Gold Bear Figurine Found in 2,200-Year-Old Kazakhstan Burial Mound
A gold bear figurine from a 2,200-year-old Saka burial mound in Kazakhstan is the first of its kind. The mound may hold seven people.
Archaeologists in Kazakhstan have unearthed a gold bear figurine from a burial mound that is about 2,200 years old, Live Science reported, citing a translated statement from the Kazakhstan government. The mound had been raided by looters in ancient times, yet they did not take everything.
The same mound held far more human bones than a grave of this size normally does. Researchers suspect it was the last resting place of seven people.
A bear on its hind legs, holding a pot
The figurine shows a bear standing upright, with a pot-like container held between its front paws. According to the government statement, it was made to be worn on a headdress. Holes at its base suggest it was sewn onto the garment.
It came from an Early Iron Age mound at the Karagaily burial ground in the southern city of Almaty. The excavation was run by the Almaty Museums Association. Its director, Lyazzat Sagyndykova, said in the statement: “The sculpted bear figurine is unique to Kazakhstan.”
Gold animals have turned up in the region before, but this is the first bear. A small leopard-shaped headdress piece was found earlier at the Almaty Kok-Kainar burial ground, which dates to the fourth century B.C. The headdress of the “Golden Man,” a young Iron Age warrior buried in an unusually lavish grave, carries a gold sheep-shaped decoration.
Which bear the artist had in mind is unknown. Kazakhstan today has two brown bear subspecies: the Tien Shan or Himalayan brown bear in the southeast and the East Siberian brown bear in the Altai Mountains in the east, according to a study published earlier this year.
Seven people in one mound
The mound stands around 8 feet (2.4 meters) tall and is roughly 85 feet (26 m) wide. From the number of bones recovered, experts suspect it held four adults and three children. That count is an estimate. Marat Mugalovich Nurpeisov, a senior research fellow at the association, said in the statement that such burials are “atypical for Kazakhstan.” Mounds of comparable size were usually built for one or two people.
The team also found pieces of Saka pottery. Most were scattered, a sign of the ancient looting. The thieves left behind a looting pit about 10 feet (3 m) deep.
Preliminary analyses place the site in the fourth to third centuries B.C. The Saka were a nomadic, horseback-riding people who lived on the Eurasian Steppe and in the Tarim Basin in what is now western China. Live Science describes them as coming from Iran.
Why it matters
A new type of gold object from a known culture adds to the record of how Saka people dressed and what symbols they used. Sagyndykova said the find lets researchers trace cultural parallels across Eurasia, from the Black Sea region to Altai.
The unusual number of burials raises a separate question: why so many people were placed in one mound. The statement does not say. The findings so far come from preliminary analyses and a government statement, not a peer-reviewed paper.
What happens next
Work at Karagaily is continuing. To settle the circumstances of the burial and the exact number of people interred, further analyses are planned, including the involvement of anthropologists. Once the investigations are finished, some of the artifacts will go on display at the Almaty Museum, according to the statement.
Source: Live Science
