Research in the North Kazakhstan region
A detachment of the regional historical and local history museum of the North Kazakhstan expedition carried out protection and reconnaissance work near Petrovka, Lenin district. A group of monuments belonging to different stages of the Bronze Age occupies the remnant of the second floodplain terrace on the left bank of the river Ishim is about 4 m high above the level of oxbow lakes, forming a cape with an area of more than 1.5 square km. The cultural layer of objects consists of humus sandy loam and is underlain by yellow continental sand.
An excavation area of 195 sq. m. The thickness of the cultural layer is 0.50-0.75 m. Eight burial pits have been unearthed. In five of them, children's burials were found, accompanied by vessels of the Bronze Age of the Petrovka type. In one of the pits in the central part of the excavation, there was a teenager's skeleton on the bones of whose legs were two low bronze beads. In Pit 7, destroyed by rodents, undetectable bone fragments, pottery and a bronze temporal ring were found. The materials of all seven burial pits allow us to date them to the early stages of the Bronze Age.
In the northeastern part of the excavation, there was a buried without grave goods on his back, with his head to the northwest. This single adult burial dates from the early Middle Ages.
The settlement of Petrovka I adjoins the southwestern outskirts of the "Kultovoye mesto", on which a reconnaissance excavation area of 54 square meters was laid. The monument occupies an area of more than 2 thousand square meters. The thickness of the cultural layer reaches 1 m. The materials belong to the range of forest-steppe cultures of the Neolithic-Early Bronze Age.
On the northeastern edge of the terrace, a cultural layer of the new settlement of Petrovka V was found, composed of humus sandy loam with ash interlayers. The thickness of cultural layers is up to 1.15 m. The settlement covers an area of about 2 thousand square meters. Reconnaissance excavation area of 45 square meters, the edge of the housing structure with several household complexes in the form of depressions was explored. The materials of the monument are represented by animal bones, slate, and sandstone items. Pottery allows us to date the settlement to the Final Bronze Age; it finds wide analogies in the monuments of the Sargary culture of the forest-steppe belt of the Tobol-Irtysh interfluve.