Investigation of the burial mounds of early nomads of the Irtysh river region of Semey

Abstract

The article introduces materials of monuments studied in the Semeytau and Kokentau mountain ranges. During the period 2014–2018, the research team has unearthed 13 burial mounds, distributed across six burial grounds and groups of burial mounds. The accompanying artifacts comprise iron rods (pins?) and the tail vertebrae of a ram. In three cases (Karatobe burial ground, mounds no. 2 and 3; Karasu-Ushtobe burial ground, mound 1), necklaces crafted from semiprecious stones have been discovered. Armament items are represented by a set of bone and one bronze arrowheads. In general, the ground and inside burial mounds find analogies in the materials of the Kulazhorga type (3rd century BC – 1st century AD) within the Upper Irtysh region, as well as in burial mounds from the early stage (3rd–2nd centuries BC) of the Wusun archaeological culture in the Ile River valley. It is worth noting the proximity of the design features of the burial structures and the subject complex of most of the described mounds with the monuments of Saryarka, first of all, the greatest parallels can be traced among the materials of the monuments of the Karamola type. According to the results of radiocarbon analysis, the objects studied date back to the 5th–3rd centuries BC.