Research in Northern Kazakhstan

Ishim detachment of the North-Kazakhstan archaeological expedition (North-Kazakhstan Regional Museum of History and Local Lore, Petropavlovsk Pedagogical Institute) continued excavations of the settlement of the Bronze Age near the village of Novonikolskoye. An excavation area of ​​1560 sq. m adjoined the northern part of the excavation of the previous year, located along the eastern slope of the terrace. The remains of the Alakul time (hearths, household pits) and two dwellings (8 and 9) of the final bronze were found. The latter has the shape of elongated rectangles with rounded corners. Excavations with ​​about 225 sq. m deepened by 0.8-1.5 m from the modern surface and elongated from west to east. The dwellings had two or three corridor-shaped exits. A small number of tools were found in them: stone flowers and fragments of grain graters, bone rattles and piercers, several bronze awls and plates for repairing vessels. The ceramic material is similar to that of dwellings 1-3 investigated in 1969. Pottery is poorly ornamented, there are many vessels with rollers.

 In the northwestern part of the excavation, the remains of two small dwellings with deep (up to 0.5 m) pits were unearthed. Their floor has retained clay coating. Near large hearths made of stone, several bronze and stone tools were found on a semi-accumulation of charcoal in household pits about ten crushed vessels. The buildings contain pottery do not related to Andronovo. In Northern Kazakhstan, this pottery is known from the complex of monuments near the Petrovka village. It is characterized by sharp-ribbed squat vessels with a wide neck, ornamented with isosceles, carved triangles and zigzags, narrow flutes and impressions, usually combined on one vessel. The ornament covers the entire vessel, including the bottom, upper half, and near the bottom. The most interesting design of the monument is associated with this pottery - a defensive structure, which is a ditch 1-2 m wide and 1 to 1.8 m deep, reinforced with external and internal ramparts. A moat encircled a rectangular area. Its entire eastern side, 95 m long, has been explored. In the northwestern part, an annular ditch with an inner diameter of 14 m adjoins the settlement. The time of its existence is no later than the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. By the time the Alakul population appeared, the ditch still existed, it was used for shedding ashes. The dwellings of the final bronze overlap the outlines of the moat.

Among the items found on the site of the settlement and in the Alakul ash pans are three bronze sickles, a dagger, a stalked spearhead, a needle with an eye, numerous awls, stone and bone tools, a fishing hook, fragments of casting molds for a socketed spearhead, flat knives and jewelry.

Several excavations with a total area of ​​about 300 sq. m was laid at the Bogolyubovo 1 settlement, located on the left bank of the Ishim River, 40 km south of the Petropavlovsk. A ditch up to 3.5 m wide and 2.25 m deep was found here, containing ceramics similar to the Novonikolskoye settlement. At the burial ground near the Amangeldy farm, nine burial mounds were investigated, two of which date back to the early Iron Age, and the rest to the Alakul time. In the burial mounds of the Bronze Age, grave pits with corpses are oriented from west to east or from northwest to southeast. Vessels were found under mounds on the ancient surface. In a number of grave pits, remains of wooden structures were noted. A well-preserved tree in kurgan 8 makes it possible to reconstruct the burial structure. About 40 Alakul-shaped vessels with peculiar ornamentation, a two-bladed socketed bronze arrowhead, and several bone objects were found.

The Petropavlovsk detachment explored the Bronze Age settlements Vishnevka 1 and Bishkul IV. The Vishnevka 1 settlement is located on the northwestern outskirts of Petropavlovsk near the village of Vishnevka, on the second terrace above the floodplain on the left bank of the Ishim River. Excavation 190 sq. m, a dwelling with an area of ​​126 sq. m, rectangular shape. Its floor is deepened by 0.3-0.5 m from the mainland level. Minor differences in the floor make it possible to assume a three-chamber dwelling. Eight pits from pillars were recorded, which could serve as the basis for the construction of the dwelling. An oval hearth (1.4 x 1 m) was found on the floor in the southwestern part. During the excavations, 2,300 items were found: fragments of polished stone axes, flint knives, arrowheads, darts, scrapers, pieces of bronze, clay whorls and fragments of vessels. The pottery is lightly fired, with a relatively loose dough. All jar-shaped vessels, flat-bottomed, are ornamented with a “rope,” large-comb or carved technique. The patterns consist of oblique wedge-shaped notches, drop-shaped and dimpled impressions, wavy and horizontal lines, a zigzag, a “walking comb.” The studied monument can be attributed to the Early Bronze Age based on the data obtained.

The Bishkul IV settlement is located on the second floodplain terrace on the right bank of the Ishim, 17 km southwest of Petropavlovsk. An excavation of 420 sq. m, a cultural layer up to 0.9 m thick was unearthed. An above-ground single-layer dwelling with an area of ​​about 140 sq. m. A cliff destroys its southern end part. The floor is deepened to the mainland, on which pits from pillars were clearly fixed, located mainly along the long walls. Holes were also found outside the dwelling, which were probably the remains of above-ground economic structures. There were six hearths on the floor of the dwelling. The central hearths (2, 3) were distinguished by their size (1.3*0.9 m) and the thickness of the calcination (up to 0.15 m). Near hearth 3, remains of a quadrangular burnt log frame were found, apparently from a collapsed roof.

The received clothing material (1500 items) comes mainly from the filling of the dwelling. There are few bronze items: a bracelet, a piercer, paper clips for repairing vessels. There are articles made of stone (knives, arrowheads, side-scrapers), clay whorls and bone arrowheads. Vessels - pot and jar forms, with a well-finished surface, with an admixture of chamotte or fine sand in the dough. The ornament on them is applied with a comb or carved technique. The main elements of the ornament are a multi-row horizontal zigzag, triangles, flutes, horizontal “dragged” lines, and a “walking comb.” In general, the dishes have an early Alakul appearance with its local features for Northern Kazakhstan.

The expedition included two reconnaissance detachments. One examined the banks of the Chaglinka and Zhabai rivers, the other - the Selety River within the Kokchetav and Tselinograd regions. Near the Krasnoarmeysk, on the banks of the old channel of the Chaglinka (Balga-Karasu), more than 20 sites have been discovered containing materials mainly of Neolithic appearance. Pottery was rare and very poorly preserved. At some Stone Age sites surveyed on Zhabai (Atbasar 1, Vladimiro-Borisovna I, III, Zhabai-Pokrovka I), the cultural layer has been preserved. The monuments of the Bronze Age are much better preserved. At the Vinogradovka VІ and Konyspai on Chaglinka and Zhabai-Pokrovka II and III, 8-14 dwelling depressions up to 30 m long and up to 16 m wide are recorded. Among the material collected from the settlements are a bronze awl, a socketed dart tip, and ceramics dating from various periods of the Bronze Age in Northern Kazakhstan. Several new mound groups have been discovered on the Zhabai and Selety rivers.