Bone items from Arshaly burial (bronze age) in Kazakhstan

Purpose. The relevance of studying bone carving by ancient nomads of Kazakhstan is determined by the fact that Kazakhstani archaeologists have accumulated a great amount of material on this subject. Previously scientists discussed the informative value of archaeological bone items; however, modern researchers do not doubt that such bone items are important archaeological sources along with other materials. Due to the trace analysis developments in raw bones studies available today, the items made of bone became sources for studying nomadic society, handicraft and culture of the proto-Kazakhs. It brings up the issue of systematizing and evaluating the bone carving material accumulated, especially in the light of recent discoveries. In this article the author considers the collection of bone items found in Arshaly burial ground. This burial ground is dated late XIV - early XIII BC and belongs to the Bronze Age culture of Central and Northern Kazakhstan. Results. The ground under study was excavated in 1983-1984 by V. S. Voloshin and became the object of study again in 2012. In spite of the fact that this burial ground had been robbed, the excavations allowed archaeologists to find numerous ceramic fragments, bronze and opaque glass beads, animal bones remains, stone and bone items, and one pendant made of a predator fang. In this collection, bone items deserve special attention. They are few but interesting ones and include a buckle, a plait decoration and several pendants. Scientists had noticed such items present among women’s jewelry of Late Alakul Period, which allows us to assume that bone carving was one of the well-developed sectors of economy among the population which had left the burial ground. The bone items found are made of flat and tubular bones of small animals and are polished carefully (in some cases there is some artistry applied). We consider each item of the bone collection of Arshaly burial ground separately and describe them in detail. The results of these studies give an opportunity to relate this monument to the Bronze Age culture of Central and Northern Kazakhstan. Conclusion. After the release of K. V. Salnikov’s book «Bronze Age of Southern Trans-Ural region», the number of questions in studying the Andronovo culture history increased. In particular, issues related to the origin of Alakul culture, connections between Alakul and Fedorovo cultural traditions (parallelism or continuity?), chronology, etc. have been raised. These issues require close attention of scientists studying this problem. We believe that the bone items from Arshaly burial ground are a useful source for solving these and many other related puzzles.