COLLECTIONS of STONE PRODUCTS from the KAZDYARAL 1 ARCHAEOLOGICAL COMPLEX in WESTERN KAZAKHSTAN (preliminary message)
The article examines the collections of stone products from the archaeological complex Kazdyaral 1 (Stone Age - Middle Ages), obtained during research in 2016, 2020. The monument is located 2-2,3 km southwest of the village of Karatal (Uil district, Aktobe region), on the left bank of the river Uil, and is a cluster of artifacts on three small sand massifs located in the NW-SE direction. The site firstly was discovered in 2012. It is a complex of different times, where artifacts from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages are concentrated in a relatively small area. Excavations in 2020 revealed soil burials from the Bronze Age, Early Iron Age, and the Middle Ages. The Age of Stone is represented by artifacts collected from the modern-day surface in deflation basins. The archaeological complex Kazdyaral 1 refers to monuments with a “surface cultural horizon”, which significantly complicates the analysis of archaeological material, the determination of the chronology of individual industrial complexes, their periodization, and cultural correlations. The only reliable source of information under such circumstances is stone tools, with the help of which it is possible to obtain data on the relative age of the monument and its cultural affiliation.