Monuments of the northeastern Caspian region
The Volga-Ural expedition of the Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR continued to study sites in the Guryev and Mangyshlak regions. The widespread use of aerial reconnaissance made it possible to identify several unknown monuments in hard-to-reach, previously unexplored places.
Stone structures for driven hunting were discovered near the village of Beineu, fortresses on the ancient caravan road near the village of Emir and the Kyzdar tract, sandy massifs were examined near the village of Shchebir, wells and caves of Uner, and a site of the stone era near the village of Kyzylsu in the Mangyshlak region. Exploration discovered mounds on Tyubkaragan near Shakhbogat's cemetery and on the Ustyurt plateau near the village of Sai-Utes and a "royal mound" of the Early Iron Age near the village of Tauchik. At the village of Akshukur, grave structures with anthropomorphic stone steles of the same period and the early Middle Ages were examined. Boat-shaped grave structures were also found there, not yet dateable but similar to those known at Cape Tokmak. When reviewing the Akshukur and Senek sands and in the Karagie depression, scattered Neolithic, Bronze, Early Iron and Medieval sites were recorded, and lifting material was collected. The search for Paleolithic sites in the area of the Shakhbogata tract continued.
In the Ushkan tract on the eastern bank of the Dead Kultuk, a Golden Horde settlement (200 * 100-150 m) was discovered, identified with the city of Tristargo, marked on the maps of Italian merchants of the 14th-15th centuries. Later burials almost destroy its cultural layer. Fragments of stone, red-clay and gray-clay dishes of the Golden Horde appearance and a bronze coin were raised. Furnaces were found for making red clay bricks of the Golden Horde standard, which were used mainly for the construction of grave structures. Obviously, the city was a "holy" place where the dead were brought for burial from the vast territories of the North-Eastern Caspian Sea.
On the settlement of Aktobe (the city of Laeti on Italian maps of the 14th century) near the village of Tyndyk, Guryev region. a residential building was excavated in block B near the southeastern outskirts of the site. Three construction periods in the city's life have been identified and their dependence on the transgression of the Caspian in the 14th century has been established.
16 km from the village of Shetpe, Mangystau district, Mangyshlak region, the study of the ancient settlement of Sherkala (11th-12th centuries) began. The building of the 10th-12th centuries was cleared on the arch. On the northeastern outskirts of Fort Shevchenko, the remains of a fishing hut from the time of the Khorezmshakhs were excavated, and to the east of the village of Akshukur, two mounds of the Early Iron period with stone fill were excavated. In the village of Eraliev investigated structures for driven hunting, the lower date of which is determined by discovering a flint arrowhead of the Seima appearance.
In Shevchenko conducted underwater research to identify the boundaries and nature of the settlement of the 16th century flooded by the waters of the Caspian Sea.
Archaeological observations continued over the Saraychik settlement destroyed by the waters of the Ural River. In the coastal outcrop of the cultural layer of the 14th century, the remains of a residential building made of mud bricks with a reed roof were recorded.