Excavations in the Aktobe region

The expedition detachment of the Aktobe Regional Museum of Local Lore, with the participation of the Aktobe Pedagogical Institute, researched the Aktobe and Karabutak regions.

In the Aktobe region, the burial ground of Zhaman-Karagala I, which consisted of 24 burial mounds, was investigated. 13 barrows have been excavated. Mounds 7,14,18 and 24 contained Bronze Age burials. In kurgan 7, five rectangular graves were found, oriented along the northeast-southwest line. Remains of a mighty bonfire were found in the mounds. The bones of the skeletons have not been preserved. One molded flat-bottomed vessel was found in the graves. In burial 2 of kurgan 14, in a square-shaped grave pit at a depth of 2 m, remains of a burial that was destroyed in antiquity were found. The skeleton lay crouched but on its left side, with the skull to the west. The buried was accompanied by plentiful funeral food (probably, whole carcasses of a cow and a horse were placed in the grave), as well as inventory: bone piercings and cheek-pieces, a copper needle, and fragments of a large stucco unornamented flat-bottomed vessel. At the northern wall, to the left of the skeleton, lay the skeleton of a dog.

Mounds 2-5 and the inlet burial in mound 14 belong to the Sauromatian culture (7th-5th centuries BC). Burials were made in shallow (0.8-1.3 m) stray-shaped pits. Wooden tomb structures were fixed. The orientation of the skeletons is western. The buried were accompanied by funeral food and various inventory: stucco vessels, bronze arrowheads, etc.

Mounds 9, 13, 15, 16 and 24 were stone structures (diameter 5-6 m, height 0.1-0.2 m), under which burials were made in long rectangular pits (0.5x2 m) in wooden tombs. The skeletons are extended on the back, with the skull to the north. The burials preserved iron knives and arrowheads, wooden bow linings, bronze mirrors, a silver earring in the form of a question mark, and ram bones. The probable date of the burial mounds is the 13th-14th centuries.

In the area of ​​the village of Rodnikovka, excavations were carried out at the burial mounds of Shpaki I, Shemenevsky, Besoba. The barrows of Shpaki I were robbed. Mound 2 (height 2 m, diameter: 26 m) was investigated. A grave pit of a square shape (depth 0.5 m) was found under the earth embankment, in which the bones of a person, a horse, as well as a variety of implements lay in disarray: bronze arrowheads, fragments of stucco and pottery, objects of a horse bridle, a stone altar, etc. The barrow dates back to the 6th-5th centuries BC.

In the Karabutak region, 22 burial mounds were found. Exploratory excavations have been carried out in three of them (Atpa 1, 2, 5). Most of the 14 mounds excavated belong to the Late Sarmatian culture. More ancient mounds (3, 12 and 17) of the Atpa I group date back to the 5th-4th centuries BC. Mound 2 of the Atpa 2 burial ground is especially interesting. Under its low, flattened earth mound, a buried man lay on his back, oriented with his head to the northwest in a narrow grave pit. He was beheaded. The burial was accompanied by an earring of the Saltov type, a wooden quiver with iron arrowheads, wooden bow linings, and numerous bronze plaques from sword belts. The burial dates back to the 9th-11th centuries.