Excavation work at the Karajartas mausoleum, situated on a dominant hill overlooking the left bank of the Taldy River in the Shet district of the Karaganda province in Kazakhstan, was carried out by the Sari Arka Archaeological Committee of the University of Karaganda, totaling four excavation campaigns.
Recently, Dr. Aibar Kassenali from the National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan announced the initial assessment of a pyramid-like mausoleum discovered at the site where a Bronze Age settlement was excavated.
According to Kassenali, carbon-14 analysis results date the pyramid structure between the 14th and 12th centuries BCE. The presence of multiple stepped pyramid mausoleums in the region indicates that the Taldı River Valley, located in the Sari Arka steppes, was used by Andronovo communities during the Bronze Age as a valley of kings where their great leaders were buried, similar to the Nile Valley in Egypt.
Dr. Aibar Kassenali stated that, upon examining the findings from the burial chamber, the stepped pyramid of the steppe may have been built in honor of a local ruler who governed the Kazakh steppes during the Andronovo period. The style of the ceramic vessel motif found at the tomb site, manufactured without the use of wheels and decorated using the impression method, indicates its belonging to the Begazı Dandibay period, which represents the final phase of the Andronovo period.
Kassenali emphasized that the cut stones found in the pyramid and the size of the mausoleum suggest that constructing such a massive structure in the Bronze Age and in such an arid region as the steppe is an indication of the high artistic understanding and rich spiritual beliefs reached by the Begazi Dandibay communities.
Dr. Serhan Çınar mentioned that there is also information in ancient historical sources about pyramid tomb structures in Scythia-Saka and their Begazi Dandibay communities. Historical passages from Ctesias of Cnidus and Diodorus Siculus, describing the Scythian-Median wars, assert that the Saka had a queen named Zarina. As a result of campaigns with neighboring peoples, she civilized her country, founded several cities, and after her death, her people built the largest tomb in their land, a triangular tomb.
Çınar underscored that the identified monumental stepped pyramid tombs in Karajartas could be early versions of the Scythian-era tomb structures mentioned in historical records. In addition to the monumental tombs, a proto-urban settlement called Kent was also discovered.
Covering an area of 15 hectares, this center existed in the same historical period as Troy 4 in Asia Minor, the early Mycenaean period in mainland Greece, and the advanced layers of the city-state states of the Middle Kingdom in Egypt. Within the settlement were labyrinthine gates, ditches, and protruding walls. These ancient cities had a regularly planned network of streets and water collection systems.
Next to the settlements were altars where ceremonies of sacrifice to the gods took place. In pyramid-like mausoleum complexes such as Karajartas, there were ritual statues resembling human bodies carved from small stones.
These findings were representations of gods similar to those of the ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia and worshipped in annual festivals. There were also different types of clay plates here. These plates were examples of a primitive counting system, likely from the beginning of the writing period.
According to Kassenali, as inferred from rock paintings, solstices were perceived as periods when the moon and the sun met in Andronovo society, and this sacred meeting was celebrated by the public with various festivities. In this sense, it is understood that the Karajartas mausoleum pyramid was not only used as a burial site but also as a sacred area where religious ceremonies were held for Andronovo communities.
The place of the Karajartas pyramid in early Turkish archaeological and historical research was determined by Dr. Serhan Çınar: The Begazi Dandibay communities show close connections with the Karasuk culture of southern Siberia, which constitutes the proto-Turkic culture. The corridors leading to the burial chamber, especially in the Begazi Dandibay phase mausoleums, always open in the direction of sunrise, as a manifestation of traditional Turkish religious belief.
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