Third season of work on Karatau

The Karatau detachment of the South Kazakhstan complex archaeological expedition researched the northern and southern foothills of the Big Karatau ridge. The work was limited by Turlan Pass from the east and by Daut Mount in the west.

7 new burial grounds have been registered, materials from Kozmoldak settlement has been collected. 25 burial mounds have been excavated in Besaryk, Karakuys, Koibagar, Kozmoldak cemeteries, three large locations of petroglyphs have been discovered and partially studied (Koybagar and two points in the Zhenisata and Abai tracts, also removed copies of two large rock compositions in the Maidamtal and Besaryk tracts.

Excavations of a chain of stone mounds in Karakuys and earth mounds in Kozmoldak revealed two new and apparently widespread burial rites on the northern slopes of Karatau. The first of them is characterized by the construction under the mound a kind of stone box, composed of vertically dug or laid flat large boulders of wild stone and covered with stone slabs. All stone boxes are only 15–20 cm deep in the ground, and their long axis is oriented in the meridional direction or close to it. The buried rest on their backs, in an extended position, with their heads to the south.

The finds are represented by a series of clay vessels, mostly flat-bottomed, hand-molded (goblets, bowls, wide-mouthed jugs with a handle), clay whorls, iron knives with pins for attaching wooden handles, oval-shaped buckles with a movable tongue, a three-pronged iron petiolate arrowhead with lowered stingers, a bone pincushion decorated with a circular ornament, a bronze ornamented buckle, etc.

A feature of the second type of funeral rite (Kozmoldak) is the burial on an earthen elevation under the kurgan. Almost all burials of this type have been looted, and it is impossible to establish the details of the rite. Pottery mostly repeats the forms from Karakuys, but the percentage of vessels made on a hand wheel is higher here. In general, the burials of the first and second types should be tentatively attributed to the end of the 1st millennium BC - the first half of the 1st millennium AD.

Previously unknown rock paintings discovered in the 50-kilometer foothill strip between the Karakuys and Kzylzhar tracts are of considerable interest. Here, on the hills and ridges, stretching in a non-pendicular direction to the main axis of the Karatau ridge, more than a dozen large groups of rock carvings were found. Drawings were carved on slate slabs and boulders covered with desert tan. Most of the petroglyphs are located on the southern and eastern slopes of the hills, much less often on the western ones.

In the seven groups of drawings of the Koibagar tract, images of tau-teke are most often found. In addition to them, figures of tours, bulls, wild boars, camels, wild horses, argali, dogs are depicted, there are images of trapping nooses, various tamgas. Compositions in which a person occupies a central place are not uncommon. The drawings are not the same in their artistic merit. The five scenes of the rut, apparently made by one artist, are distinguished by a rare perfection of execution. The compositions repeat the same plot - dogs are chasing a herd of goats. Pay attention to the pattern-ornament, consisting of figures of animals located in different planes, the scene of the battle of foot archers. The Abai group of drawings is characterized by an abundance of images of camels, some of them are especially large - from half a meter to two meters. There is also a scene of driven hunting with the participation of four archers and two dogs surrounding the argali.

It was a great success to find 14 drawings of chariots in the Koibagar and Abai tracts, of which 11 chariots were harnessed by horses and three chariots were camels. One of the drawings shows a scene of a man harnessing two horses to a chariot. This is the most numerous find of rock carvings of chariots in Kazakhstan and, apparently, on the territory of the USSR.

The chronological framework of the Karatau petroglyphs, judging by many signs, covers the time from the middle of the 2nd millennium BC to the end of the 1st millennium AD.