Amulet set from a burial in the Karakabak canyon (Mangistau)


Astafiev A. Bogdanov E. Valiulina S.
30 September 2025Margulan Institute of Archaeology

Kazakhstan Archeology
2025#29Issue 3246 - 262 pp.

The article is devoted to the analysis of materials obtained during excavations of Object No. 7 of the Karakabak No. 10 burial ground on the Mangyshlak Peninsula. A string of seven glass beads and a false ring were found in a disturbed child burial with a niche. This sacrificial amulet set could have been specially made for a certain ritual, including a funeral one. It is not a neck ornament. The glass false ring had a relief carving on the bezel in the form of a walking zebu bull. This image can be considered the embodiment of one of the Avestan deities and can be viewed either as a symbol of Farn and/or “Glory”, or as a necessary visual attribute for sacrifices. Such glass items are very rare in museum collections, in archaeological complexes and were made as replicas of Iranian stone gems. Four large eye beads and three different-sized glass beads with silver foil inside have broad analogies at sites dated to the 5th–6th centuries AD in the Northern Black Sea region and the North Caucasus. Considering the chemical composition of the glass products, the Karakabak amulet set, determined by the scanning electron microscopy method, can be considered the product of Sasanian glassmakers.

Altynkazgan archaeological microdistrict , burial ground , burial with a niche , Caspian coast , false ring , glass beads , Karakabak , zebu

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Margulan Institute of Archaeology, Aktau, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation
Kazan Federal University, Kazan, Russian Federation

Margulan Institute of Archaeology
Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography
Kazan Federal University

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