Free Republic

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...

Ten medieval burial mounds, or kurgans, have been discovered in central Kazakhstan, according to a Live Science report. Archaeologist Zhanbolat Utubaev of the Margulan Institute of Archaeology said that three of the mounds are topped with stone ridges known as mustaches. Excavation of one of the kurgans without a mustache uncovered the remains of a man and a triangular arrowhead. The kurgans are thought to have been constructed by a nomadic group prior to the Mongol conquest of the region in the thirteenth century, Utubaev concluded.

Tuekta is in the Altai Mountains where Russia, China, Kazakhstan and Mongolia come together. Researchers there have discovered burial mounds 2,300 to 2,800 years old and up to 250 feet (76 meters) wide. These burial mounds, called "kurgans," probably belonged to chiefs or princes among the Scythians, a nomadic people known for their horsemanship, who once had a rich, powerful empire. Excavations of some of these have revealed extraordinary treasures of gold and other artifacts well-preserved by permafrost. Nearly 200 burial mounds were discovered in Tuekta, situated along the River Ursul. The site's heart appears to once have been a...