Exploration work on the canal route

A detachment of the Ural-Kazakhstan expedition (Petropavlsk Pedagogical Institute, Chelyabinsk University) conducted surveys on the Kostanay and Turgai regions. The total length of the exploration route was more than 500 km, the survey depth was 5 km. 74 archaeological sites have been identified: 18 Stone Age sites, 2 Bronze Age settlements, and more than 50 burial mounds, single mounds and stone fences.

In the forest-steppe zone (the northern part of the Kostanay region, the basin of the Ubagan river), monuments are extremely rare. Only single burial mounds of the Iron Age have been found. Dozens of burial grounds, recorded in the "Archaeological Map of Kazakhstan", turned out to be marmot hills when checked.

In the steppe and semi-desert zones (Naurzum district of Kostanay and most of the Turgai region), numerous kurgan groups were found, according to the accumulations of three micro districts distinguished: Koktal, Naurzum and Akshiganak. The number of barrows in each of them is from 40 to 60. The barrow groups are located on high sections of the coastal ridges of lakes and rivers of the Turgai hollow. The mound groups were either three large mounds erected along the north-south line or chains of kurgans of different sizes, elongated in the latitudinal direction, as a rule, along the riverbeds. Stone mounds and stone fences are common in the southern part of the steppe and semi-desert zones.

The Stone Age sites are concentrated along the left bank of the Turgai River. They occupy the remains of the first and second coastal terraces. According to the lifting collection, they can be attributed to the Neolithic - Chalcolithic.

An interesting stone statue was found on arable land 3.5 km southwest of Shili (Kostanay region). It is made of a sandstone slab 104 cm high. Only one side is modeled. The rounded head is separated from the shoulders by a deep carved line. The statue below is pointed at a cone. Approximately it refers to the 7th-8th centuries.