Excavations of burial mounds in Northern Kazakhstan

To clarify the chronology and cultural identity of the monuments, the expedition of the Chelyabinsk University undertook the study of six kurgan groups located in the steppe and semi-desert zones of the Turgai plateau. Eight tomb structures were unearthed, four of which provided archaeological material. According to inventory and funeral rites, they belong to two chronological periods of the Iron Age: 6th-5th centuries BC and 4th-2nd centuries BC.

The burial structure of the 6th-5th centuries BC was unearthed in the kurgan group of Karsakbas (Turgai region, Akshiganak district). The diameter of the stone embankment is 5 m, the height is 0.2 m. It was accompanied by: a quiver with arrows, a bow, an iron acinaces, a boar's tusk. In the heads of the deceased, oriented to the west-southwest, there was a vessel, on the right - two sacrificial complexes of sheep bones. The quiver and bow laid across the body, below the head, is unusual. The time of burial is determined by arrowheads (36 specimens), represented by combinations of types known from Savromatian sets.

Mounds 4th-2nd centuries BC excavated in the steppe zone of the Kostanay region. The most striking of them is the mound, which is part of the barrow group of the Koktal tract. The monument is located on the construction site of the central estate of the "Ovcevod" state farm. The barrow, 24 m in diameter and 0.6 m high, had an annular ditch with two passages in the northeastern and southwestern sectors. The width of the moat is from 1.7 to 4.6 m. On the inner side of it, a clay embankment 0.3 m high was built, at the base 2 m. Several pole pits from a wooden tombstone were found under the kurgan. The central pit had been repeatedly robbed and did not contain any remains. At the northeastern passage in the moat, a subsquare-shaped recess was cleared, at the bottom, a bronze cauldron was found. The location, filling, and relationship with the tomb structure allow us to attribute this pit to the entrance's architectural details. The boiler has a hemispherical body shape vertical arched handles with one button.

In the Naurzum group of sites, a mound 12 m in diameter and 0.4 m high was unearthed to the south. The pit contained a double burial. The inventory consisted of a bronze mirror, a stone altar, bronze arrowheads, and an iron knife's remains.

Probably, by the same chronological period of the 4th-2nd centuries BC should include the catacomb, explored in the south of the Kostanay region. The earthen tomb structure had a diameter of 6 m and a height of 0.2 m. The vertical shaft was filled with stone. The chamber is located in the western wall. Two buried heads to the west were cleared at the bottom. Of the things, a vessel and a sling stone have been preserved. At the base of the robber well, two stone statues were found, one whole and a fragment of the second, dating back to the 9th-10th centuries AD. The first burial mounds explored in the Tobol-Ishim interfluve make it possible to combine them into one group with the well-known North Kazakhstan complexes of the Saka time.