Research of the Kok-Mardan burial ground

The detachment of the South Kazakhstan expedition of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR continued to study the Kok-Mardan burial ground in the Otrar oasis (Kyzyl-Kum district, Chimkent region), near the early medieval settlement of the same name. Mounds 7 and 8 were unearthed in the central part of the burial ground, and objects 3, 5 and 6 were further investigated, containing, in addition to those previously uncovered, two, one and five burials, respectively. Now it is quite possible to judge fully the nature of the monument as a whole (its most probable date is the 3rd-5th centuries) and the features of the pakhsa burial structures, which are structurally identical in principle, despite some differences in appearance and device details.

Each structure is a combination of two main elements - a very high (1.5-2 m) and a wide, square in plan (on average 10 x 10 m) and trapezoid in section, monolithic platform, oriented at the corners to the cardinal points, and framing it powerful crepe. Sometimes this design is complicated by all kinds of outbuildings, which, depending on their purpose, contained or did not contain additional burials. The bulk of the burials are usually located within the structure at different levels and sections, although there are many burials near the ground structure. Most of the intra-platform burials were made in chambers dug on the side of the structure, through the crepe, towards the center of the structure. In this way, a kind of dromos was formed in the revetment - an entrance opening, often densely laid with mud bricks. The shape of the chambers in the plan is oval, widened at the opening and narrowed towards the end; in section, they look like an irregular segment with the highest point at the inlet. Their area slightly exceeds the space occupied by the buried.

Funeral rites are standard; the burials are single, the dead lie in an extended position on their backs, with their heads towards the entrance to the chamber. Depending on their placement in the platform, the cameras are located along all possible geographic axes. Children's burials are similar to adults', but are concentrated, as a rule, near the edges of the structure, where they are located either in pits with niches-lined (if the grave is in the building), or in soil pits (if the grave is outside it).

The set of grave goods is also relatively standard. These are mainly various ceramic vessels of forms characteristic of a given territory and era (large jugs, mugs, sometimes several in one grave), everyday items (knives, belt buckles), jewelry (earrings, beads, etc.). In male burials, iron arrowheads, daggers, and horn linings for bows were repeatedly found. There are medallions with inlay. The skulls of the buried often bear traces of artificial deformation.