New Petrovka burial ground on Ishim

A detachment of the Ural-Kazakhstan expedition of the Chelyabinsk University partially excavated the Aksaiman burial ground, located on the left bank of the Ishim River near the southern outskirts of Berlik, Sergeev district, North Kazakhstan region, on a small area bounded by two streams. The cemetery has about 10 earth mounds 8-20 m in diameter and 0.2-0.3 m high.

Four mounds have been excavated. Control cuttings outside the mounds showed that there are also ground burials here. A total of 15 graves were discovered, most of which were robbed in antiquity. In mound 1, the grave was surrounded by a discontinuous moat. Mounds 2 and 3 contained one grave in the center (3.4x2.6x1.0 and 3.3x2.8x0.9 m), oriented along the west-east line. In the best-preserved pit of kurgan 2, two-horse skulls and bones of the hind and forelimbs (in anatomical order), fragments of Petrovka type vessels, two subtriangular stone points, four rectangular bone cheek-pieces with trapezoidal protrusions, equipped with six to eight spikes and two oval-rectangular holes. Mound 4 contained two large pits in the center, one of which cut through the other. In an earlier one, fragments of Petrovka dishes, three horse skulls and bones of the horse's legs have been preserved. The remaining nine pits were small in size and arranged in a circle. One of these pits (burial 6) measured 1.6x1.0x1.0 m. At the bottom, there was a 0.3 m high coffin. The space between the coffin and the walls of the grave was filled with white clay. The wooden covering of the burial chamber was also smeared with clay. The teenager's skeleton lay on its left side. Bronze bracelets and necklaces made of animal fangs were found on the wrists, and a vessel of an early Alakul appearance was found at the head.

Ceramics of the Petrovka type represents the main material obtained at the burial ground, sometimes with pronounced early Alakul features. As in the previously studied burial complexes of the 17th-15th centuries BC. Northern Kazakhstan, two types of burials are clearly distinguished here: single burials of warriors in large pits with horses, sometimes with the remains of chariots (Berlik 2, Ulubay, Keyes), and burials of warriors without horse bones, committed in central pits, surrounded by burials of women, adolescents and children.