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Female burial in the Kargaly Gorge, Kazakhstan. 2nd-1st century BCE

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The Kargaly “treasure” or rather the burial of a Wusun nobility was found by chance in 1939 to the west of Almaty, in a grotto on the Kargalinka River. In the burial were found over 300 gold jewelry pieces, among them a diadem, two rings with sculptural images of a two-humped camel, 10 plaques in the form of winged mountain goats tauteke, an earring depicting a wild boar that attacked a person, leaf-shaped plates, round plaques in the form of flower buds, flowers with four, seven, eight petals, etc. Ornaments of the Kargaly treasure are made of gold inlaid with turquoise.

The Kargaly treasure is a female burial, probably of a shaman, according to A. N. Bernstam. Sergey Yatsenko is of the same opinion. He believes that this is indicated by the presence of earrings, pair of camel-shaped rings, the noticeably more gold plaques than in other graves of the Wusun nobility.

For the researchers the most important find is an openwork diadem, made of gold inlaid with turquoise, carnelian and coral. (67 turquoise, 49 pink coral and 9 carnelian inserts have survived)
The total length of a diadem [two pieces] along the lower edge is 36.3 cm, width – 4.6 cm, thickness – 6 mm. The weight today is about 90 g.

Photo after Z. Samashev
https://esquire.kz/kargalinskaya-diadema/
After Vyacheslav G. Kotov
Part of a diadem with an image of a rider on a winged horned dragon
Photo source https://esquire.kz/kargalinskaya-diadema/
https://senat-perm.livejournal.com/1429092.html

For me the most interesting are two rings with sculptured figures of two-humped camels, made of gold with turquoise inserts.

One has a ring diameter 2.3 cm, a camel’s height 1.4 cm, L 2.5 cm, second one has a ring diam. 1.5 cm, a camel’s H 1.5 cm, L 2 cm. There is a big difference in the rings diameter, one for a pinky finger (child’s size), second was made in a men’s-like size.

[the Central State Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan]

Photo after “Atlas of CA”
Photo after Z. Samashev
An earring, gold and turquoise. A mouse biting a human [A. N. Bernstam]
Photo after Z. Samashev
  1. Golden Plate from Wusun Grave in Grotto of Kargaly Gorge / Золотая пластина из усуньского погребения в гроте ущелья Каргалы (Almaty, 2017) Sergey Yatsenko https://www.academia.edu
  2. Immortals in a foreign land: the Kargaly diadem, Katheryn Linduff https://www.academia.edu
  3. Atlas of Central Asia. Kazakhstan, Karl Baipakol, Rashid Kukashev, Taskent 2001
  4. Бернштам А.Н. [A. N. Bernstam] Золотая диадема из шаманского погребения на р. Карагалинке
  5. Искусство саков Казахстана // ЗОЛОТО ВЛАСТЕЛИНОВ КАЗАХСКИХ СТЕПЕЙ: СОВМЕСТНЫЙ КАТАЛОГ РЕСПУБЛИКИ КОРЕЯ И РЕСПУБЛИКИ КАЗАХСТАН. Астана-Сеул, 2018. С. 494-535.
    Galiya Bazarbayeva, Джумабекова Гульнара https://www.academia.edu
  6. Ежелгі өнер. Древнее искусство. The Ancient Art_2013 Zainolla Samashev https://www.academia.edu
  7. РЕЛИГИИ ЦЕНТРАЛЬНОЙ АЗИИ И АЗЕРБАЙДЖАНА, ТОМ I, ТРАДИЦИОННЫЕ ВЕРОВАНИЯ И ШАМАНИЗМ, Самарканд – 2016, ISBN 978-9943-357-31-0
  8. М.И. Артамонов, Сокровища саков. Аму-Дарьинский клад. Алтайские курганы. Минусинские бронзы. Сибирское золото. // М.: «Искусство». 1973
  9. Vyacheslav G. Kotov SACRED MEANING OF LONG JOURNEY FOR ETERNAL LIFE: SEMANTICS OF IMAGES ON THE KARGALY DIADEM, 2021
    [МИСТЕРИЯ ДАЛЬНЕГО ПУТЕШЕСТВИЯ ЗА ИСТОЧНИКОМ БЕССМЕРТИЯ: СЕМАНТИКА ИЗОБРАЖЕНИЙ НА КАРГАЛИНСКОЙ ДИАДЕМЕ, Вячеслав Георгиевич Котов]

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