ORAL, KAZAKHSTAN—Archaeologists investigating a site in the West Kazakhstan Region identified an array of mysterious and intriguing burial mounds that is considered to be one of the country’s most significant archaeological discoveries in recent years, Azernews reports. The team located approximately 150 tombs unlike any found before in the area, which may offer new insights into Kazakhstan’s early civilizations. While circular kurgans, or burial mounds, are common throughout the region, the recently discovered monuments took a variety of forms, including rectangular mounds and some formed by two interconnected rings—a rare configuration in Eurasian steppe archaeology. The largest one, which is surrounded by a moat-like ditch measuring over 450 feet in diameter, likely houses the remains of a local leader or someone of high political and social status. Preliminary analysis suggests that the tombs date to the early Iron Age, although experts are still uncertain who built them. The report notes that the steppe lands were once part of vast trade routes and served as the cradle of many nomadic civilizations, including the early Scythians and Saka tribes. To read about excavations of a Saka kurgan in eastern Kazakhstan, go to "Iron Age Teenagers."
