Architecture of stone structures of the Bronze Age in the vicinity of Burabay

The article deals with the materials of the study of ancient religious buildings of the Bronze Age at the Kyzyltobe burial ground. The architecture of buildings, the funeral rite, and the accompanying inventory are described, the technological methods used in the extraction of materials used in construction are considered. As a result of the work carried out, four fences were excavated at the burial ground: No. 9, 13, 29, 50. The burial, located in enclosure No. 9, was made in a dirt pit with a dromos designed in the form of a tambour, which obliquely enters the eastern wall of the grave pit under the stone ring of the tomb enclosure. The ashes of a cremated person were located on a flat wooden dish, located in a stone box in fence No. 13. Inside enclosure No. 29, two burials were found, made according to the rite of inhumation: an adult — in the main enclosure, a children's — in an extension. In enclosure number 50, a monumental stone box without a burial was fixed and examined, in the center of which a granite stone lay at the bottom. The box is covered with large slabs, in the center of which there is a round opening. A petroglyph of a deer was found on one of the side walls of the box. Soil burial pits, stone cists, burials according to the rite of cremation and accompanying inventory in the form of ornamented ceramic vessels, located in fenced areas, studied at the Kyzyltobe burial ground, find analogies in the burial grounds of Borovoye, Buyrekkol and Obali. These monuments are located in the vicinity of Burabay and belong to the Fedorov archaeological culture. The new fixed elements of the burial structures are the dromos and the stone box with an opening in the ceiling. The image of a deer on the wall of the box is a remarkable fact in itself; the image of a deer is one of the motifs of animal-style art. Perhaps this is an echo of totemism. According to radiocarbon analysis of bone material from fence No. 29, the Kyzyltobe burial site dates back to the 18th–17th centuries BC.