Ancient Saka burial accidentally discovered in Kazakhstan

Ancient tomb has been accidentally discovered by workers of a private construction firm in East Kazakhstan, Tengrinews reports citing YK-news.kz.

Workers of the local firm were working near the village of Aktogai. They stumbled on a section of a burial mound and the construction works were immediately suspended.

Almaty archaeologists arrived to the sight and promptly began the excavations. However, it turned out that the mound had been plundered several centuries ago. But some of the artifacts in the tomb were preserved.

Excavations will be completed in about a week.

“The place where the ancient tombs were discovered is close to Aktogai railway station. A total of nineteen mounds were discovered. Seven of them belong to the late Bronze Age, the other twelve - to the early Iron Age. Each mound has one to four graves. Pottery of the Bronze Age and arrowheads of the Iron Age were found," said Yerlan Kazizov, the researcher at the Institute of Archaeology named after Margulan.

Burials of the Bronze Age contains skeletons of people who lived in the XIV-XII centuries BC. They lay with their knees pressed to their chest.

Burials of the Iron Age contain the remains of ancient Saks with their heads directed towards the west.

Anthropological (bone) material will allow the experts to establish the sex and age of the buried.

By Dinara Urazova