bronze bracelets with cone-shaped protrusions at the ends, a significant number of bronze beads, pawl pendants. In the burial ground of Ak-Mustafa, five structures with stone boxes were excavated, where the buried lay in a crouched position, with their heads to the west. The inventory includes Andronovo vessels, bronze socketed and bone stalked darts, bronze bracelets and ornaments made of bronze beads, plates and piercings, shells, and tin beads. Emergency excavations of the Andronovo fence destroyed by the flood of the river Nura near the village of Aksu-Ayuly, Shet district, Dzhezkazgan region, were carried out. Nine boxes with skeletons contained Andronovo vessels, bronze two-pronged socketed darts, bone arrowheads, ornaments made of bronze sewn-on plaques and beads.