Research in the construction area of the Irtysh - Karaganda canal

The Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR expedition conducted a survey and protection excavations in the area of the projected construction of the Irtysh – Karaganda canal.

The total length of the search route of the coasts of the Nura, Sarysu rivers and the areas arriving to them was about 3 thousand km.

Of particular interest are the excavations of Zhylandy burial ground, discovered on the left bank of the Nura River, 7 km downstream from the Samarskoye (Samarka) village. In the burial ground, consisting of three groups of monuments, eleven structures were excavated, which included fourteen burials of Andronovo and two burials of the Early Saka time.

The Andronovo group of monuments was located on an elevated platform near the very bank of the Nura River and consisted mainly of round and rectangular fences with low earthen mounds inside.

The burial chambers (ground, rectangular) are covered with massive stone slabs and oriented in the latitudinal direction. Two grave pits had masonry in the form of a diet. The dominant rite is corpse-laying. In four cases, a corpse was burnt, and "in the grave from the fence 5 and in the central chamber of the fence 2, both corpse laying and burning were recorded.

The burial from fence 3 was accompanied by the skins of sacrificial animals (cattle and sheep).

Ceramics, represented by 26 vessels, has mainly an Alakul appearance: carved ornament in the form of shaded isosceles and oblique triangles, stripes of "flags," low pyramids, a ledge and a shoulder (fence 3). The exception is two fences, where a mixed burial rite is marked (fences 2 and 5). The ceramics are polished and decorated with a relatively rich meander pattern made with a large-toothed stamp. Both fences were built at the same time. This is evidenced by the fact that a large fragment of ceramics was found in the grave pit of fence 5, which turned out to be the side of a pot extracted from the eastern grave of fence 2.

In addition to ceramics, bronze and paste beads, a bronze dagger with recesses on the base, bracelets with spirally twisted ends, leaf-shaped pendants, a bronze needle, small gold crafts were found. For the first time in the Andronovo monuments of Central Kazakhstan, a bronze rim was found, apparently from a headdress with punched holes at the ends. Along the inner outline, closer to its ends, eight gold weightings (four on each side) were symmetrically located. This kind of diadem, unlike the Alekseev "hryvnia" from the excavations of O. A. Krivtsova-Grakova, was flat; it is forged from bronze wire 0.5 cm wide. The Zhylandy finds are among the few diadems known in the western (burial grounds of Alakul, Chernyaki, Alekseev) and eastern (finds of A. P. Umansky) areas of the Andronovo culture.

South of the Andronovo burial ground, two mounds of Early Saka times have been excavated. The grave pits were unpaved, oval in shape and elongated in the meridional direction. In kurgan 1, the burial was not disturbed by robbers. The deceased was lying on his back, in an elongated position, with his head facing north. On both sides of the skull were large gold earrings with semiprecious stones and two large spirals of gold ribbon. On the right of the pelvic bones there is a massive bronze mirror with a high rim along the edge and a rectangular loop in the center of the disk, on the left a whetstone and an iron knife.

Among the scattered bones of the burial from kurgan 2, a stone altar, carnelian and garnet beads decorated with a white pattern 'stone spinning wheel' were found. The ulna has preserved a bunch of beads made of white and blue paste and a golden bell, the body of which is completely covered with the finest grain.