Research of the Karashat complex

The detachment of the Shulba expedition of the Institute of History, Archeology, and Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR continued to study the Karashat burial complex in the Novo-Shulbinsk district of the Semipalatinsk region.

Five kurgans have been excavated in the Karashat I burial ground. In the main grave of kurgan 23, a silver belt tip depicting a winged leopard, bone and bronze buckles, iron knives and arrowheads were found. A lined pit in the southern wall contained a female burial made in a wooden structure with a ceiling and accompanied by braided decorations in the form of ornamented figured plaques, multi-colored glass beads and a gilded silver head pin in the form of a schematic bird figure. In the northern wall of this pit, at the level of the floor of the entrance well, the bones of a child were found. The third pit with a lining in the northern wall turned out to be a cenotaph. Opposite the headpiece of the lining (slate slab) lay the rump of a ram.

Under the embankment of mound 26, a subrectangular fence of large river stones was discovered, built around a pit in the basement. At the bottom of the heavily disturbed grave, the remains of a wooden frame, iron arrowheads, heart-shaped and rectangular linings, belt heads with floral ornaments, burrs, clips, bone and iron buckles, an armchair, a bit, stirrups, a fragment of ceramics, bone whistles of arrows were preserved. The remains of a birch bark quiver with trihedral and three-bladed arrowheads, a bronze buckle of the Srostka type, and a clay jar were found in kurgan 26-A.

The Karashat II burial ground, located on the right bank of the Osikha River, has been fully explored. Eight graves were unearthed under the mound of long mound 3, one of which was found to contain a massive cast earring with a spherical process in the upper part and an ornamented bell. There were three graves in barrow 5. A woman was buried in a pit with a lining in an extended position on her back, with her head to the east. Between the tibia bones lay two knives and a petiolate tip of a ring-shaped tool. The main burial has been destroyed. Bronze rectangular belt overlays, two round plaques-pendants, a knotted triad plaque with a floral ornament, a bell with a ball inside, a slot in the lower part, and a bone buckle and an awl-shaped object have survived in it. In an oval pit measuring 2.50x1.9x0.35 m there was an uninventory burial of a horse laid on its stomach with bent legs, head to the east. The remaining objects of the Karashat II burial ground are of the same type in terms of the design of burial structures and inventory. The studied burial grounds belonged to the Kimaks. They are dated to the 9th-11th centuries.

The Karashat III burial ground is located on the left bank of the river of the same name at its confluence with the Irtysh. Five ring-shaped excavations with oval pits in the center were cleared here, where the buried lay stretched out on their backs, with their heads to the west. The material obtained (clay jug, bronze earring, iron knives, and pins) makes it possible to date them to the 2nd-1st centuries BC and attributed to the Kulazhurga culture of the early nomads era.