Archaeological research in the basins of the Nura and Sarysu Rivers

Archaeological research in the basins of the Nura and Sarysu Rivers was carried out by the students of the Karaganda Pedagogical Institute. The primary purpose of the work was to identify Paleolithic sites, further study the inventory and topography of Neolithic sites, and excavate some of them.

In 1966, four new Paleolithic sites were discovered. Perederzhka I is a small outcrop of cretaceous bedrock (secondary sandstone). There were numerous traces of chips on the blocks lying on their surface, 2136 objects were found around the blocks, including 25 small blocks with scraps of chipped flakes, eight blocks, and huge flakes with facets of knife-like blades, ten conical and two boat-shaped (such as Novgorod-Seversky gigantoliths) cores‚ 662 chips with pronounced heels, 310 knife-shaped blades, 23 triangular blades, 13 blades - corrections of hearts and 1080 amorphous flakes.

The Paleolithic workshop Karabas 3 is located on the alluvial fan near the village of the same name. Blocks of porphyrite scattered on the cone's surface bore traces of chips. The primary type of finds is flakes of various sizes with pronounced heels, as well as bifaces.

The inventory of the Batpak 12 site (1038 items) was deposited in a humus layer of watershed loams at a depth of 0.55 m. It is represented by 807 amorphous flakes of small sizes with a subordinate value of fragments with pronounced heels (195), as well as knife-shaped and triangular blades (30). A remnant of a discoid nucleus and a monophase were found. In 1966, the study of the topography of the Neolithic sites continued. In the vicinity of Karabas, Spassk, and Akbastau, all 12 newly-covered areas, as well as near Karaganda, are concentrated near springs.

Around the Karaganda forest oasis near the Intals, where there are many springs and freshwater, no traces of the life of an ancient person were found. In the upper river Kudaimende, 15 prehistoric sites opened on a 9 km long section. All of them are near freshwater, near the hills, where the primitive man found protection from the prevailing winds. The sites here are small (diameter no more than 5-25 m), the number of finds rarely exceeds 50.

There were almost no Stone Age sites in the lower reaches of the river Kudaimende, where the water is salty and dries up in summer.

Along the river's middle course, Sarysu rarely encountered large campsites, only on sandy mounds and on hills near the riverbed (Tokhtar, Borybas). There are no sites in Sarysu. The finds here are rare.

15 site, 2194 objects were found in the cultural layer of the Karaganda. At a depth of 0.6-0.7 m, ten sandstone slabs were found, laid flat in the form of an oval. The slabs served as the floor of a hut built from thin twigs of a Callaghan shrub. Between the slabs, there was a thickened layer of gray sandy loam, in which there were many finds.

Six thousand seven hundred thirty-nine items were found at the Zelenaya Balka 4 site. There are no traces of buildings. Among the finds are 69 fragments of pottery, including several with ornaments from the end of the Stone Age to the beginning of the Bronze Age. Also found 175 cores, 1002 knife-shaped stone blades and their sections, 330 flake scrapers, 67 blade scrapers, 13 stone piercings, a unique tetrahedral cutter, a stone spindle with a drilled hole, the only polished ax in the study area, and a petiolate arrowhead made of smoky quartz. An exciting find is a slate block. Its flat surface is densely covered with parallel cuts, while some crosses are applied on the side planes.

The percentage of punctures found here is close to that at the Karaganda 27 site and is higher than at other places in the Karaganda region. The same can be said about trapezoids. 4 Paleolithic and 45 Neolithic and later sites were discovered in 1966, and excavations were carried out at three sites. The total number of finds exceeded 19 thousand.