Sarmatian military-priestly complex Urysay-2 from Western Kazakhstan (results of interdisciplinary research)
Lukpanova Y. Seitov A. Antonov M. Shagirbayev M. Yerzhanova А. Shoda S. Zhanuzak R.
31 December 2024Margulan Institute of Archaeology
Kazakhstan Archeology
2024#26Issue 4277 - 311 pp.
The proposed article is devoted to an interdisciplinary study of the Urysay-2 kurgan complex. The necropolis consists of 14 kurgans arranged in an irregular chain along a NE–SW axis. Three kurgans (Nos. 5, 13, 14) have been investigated. Burial pits are covered with flat wooden structures; the sub-kurgan structures are represented either by a circular embankment surrounding the central pit (kurgan No. 5) or a structure made of soil blocks covered with wood (kurgan No. 13). The deceased were laid extended on their backs, oriented toward the southern and western sectors. The burials are accompanied by a diverse assemblage of grave goods. The most representative in terms of the number and variety of items is the paired burial No. 2 in kurgan No. 13 (mid-5th century BCE), where a man and a woman were interred. The woman was adorned with eye-beads and bronze bracelets, and nearby were found a set of tools of iron objects (knives, an awl, a needle), a stone altar on legs in an animalistic style, and a wooden box containing various items (a bronze mirror, a cedarwood block, a toiletry vessel made of organic material, a wooden spoon, and silk fabric). The recovered materials find numerous analogies among the antiquities of the early nomads of the Southern Urals and Western Kazakhstan from the 6th–4th centuries BCE, particularly the Ural-Ilek steppes. Anthropological and archaeozoological studies of bone remains, as well as a traceological analysis of the stone altar on legs, have been conducted based on materials from the Urysay-2 burial ground. The results of this comprehensive study shed light on certain aspects of ancient technologies, cult practices, burial rites, and morphological features of the Sarmatians.
archaeology , Ilek , interdisciplinary research , kurgan , Sarmatian period , Urysay-2 , Western Kazakhstan
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West Kazakhstan Regional Museum of Local History, Uralsk, Kazakhstan
Margulan Institute of Archaeology, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Nara, Japan
West Kazakhstan Regional Museum of Local History
Margulan Institute of Archaeology
Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties
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