Study of the monuments of the Pazyryk culture in the Zhetysu region

Archaeological site Tausamaly Burial Ground

was first opened in 2019 at the design stage and overhaul of the highway "Almaty - Ust-Kamenogorsk". Scientific materials obtained as a result of further research show that the Tausamaly burial ground was left by a large group of nomads, carriers of the Kula-Zhorginsky culture. Under the leadership of the Pazyryks, known for monuments of Berel, they arrived here from the territory of Altai and East Kazakhstan in the IV-III centuries BC. Today it is the westernmost a well-known point of the area of ​​influence of the Pazyryk culture.

Works at the Tausamaly burial ground in the period 2020-2023 are carried out according the scientific program "Research monuments of the Pazyryk culture in the Zhetysu region" under the control of Communal State Institution "Center for the Protection of the Historical and Cultural Heritage of the Zhetysu region”.

Scientific research conducts Archaeological Expedition LLP. During the research, documentaries were filmed for display on republican television: "Archaeology of Zhetysu" (2021)
"Archaeology of Zhetysu-2" (2022)
"Archaeology of Zhetysu-3" (2023)

The term "Pazyryk culture"

is used in archeology to refer to the culture of the population of Gorny Altai
Saka time. It came from the name of the most famous Pazyryk group mounds located in the valley of the river Ulagan. The culture is known for being "frozen" graves, in which, thanks to the permafrost, numerous household items, costumes and jewelry made from organic materials, which betrays
culture unique ethnographic features. On the territory of Kazakhstan to this
culture, first of all, includes the barrows of the Berel burial mound.  Pazyryk leaders were accompanied in burials by horses in rich decoration, with complex ensembles of zoomorphic images and in original masks with deer antlers. The reason for the emergence of this phenomenal phenomenon was a unique combination the natural conditions of the region and the cultural traditions of the Pazyryks.

The funeral rite of the Pazyryks provided for the construction of a larch frame at the bottom of the grave pit, in which a mummified buried person was placed in a deck or on a wooden bed, in a row cases, a stone box was arranged. The mound of the mound, which was erected over grave, consisted of stones, boulders and pebbles and was permeable to water. Summer and autumn rains, as well as soil water, filled the crypts with water, which
froze in winter and never thawed.

As part of or next to the Pazyryk culture stands out the Kara-Koba culture, which was characterized by burials in stone boxes and poorer accompanying inventory.

In the middle of the 1st millennium BC the territory of Zhetysu was inhabited by nomads and pastoralists,

included in the vast Saka community. They left behind numerous burial grounds along the Zhongarsky Alatau mountain system. Tribes related to them inhabited the vast mountainous and foothill regions of the Western, Inner and partly Eastern Tien Shan up to the lakes Balkhash and Alakol. Nomads close to the Saks lived in the area of ​​the middle course of the Irtysh River and near the lake. Zaisan. The leaders of the Saka tribal unions, who stood at the pre-state level of political organization at that time, left the famous Besshatyr mounds located in the Ili River valley on the territory of the Altyn-Emel state national natural park. The largest "royal" mound reaches 105 meters in diameter and 17 meters high, which indicates the level of consolidation of the Saka society and the internal differentiation of society. During this period, there is an increase in population, the flourishing of crafts and art. In Eastern Zhetysu, the most noble Saka clans occupied the territory of the Kapal-Arasan basin, where the largest burial mounds are located. Along the northern foot of the ridges Markatau, Kayrakkol, Karakungey there were nomad camps of the ordinary population.

In the VI-V centuries BC east of Zhetysu, on the territory Altai, gained strength of kindred associations at first nomads of the Kredityryk archaeological culture.

In the IV century BC the development of the Pazyryk society reaches its peak and a wide expansion of the Altai nomads begins. They settle in the territory of the Mongolian Altai and in Northern Xinjiang. Pazyryk features appear in the monuments of the Minusinsk Basin, Tuva and reach the Ordos in Northern China. The elite families of the Pazyryks are moving from the central regions of the Altai Mountains also to the southwest - into the modern Kazakh Altai, a vivid reflection of which is the creation of the elite Berel necropolis. As part of this movement, the penetration of the Pazyryks, Kara-Kobans, and nomads of Western and North-Western Mongolia into the Irtysh region, into the territory of tribes related to the Sakas, is noted. This leads to the formation of a syncretic Kula-Zhorginsky culture. Its funeral rites have features of the Pazyryk culture (accompanying burials of horses, eastern orientation of the buried, crouched and half-crouched position), Kara-Koba (stone boxes), fence-paths at a distance from the embankment (Saglyn-Uyuk culture and the culture of the Western Mongolian Khereksurs). Inheritance from the local Saka population in the funeral rite includes burials in ground pits.

Addition of a new grouping nomads

in Eastern Kazakhstan and partly in Western Mongolia took place under the auspices of the Pazyryks. Probably, its entire territory was under the control of the Pazyryk-Berel elite. At the same time, in the IV - III centuries BC from the area of ​​the emerging culture, some nomads migrate to East Zhetysu. Judging by the orography and hydrology of the region, the route ran from the Irtysh through the northwestern spurs of the Western Tarbagatai ridge and the Balkhash-Alakol depression, then the nomads moved along the northern foot of the Shibyndy, Kettybay, Markatau and Kairakkol ridges up to the Aksu River, where the burial site of Tausamaly was left. It should be noted that this route corresponds to the modern A3 highway, which connects Almaty and Ust-Kamenogorsk.

