A child's burial and new data of radiocarbon dating of monuments of the early Iron Age in Сentral Kazakhstan

Abstract

The article discusses the results of fieldwork on the early Iron Age burial mound, investigated in the Aktogay district of the Karagandy region. It had an uncovered stone mound, under which the burial of a 4–5 year-old child laid on his back in an elongated position was recorded, accompanied by stone beads, an iron knife, a stone whetstone and a gold overlay. The Tasmola cultural identity of the excavated complex is indicated, first of all, by the zoomorphic overlay, on which the profile of a feline predator was depicted, which is characteristic of the Scythian-Saka animal style. In view of the absence of more specific chronological reference points, the investigated burial should be dated within a wide framework of the 8^th–5^th centuries BC. The results of radiocarbon dating of the burials of the Tasmola culture in the barrows of Borly and Senkibay-2 are also introduced into scientific circulation, which to a certain extent corrected the preliminary dating of these complexes, based on the method of typological analogies. According to new data, firstly, the materials of the Senkibay-2 burial ground should be somewhat dated to the 9^th – beginning of the 8^th century BC; secondly, the burial of the Borly mound should be dated to a slightly wider time range – the middle of the 8^th – middle of the 6^th century BC.