Researches of the West Kazakhstan expedition
The Ural Pedagogical Institute and the Institute of Archeology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR excavated barrows in Chingirlau and Karatyubinsky districts of the Ural region, between Lebedevka and Egindykul settlements (Lebedevka V-VIII). In the mounds, mainly Sarmatian burials were found; only six belonged to the Bronze Age and six to the late nomads. A total of 74 tombs were investigated. All burials of the Bronze Age were made under individual mounds in small rectangular pits. The buried lay in a crouched position on their left side, with their heads to the north - northeast and north. The inventory is represented by ceramics, a flint arrowhead, and bronze pendants. These burials date from the 14th-10th centuries BC.
Among the Sarmatian monuments stands out the mound with the burial of the priestess. At the northern side of the grave, a round stone altar on three legs, designed in the form of muzzles of mines, was placed on the ceiling. Almost simultaneously or a little later, the burials of three warriors were let into the barrow. One of them lay a sword with a mushroom-shaped pommel rarely found in Savromatian graves. The entire complex dates back to no later than the 5th century BC. Prokhorov's burials of one of the barrows are interesting. Three of them were located in side-pit graves at the foot of the embankment, two in the center. The main burial was in a large rectangular pit (4.8 x 4.3 x 2.3 m), to which a dromos 4.5 m long led from the east side. There were eight bones in the pit: two adults and six teenage children. The inventory is diverse: six stucco and pottery vessels, a tortoise-shell bowl, weapons, household items, and jewelry. All the burials of this mound date back to the 4th-3rd centuries BC. The remaining burials of the Prokhorovka period, containing ceramics and weapons, date back to the 4th-2nd centuries BC.
Of most significant interest are Late Sarmatian burials, which also predominate quantitatively. The overwhelming majority of the buried were found inside graves, in deep rectangular pits. Everywhere they lay with their heads to the north.
The abundance of ceramics, linen and pottery, unusual for the late Sarmatians, attracts attention. Modeled jugs imitate the forms of pottery of the Northern Black Sea centers, from which mainly circular ceramics came. There are also red-clay Central Asian dishes,
The Lebedev Late Sarmatian complexes are generally distinguished by the diversity and richness of their inventory. These are bronze buckles, brooches, mirrors, long swords and daggers, two most interesting bronze bridle sets, a gilded bronze or silver bowl on a ring tray made in Italian workshops, and two chalcedony sword pommels. The bronze pin of one of the pommel was decorated with a stamped gold plaque with the image of a satyr and glass inserts along the edge. Such a pommel is so far the only one in the late Sarmatian burials of the Volga and Ural regions, as well as a glass vessel with a color painting (apparently, a scene of a battle between two warriors). All Late Sarmatian burials dating back to the 2nd-3rd centuries BC may be the beginning of the 4th century BC.
A few burials of the late Middle Ages from the burial ground Lebedevka VIII cover the period from the 12th to the 15th centuries AD and quite clearly reflect those changes that have taken place in the life of the tribes living here. Ground graves sometimes have a lining and a step. The buried are accompanied by an inventory and often by the burial of the skull and legs of a horse. The latest tombs, without inventory, are located under structures made of adobe and fired bricks.