Kazakhstan Burial Mound Yields Graves from Two Ancient Eras

Archaeologists in Kazakhstan's Karagandy Region have unearthed a significant discovery: a single ancient burial mound containing remains from two distinct historical periods. The site, located near the village of Kulaigyr in the Abai District, yielded evidence of both Early Iron Age and Middle Bronze Age cultures.

The mound, approximately 10 meters in diameter and 40 centimeters high, revealed an Early Iron Age burial at its center. This grave contained a supine-positioned deceased individual, accompanied by artifacts such as a bronze mirror, a belt fitting, and skeletal remains. The burial was aligned along a northwest-southeast axis.

Beneath this later burial, researchers uncovered an older grave dating back to the Nurin culture of the Middle Bronze Age, estimated between the 18th and 16th centuries B.C. This earlier burial was a stone cist, aligned north-south, and followed a cremation rite, with charred human remains found in the southern part of the chamber.

"We documented burials from two different historical periods within a single mound, separated by many centuries," stated Tulkibai Tuleuov, head of the Center for the Preservation of Historical and Cultural Heritage. The Nurin culture burial also yielded fragments of ceramic vessels with geometric patterns and parts of another ornamented vessel.

Fieldwork at the Kulaigyr-1 burial site has concluded. The recovered artifacts are now undergoing laboratory analysis, with researchers anticipating that the findings will illuminate the burial customs and everyday existence of ancient communities that once inhabited Central Kazakhstan.

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We documented burials from two different historical periods within a single mound, separated by many centuries.