ARCHEOGEOPHYSICAL (GPR) STUDIES AT THE KAZAKHSTAN-AKMOLA-EREYMENTAU-KUMAY VALLEY 6TH–7TH CENTURY OGHUZ-KIPCHAK KURGANS

Abstract

The study area is located about 110 km east of Astana, the capital city of Kazakhstan. Kurgans (barrows) that belong to the 6th–7th century Oghuz-Kipchak settlements were found in the Bronze Age and Iron Age necropolis and acropolis areas that lie within the limits of the Buyratau National Park, which is located in the Ereymentau District of the Akmola Province, in the vicinity of the Kumay Valley, along the foothills of Buyratau, to the left side of Kumay River (which has given the area its name). The district was introduced for the first time to the scientific community by the academicians and researchers of the Nazarbayev Center with the “International Kazakh-Turkish Project on the Constitution of the Kumay Archeology and Ethnography Open Air Museum” as a Bronze and Early Iron Age Turkic period and ethnography. The statues at the Kumay Archeological and Etnographic Complex (Turkic fences with Kos Bat?r statues, Bronze Age structure, Karagayl? 1 Turkic fence with statue, Karagayl? 2 Turkic fence with statue, Bronze Age Karagayl? 4 burial ground, Karagayl? 3 Turkic fence with statue, Barrows, Barrows with Mustache, Settlement-Stone statue, Karagayl? 5 Turkic fences, Karagayl? 2 Turkic fence with statue, Burial Henge, Bal?kt? 1 Barrow cluster, Bronze Age Karagayl? 3 burial ground, and Bronze Age Karagayl? 2 burial ground) are new discoveries of the common Turkic heritage exemplifying the cultural layers of different periods in Kazakhstan. Bronze Age structures represented by three types of statues, which, in terms of style, regarded as hundreds of different structures, fences, and barrows, cover the entire Bronze Age. A geophysical (GPR) project was jointly planned by the Nazarbayev Center of the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Republic of Turkey Prime Ministry Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (T?KA) in order to investigate the development of the cultural heritage during different periods in Kazakhstan through a contemporaneous and comprehensive study of the areas where above ground or partially buried structures, included in the the Karagayl? 2, 3, and 4 statue groups, are mainly localized to determine whether there are any buried structures in these localities. It was aimed that the buried statues, burial sites and settlements would be revealed using geophysical measurements by means of subsurface monitoring of the Kumay Valley statues and the nearby necropolis and acropolis areas. For subsurface monitoring in the region, two and three-dimensional images were obtained using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) measurements using a DGPS-supported 250 MHz shield antenna. Based on GPR measurements a new kurgan and ceremony site complex were located and suggested for further archeological excavation.