NEW EARLY SAKA BURIALS IN THE NORTHERN KAZAKHSTAN

The paper analyses two new complexes of the Early Saka time discovered by the Ishim Stationary Archaeological Expedition (the Astana city) in the Akmolla area of the Northern Kazakhstan in 2013. A burial with a loculus oriented along the W-E axis was encountered under a stone mound with a cromlech in Barrow 1 of the Shagalaly cemetery. The buried man lay supine with his head pointing W. The grave goods included bronze and wooden arrowheads and a bronze knife in a wooden sheath with a tip shaped into a mountain goats' head. Yet another burial with a loculus oriented along the WNW-ESE axis was found under a stone mound in Barrow 1 of the Ishan cemetery. The buried man lay supine with his head pointing WNW. The grave goods comprised bronze artefacts: arrowheads, a pendant and tubular beads. The analysis of funerary rites and grave goods implies the Ullubay-Tasmola cultural belonging of both burials and enables us to date them to the 8th-6th centuries BC. The dating to the second half of the 8th-7th century BC is preferable. The earlier date of the burial under Barrow 1 of the Shagalaly IV cemetery in comparison with that under Barrow 1 of the Ishan cemetery is taken into account.