Eleke Sazı’nda Geç Tunç Çağı'na ai?t bi?r İski?t kurganı

Abstract

A team of researchers under the direction of Zainolla Samashev have conducted archaeological excavations at the Eleke Sazy valley, located within the administrative borders of Tarbagatai district of the eastern Kazakhstan region, in the summer of 2019. Significant discoveries in terms of Pre-Islamic Turkic Art and History are being made in the Eleke Sazy valley that has more than 300 kurgans. The greatest discovery of 2019 was the findings of a Scythian-Saka Kurgan dating to the Late Bronze Age (10th-9th centuries BC). This kurgan is one of the rare stone kurgans in the valley which makes it important to examine its architectural characteristics. The architecture of the kurgan has been severely damaged, and the finds have been looted due to the interventions by grave robbers. Despite that it has been possible to reveal cheekpieces of horse harness dating to the earliest phase of the Scythian-Saka period. So called cheekpieces made it possible to date the Eleke Sazy kurgan earlier than the Arjan I kurgan at Turan-Uyuk Valley in Tuva. Thus, the oldest known Scythian-Saka kurgan in Eurasia was found out to be the stone kurgan at Eleke Sazy. This finding also proves that the origin of Scythian culture and civilization is precisely in Central Asia.