Researches of the Urysai-2 kurgan complex
The article reviews materials obtained during the study of the kurgans of the early Iron Age of the Urysai-2 burial ground (West Kazakhstan region). In total, three emergency kurgans were excavated at the burial ground (no. 5, 13, 14). Structures in the form of log overlaps of grave pits, structures made of soil blocks on top of a wood (no. 13), an annular shaft around the central pit (no. 5) were found under the hillock of kurgans. Burial in mound no. 14 was made with the use of fire, in the western periphery a horse skull and elements of a bridle made in animal style were found. Burial pits are large and earthen, in oval, rounded and rectangular shapes with a depth of 1.80 m. There were studied five burials, from where 10 individuals originate: eight of them belong to men (warriors), one to a woman and one to a child. The gender identity of the woman was determined by the results of the analysis of the accompanying set of subjects. A stone altar with traces of paint and a set of tools, probably used for tattooing, were found in the female burial. The main part of the buried is oriented with their heads to the South, Southwest, Southeast. Burials from the Urysai-2 burial ground date from the end of the 6th - beginning of the 5th century BC and belong to representatives of the military (male) and priestly (female) elite and a child. The materials of the Urysai-2 kurgan complex find analogies in the monuments studied by M. Kadyrbayev in 1974.