The burial ground of Tausamaly includes about 122 mounds, which indicates that the penetration into the region was carried out by a large group of nomads and shows a long period of their habitation in the Aksu river basin. These processes could not take place without military clashes with the local Saka population, and the East Kazakhstani group of nomads of the end of the 1st millennium BC, settled in the foothills of Kairakkol, was the extreme southwestern enclave of the Pazyryk political association.

The burial ground of Tausamaly is located in the Aksu district of the Zhetysu region. The monument is located 2 km southeast of the district center Zhansugurovo, on the outskirts of the village of Tausamaly. The necropolis occupies the alluvial fan of the Aksu River, to the west of the Kairakkol ridge.

The first excavations at the burial ground were carried out in 2019. Mound No. 1, which occupied the extreme northern position in the burial ground, was investigated. During its excavations, it was established that the burial consisted of two architectural elements, the first containing the main paired burial and the second, with the accompanying burial of three horses. The main structure consisted of two rectangular stone boxes placed one on top of the other. Sacrificial bones of a ram or a sheep are fixed at the bottom of the upper box. In the lower one there were two buried, laid in a slightly crouched position on the right side, with their heads oriented to the northeast. To the north-west of them, on a dirt step, three horses were placed in special stone structures. The combination of the shape of the grave pit and the funeral rite allow us to draw attention to the analogies found in the Altai monuments. Similar burials in stone cists were found in the Pazyryk burial grounds of Berel (mound No. 23) and Barbugazy I (mounds No. 23, 25).

In the burial mound No. 1 of the Tausamaly burial ground, two ceramic jugs, a hairpin with a gold ornamented top, two iron spiers, and fragments of gold foil were found. One of the horses had an iron ring bit. Vessels in the upper part, starting from the shoulders to the rim, are ornamented with three ridges. The closest analogies to ceramic vessels are found in the areas of the Pazyryk, Sagly and Chandman cultures. Bronze hairpin with gold pommel ornamented with four petals. The hairpin is similar to the finds in the necropolises of the Kamensk archaeological culture of the Upper Ob region, the Pazyryk sites of Altai and the Uyuk-Sagly sites of Tuva. The ringed bits are identical to the iron bits of the late Pazyryk stage, found in burial mounds in the valleys of the Chuya and Ursula rivers.

An interesting ethnographic feature was recorded at the Tausamaly burial ground. The head of one of those buried in kurgan No. 1, apparently, was decorated with a high headdress or wig, structurally similar to a headdress of the type found in mound No. 5 of the Pazyryk burial ground.

The unique materials obtained in 2019 on Kurgan No. 1 aroused great interest, since for the first time on the territory of Zhetysu a mound of the Pazyryk culture, more characteristic of the peoples of the Altai territory, was met and studied in detail. This discovery became the prerequisites for the organization in 2020 of the scientific program "Research of the monuments of the Pazyryk culture in the Zhetysu region". The results of subsequent four-year studies of the Tausamaly burial ground, during which 12 mounds were studied in detail, are of serious scientific interest and are relevant for understanding the history of the nomadic peoples of the region in the late Saka and Hun-Sarmatian periods. Jewelry, household items, data of the funeral rite are an important source for the reconstruction of the ancient stages of the history of Zhetysu. However, the data obtained are still insufficient to draw final conclusions about the ethnopolitical history of Eastern Zhetysu at the end of the Early Iron Age and to understand the reason for the appearance of Pazyryk-type sites so far southwest of the main area of ​​this culture. Therefore, it is necessary to continue archaeological work at the burial ground.

Research materials 2019-2023

the Tausamaly burial ground show that the arrived group of nomads included descendants of different peoples who had previously settled from the Altai to the upper Yenisei, including Western Mongolia. Burials have been recorded in stone cists and earth grave pits, in cists on the ancient horizon, accompanied by horses and without them. The buried were oriented to the northeast and northwest, in a crouched position and on their backs. Mounds are rounded, trapezoidal or rectangular in shape, with fences-paths at a distance from the embankment and without them. With strings of balbals extending to the east of the mounds or accompanied by oval altars. An interesting ethnographic feature was recorded on the burial ground. Women's heads were decorated with high headdresses or wigs, structurally similar to the headdress of the type found in mound No. 5 of the Pazyryk burial ground. Ceramic vessels found in mound No. 1 of the Tausamaly burial ground are close to the vessels of the Pazyryk, Sagly and Ulangom cultures. Analogies in the materials of the Sayano-Altai are also found by a bronze hairpin with a round gold top.

The unification of different clans and tribes of Zhetysu

in one close-knit team was caused by political reasons. Under the Pazyryk leadership, they entered into military clashes with the Saks, the complexity and duration of which remained beyond the limits of written sources. However, the fact is known that this caused a reduction in the area of ​​the Saka culture in Eastern Zhetysu and the inclusion of new territories in the sphere of influence of the East Kazakhstan and Mountain Altai tribes. These events served as one of the reasons for the weakening of the entire Saka association, changed the ethnic picture of Zhetysu and became harbingers of subsequent migration upheavals in the second century BC and the next historical stage, already associated with the name of the Xiongnu.