THE STUDY OF ANCIENT TURKIC FUNERARY AND MEMORIALMONUMENTS AT THE PRESENT STAGE: MAIN RESULTS AND CONCEPTS OFKAZAKH SCIENCE

Аннотация

The article is devoted to the challenges of studying burial and memorial monuments in Kazakhstan during the period of independence. During this time, modern Kazakh researchers have made notable progress in the study of kurgan burial grounds and cultic sites of Turkic-speaking tribes from the 6th to the 11th centuries AD. Although the territory of the country has been unevenly explored in this regard, excavations of monuments from this period have been carried out in practically all regions, with significant results achieved in the Eastern, Central Kazakhstan, and Zhetysu regions. I these regions of modern Kazakhstan burials with accompanying horse burials in podboi graves were discovered, as well as burials in common ground pits, along with memorial objects that have close analogies in the ancient Turkic cultural sphere of the 6th-8th centuries AD in neighboring regions such as Altai, Mongolia, and Tian Shan.
Additionally, grand cultic sites like the sanctuaries of Merke and Zhaisan were discovered and studied in the Zhetysu region, which have no parallels not only in Kazakhstan but also in all CentralAsia. These sites include numerous ritual stone square layouts, burials, cultic stone mounds, tamgas, and individual runic inscriptions. These sanctuaries can be attributed to the period of the Western Turkic and Turgesh Khaganates, which were there in the 7th-8th centuries AD.