Unique finds of the Early Iron Age were discovered during excavations of the ancient settlement of Ak Iriy in the North Kazakhstan region. There, students of history found an earring, which is 2,500 years old, an antique ring, a bone tip, a unique spindle whorl covered with turquoise glaze and anthropomorphic figure.
“This is an anthropomorphic figure, it might be hard to see, but this is the head, this is the bent leg, there is a part, which is broken. It reflects the outlook and aesthetic views of the people of that time. They could have depicted some kind of gods or their fellow tribesmen, maybe their relatives. I mean, they had a very positive attitude to art,” said Anatoly Pleshakov, PhD candidate in history, archaeologist.
“It was boring at the beginning of the expedition, when we just started digging, because there were no finds on the land surface. Now we have already found the structure of the early Iron Age. I think we need to know our past, what our ancestors wore, what they used for hunting and so on, because this is our history,” said Dilnaz Kaiyrboldy, student.
In addition to archaeological excavations, students and scientists work together to reconstruct the cultural and historical events of the early Iron Age. They make clothes of the Saka era and create prototypes of dwellings. It is also planned to begin museumification of the Ak Iriy settlement. This work is planned for 2023. 57 million tenge (US$133,489) are planned to be allocated from the state budget for this purpose.
