EARLY IRON AGE BURIAL MOUND WITH ANTHROPOMORPHIC STONE STATUE ON IT FROM THE AYBAS RIVER VALLEY

Abstract

The paper introduces into scientific use the materials of the research done on the unique funerary monument of the Early Iron Age – the mound number 6 with a statue of the cemetery Aybas Darasy 3. With the radiocarbon method the burial – one crouched skeleton without any inventory – was dated within the first quarter of the 8th – the last third of the 5th centuries BC. The authors characterize the signs of similarity of Aybas Darasy statue with early Scythian ones; identify correspondence of the depicted object to the real attribute (dagger) in the iconography of the Early Iron Age statues from Saryarka. The assumption about the connection between the burial with the statues is validated (the repeated finding of statues in the context of the Early Iron Age mounds, common direction of the statue’s front face and the buried person’s head, etc.). Comparison of the published site was made with similar sites of the 5th century BC from the South Ural steppes, statues of Saryarka and steppes of the Southern Ural. It is concluded that the appearance of Saryarka statues, like the South Ural ones, was associated with the "Scythian" cultural influence.