Exploration on the Turgai river

A detachment of the Turgai expedition of the Kostanay Pedagogical Institute examined the right bank of the Turgai River near the Aitbai, Kumkeshu and Baigabul villages.

11 sites were found on the right bank of the Tokanai (Turgai channel). Of these, only the Bronze Age Tokanai I burial ground and Tokanai II sites are located near the river. The rest monuments occupy dune hills bordering its high floodplain.

The Tokanai I burial ground is located on the western outskirts of the Aitbai village. Some of the graves have been destroyed by wind erosion and predatory excavations. On an area of ​​880 sq. m, the detachment found the remains of 15 destroyed burials. Only one paired burial of a man and a woman was undisturbed, buried in a slightly crouched position, facing each other, with their heads to the southwest. The man's hands covered the woman's face. The woman's right hand lay under her chin, and the left was placed on the man's right hand. A vessel and a bronze log-type knife were placed at the head. With the female skeleton, bronze bracelets (three), a hryvnia, two rings, a temporal ring, a braid, plaques and beads sewn onto clothes were found. A bronze mace, a knife set in a metal handle, and a disc-shaped cheekpiece come from the destroyed burials. Judging by the ceramics and types of tools, the burial ground belongs to the range of sites of the Novokumak horizon.

At the Eneolithic Tokanai II site (0.5 km from the burial ground), the following stratigraphy was traced in the pit (from top to bottom): 1 - dark brown, almost black sandy loam (10 cm); 2 - gray sandy loam (about 40 cm); 3 - mainland yellow sand. The vessels were slightly profiled in the upper part, judging by the necks. The ornament was applied with stick impressions and a jagged stamp. Flint tools are represented by fragments of double-sided processed points, scrapers, and flake knives. The remaining sites of the Tokanai group are short-term sites dating back to the period from the Eneolithic to the Early Iron Age.

The most interesting of the three sites discovered near the Kumkeshu village is the Eneolithic Kumkeshu I site. It is located near the southwestern outskirts of the village on the right bank of the Turgai River, 6 m high. The cultural layer (gray sandy loam) is 0.6-0.7 m thick. Most of the finds are confined to its lower half. Bilaterally processed arrowheads, scrapers and knives on flakes, the collapse of a vessel with an abundant admixture of talc in the dough, a pointed bottom and a slightly bent rim were found. The geometric ornament is made with a jagged stamp.

The Baigabul I-VII sites material of different times was collected (from the Neolithic to the Early Iron Age).