Settlement and burial ground near the village of Pavlovka, Kokchetav region
The detachment of the Ural-Kazakhstan expedition of the Chelyabinsk University worked in the area of the Kokchetav uplands. A settlement of the Bronze Age near the village of Pavlovka (with an area of about 20 thousand square meters), in the central and southern parts of which stone calculations and fences of the burial ground rise, was studied. Excavation I (460 sq. m) unearthed dwellings 1 and 2, excavations II and III (216 sq. m) unearthed three burial structures.
Dwellings - rectangular buildings of a semi-dugout type with corner exits (14* 10 and 17* 13 m), long sides oriented from northwest to southeast, were located parallel to each other at a distance of 0.5 m. The buildings died in a fire, which led to the good preservation of wooden structures. In the fire layer, floor logs, collapsed pillars, and their bases that retained their vertical position, wickerwork, and numerous fragments of clay plastering of walls were recorded. The walls were based on pine logs 0.5-0.8 m thick, installed in a ditch at 0.8-1 m deep and 1 m apart. In dwelling 2, an internal system of ditches with remains of charred pillars was traced. Traces of repeated reconstructions and renovations of structures were clearly recorded while maintaining construction techniques. Round and oval pits 1.5-3 m in diameter and up to 2 m deep were cleared in the floors, with clay rolls along the perimeter, sometimes with wooden lining or ceiling traces. Pits of different times were recorded along with the fire layer.
The pottery of the settlement is divided into Bishkul-Fedorovo and Begazy-Dandybai. There are also samples of pottery, similar to the materials of the monuments of the Late Bronze Age in Central Asia. Objects and metal are not numerous: a hook, a knife with an emphasis, awls and calcinations.
The excavated burial structures - two fences and a stone lining - were erected in the cultural layer of the settlement. A burial under a stone lining has been preserved in an undisturbed state. It was made in a soil grave pit measuring 1.5*06*0.7 m in a crouched position, on the right side, with the head to the south-southwest. In their heads stood a flat-bottomed vessel with a bent rim. The stratigraphic correlation of the burial ground with the settlement's cultural layer and the burials' ceramics make it possible to date them as the boundary of the Bronze and Early Iron Ages.