Archaeological research in Western Kazakhstan
A joint expedition of the Institute of Archeology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and A.S. Pushkin Ural Pedagogical Institute worked on the territory of Western Kazakhstan. The expedition was faced with the task of surveying the essentially unexplored region between the Ural and Ilek rivers with the Big Khobda. In the west, this territory merges with the areas of settlement of the Sarmatian tribes, and therefore it was necessary to assume the existence of Sarmatian monuments here.
During exploration routes in Dzhambeity, Chapaev, and especially Chingirlau districts, about 40 mound groups were recorded. Some of them consisted of 30 or more earth embankments. The most significant burial grounds were located around the Chilik and Ak-Bulak (Inbek) villages. Also numerous burial grounds on the high plateau of Chelkar (to the north of Chelkar Lake) and near the village of Lebedevka (southern border of the Chingirlau district) were interesting for studying history of Western Kazakhstan Sarmatians. The last two objects were chosen for the stationary work of the expedition. Especially significant and productive were the excavations near the Chelkar lake. Four burial mounds, which were discovered on the southernmost outskirts of the burial ground, were Sarmatian and late nomadic burials.
For the first time, a Sauromatian burial of the 5th century BC was discovered. The rite of this burial (a vast grave with rounded corners, the orientation of two buried heads to the west - southwest) and inventory are entirely identical to the Sauromatian graves of the Southern Urals and the Lower Volga region. The pot with a plum spout and an ornament in deep punctures is incredibly close to Volga vessels of this type. It is also very significant that the bronze arrowheads (about 200 pieces) from the early Prokhorovka grave of the 4th century BC reveal more similarities with the quiver sets of the Lower Volga region than those of the Southern Urals. The too small number of materials do not provide a basis for a decisive attribution of this area to one or another of the local variants of the Sarmatian culture.
However, it seems more likely to be the Volga variant. Not only the analogies mentioned above speak in favor of it. Sarmatian mounds unearthed in the area of Buzuluk (the Lipovka burial ground) and Lyubimovka, located approximately on the same parallel as the Chelkar burial ground, also show more similarity with the Volga sites.
Among the Sarmatian burials of a later time, inlet grave 2 from mound 5 stands out. Its rite is consistent with the usual canons of the Sarmatian burial tradition, differing only in the abundance of ceramics (five vessels) that accompanies the buried. The latter is not characteristic of ordinary Sarmatian burials. Of particular interest is a vessel of a very original shape, hitherto unknown among Sarmatian ceramics. This is a stucco, very massive, oval-shaped pot with a rim bent inward and two wing-shaped ledge handles. Inside the pot were six ritual pebbles. So far, he has not been able to find exact analogies, but a pot from a grave let into a square burial structure at the site of Chirik-Rabat reveals a distant resemblance. It is curious that three ritual stone hammers also lay inside the latter. Another pot with wing-shaped ledge handles was found in one of the Saka-Sakaravak slag mounds. Finally, round-bottom goblets with one ledge-handle are known from the Usun burials of the Ili valley. These analogies testify to connections with the Eastern Aral Sea or Southern Kazakhstan.
Of no less interest is the burial of a late nomad, discovered in the same Chelkar burial ground. In the pit with a step lay the skeleton of a man in full military attire - a lamellar iron shell reached almost to the knees of the buried, on the left was a long (1.3 m) a double-edged sword, on the right - a quiver with arrows, a bow with bone overlays and other small implements. The warrior's face was covered with a thin silver mask. A bit and one stirrup were found among the bones of a horse (skull, leg bones) lying on the step of the grave. Only the southern orientation of the buried is somewhat unusual. The initial date of the buried is the end of the 1st beginning of the 2nd millennium AD.
Several burial mounds were also unearthed at the Lebedevka II burial ground, which has more than 30 mounds. Among the earth mounds of the burial ground, interesting earthworks in the form of rectangles, formed by low, barely noticeable ramparts 3 to 5 - 6 m wide, attract attention. Two of them had gaps-entrances on the south side, the third was close. Similar constructions, though very rare, are found at burial grounds in the Western Orenburg region (Lipovka). Their purpose is still not clear enough. But, judging by the structure examined in Lipovka, they were most likely of a cult character. The most exciting burial was in the middle of the 1st millennium AD (mound 1). With her head to the north, the buried woman was accompanied by all kinds of beads, gold jewelry (stamped plaques, two round medallions with an insert, two earrings with inserts and bronze bows), iron scissors, a knife, and a pot-shaped red-engaged vessel. The inventory of the grave has a wide range of analogies among the monuments of the middle of the 1st millennium AD Southern Kazakhstan and Northern Kyrgyzstan. The work once again demonstrated the urgent need for further archaeological research on the territory of Western Kazakhstan.