2,200-year-old gold bear figurine and surprising number of bones found in massive burial mound in Kazakhstan
(Image credit: Almaty City Administration) Archaeologists in Kazakhstan have discovered a unique gold bear figurine in a 2,200-year-old burial mound that looters had hit but failed to empty completely.
Key points
- (Image credit: Almaty City Administration) "Of particular interest is the unusually large number of human remains in a single burial mound, as such burials are atypical for Kazakhstan," Marat Mugalovich Nurpeisov, a senior research fellow at the Almaty Museums Association, said in the statement.
- Based on the number of bones they excavated, experts suspect that the mound, which is around 8 feet (2.4 meters) tall and roughly 85 feet (26 m) wide, may have been the final resting place for four adults and three children.
- "To clarify the circumstances of the burial and determine the exact number of individuals interred, further analyses are planned, including the involvement of anthropologists." After all of the investigations are finished, some of the artifacts will be put on display at the Almaty Museum, according to the statement.
(Image credit: Almaty City Administration) The gold bear was unearthed at an Early Iron Age burial mound at the Karagaily burial ground in the southern city of Almaty, along with a surprisingly high number of human bones for a single burial mound.
Additional details
- Although other gold-crafted animals have been found in the region, the newly unearthed bear is the first of its kind.
- Archaeologists have found comparable gold objects at other excavations in Kazakhstan, according to the statement.
- The artifact would have been worn as part of a headdress, and holes at its base indicate that it could have been sewn onto the garment, according to a translated statement from the Kazakhstan government.
- (Image credit: Almaty City Administration) The figurine dates to the Saka period, named for a nomadic horseback-riding people from Iran who lived on the Eurasian Steppe and Tarim Basin of what is now western China.
- Also, the headdress of Kazakhstan's famous " Golden Man," a young Iron Age warrior buried in an extraordinarily lavish grave, also has a gold, sheep-shaped decorative element.
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