The favorable position of the Southern Urals in Eurasia contributed to the formation of an original and vibrant culture here in the first millennium BC, about which researchers have an ambiguous idea. Some, following B. N. Grakov [1947], believe that from the sixth to the beginning of the fourth century BC there was a Sauromatic (Blumenfeld) culture, which was replaced by the Early Sarmatian (Prokhorov) culture in the fourth and second centuries BC (Smirnov, 1964; 1975; Moshkova, 1974; etc.). There is talk of a single Prokhorov culture from the sixth to the first centuries BC [Pshenichnyuk, 1983; 1995, pp. 95-96; Tairov and Gavrilyuk, 1988, p. 151; Tairov, 1998; Gutsalov, 2004; et al.].

Currently, the region is undergoing field archaeological research related to the study of the culture of the ancient Nomads*. Preliminary publication of the excavation materials has already taken place in a number of publications in the Republic of Kazakhstan (Sdykov, Gutsalov, Bisembayev, 2003; et al.).

The monuments are located on the left bank of the Ural River (Fig. 1). The Yesenamantau burial ground (Lebedevka II) is located on the plateau of the same name, 7 km west-southwest of Lebedevka and 9 km north of Lebedevka. Egendykol** consisted of 37 archaeological sites.-

Fig. 1. Location of the considered monuments. 1-Lebedevka II, III; 2-Kyryk-Oba II; 3 - Ilekshar I.

* The author is grateful to the Director of the Center for History and Archeology of the West Kazakhstan region M. N. Sdykov for the organizational support of the excavations and to the head of the team A. A. Bisembayev for the kind opportunity to publish these materials.

** Archaeological research in the Segizsai tract began in the late 60s of the XX century by the local historian G. I. Bagrikov. Studies at the Lebedevka burial ground of the First Archaeological Expedition of the Ural State Pedagogical Institute named after A. S. Pushkin (USHI) and the Institute of Archeology of the A. N. USSR under the leadership of G. A. Kushaev and M. G. Moshkova confirmed the prospects of archaeological research in this area [Moshkova and Kushaev, 1973]. In the second half of the 70s and early 80s of the XX century, excavations of mounds on this plateau were carried out by the UGPI archaeological expedition led by M. G. Moshkova, B. F. Zhelezchikov and V. A. Krieger.

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2. Plan of the Esen-Amantau burial ground (Lebedevka II). a - c-excavated mounds: a-G. I. Bagrikov, b-B. F. Zhelezchikov, c-West Kazakhstan integrated archaeological expedition in 2002.

3. Finds from the Esen-Amantau plateau. 1-bronze mirror; 2,4-earrings; 3-stopper from the vessel; 5,6-beads; 7,8-patch plaques; 9-vtok. 2, 4, 6-8-gold; 3-gold and glass; 5-amber; 9-bone. 1-3, 5-8-Lebedevka II, mound 6; 4-Lebedevka II, mound 9; 9-Lebedevka III, mound 1.

4. View of mound 6 of the Esen-Amantau burial ground (Lebedevka II) from the west. Photo by S. M. Arkanov.

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5. Stratigraphic profiles. Esen-Amantau burial ground (Lebedevka II), mound 6. 1-humus; 2-loam; 3-humusized loam (vykid); 4-soil cushion; 5-clay blocks; 6-collapse of clay blocks; 7-buried soil; 8-humus filling of the ditch; 9-mainland; 10 - a layer of continental clay; 11 - ruins of the structure; 12-the oldest mound; 13-the borders of the oldest ditch.

2). According to the size and complexity of burial structures and the richness of inventory, mounds with a diameter of 25-40 m and a height of 1.5 - 2.5 m are distinguished. Looted mounds predominate among them. It is worth noting that in mound 9 to the south of the grave, a bridled horse was buried with its head to the north, and a gold temporal earring with rhombic pendants was found among the burial equipment (Fig. 3,4).

Detailed features of the funeral rite were traced during the study of the largest mound 6*, which occupied a central place in the group. The embankment was a hemispherical shape with a diameter of 30 m and a height of 2.25 m (Figs. 4, 5).

The burial structure is being reconstructed as a two - chamber crypt of square shape; the outer chamber is 22 x 24 m, the inner chamber is 17 x 17 m. The outer walls ran along the edge of the burial ground.-

*The author is grateful to S. G. Botalov, a researcher at the South Ural Branch of the Institute of History and Archeology of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, for leading the excavation of this mound.

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the inner ones are located at the edge of the grave pit. Mud walls were built directly on a wooden platform, and the inner ones were made of blocks of medium and small sizes. The crypt was surrounded by a wall up to 0.6 m high, on which massive blocks were placed from above, alternating with thin layers of yellow clay. The shaft width is 1-4 m (fig. 6).

In the center was a log roll that overlapped the grave pit along the line of north-north-west-south-south-east; across the logs that rested on the central beam was an outline of branches. The grave had a rectangular shape with a meridian orientation measuring 4.5 x 6.5 m. At the top, it was filled with caked pieces of chalk (collapsed walls). From the level of the buried soil to the bottom, the remains of a wooden structure were recorded. The pit with a depth of 3.8 m from the level of the buried soil on the bottom had dimensions of 4.2 x 4.6 m. In the center, on organic bedding, lay the skeleton of a man buried on his back with his head to the west and a deviation to the south, with arms extended along the body, legs possibly bent at the knees (Fig. 7, I), covered with reeds. Bones of several cattle and a sheep skeleton were found in the north-eastern corner of the grave, while cattle ribs and an iron knife were found to the south.

Fig. 6. Plan of the excavation and underburden structure. Yesen-Amantau burial ground (Lebedevka II), mound 6.

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7. Burial plan (I) and inventory (II). Esen-Amantau burial ground (Lebedevka II), mound 6. 1 - iron knife; 2 - clay vessel; 3 - spinning wheel; 4 - touchstone; 5 - iron knife (?); 6-gold bead; 7-glass vessel; 8-beads; 9-gold plaques; 10-green paste bead; 11-forging of a wooden object; 12-bronze mirror; 73-bead; 14 - glass cup covered with varnish; 75-mineral substance; 16-iron granules; 17-ritual stones; 18-Griphea shell with ochre inside, a-touchstone, b-clay spinning wheel; c - a clay vessel.

Near the skull of the buried person there was a cone-shaped cluster of gold plaques and beads of various colors and shapes (remnants of a headdress) (see Figs. 3, 7, 8); on the sides-two massive gold pendants (see Figs. 3, 2); to the northwest of it - a bronze mirror with a handle decorated with 3, 7); in the neck area - glass beads and gold plaques of a round shape; in the chest area-nine gold pear-shaped beads (see Figs. 3, 5, 6); near the foot bones - a scattering of beads. Pieces of red paint were found around the skull. To the right of it was

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Figure 8. Household items, jewelry, and ritual items. 1-distribution plate with the image of a scene of tormenting a hoofed animal by predators; 2-ritual objects: clay bottle and casket, stone mortar; 3-glass vessels; 4-gold jewelry: temporal pendants and hryvnia. 1-Ilekshar I burial ground, mound 1; 2, 4-Kyryk-Oba II burial ground, mound 23; 3-Lebedevka II burial ground, mound 6.

a vessel made of dark blue glass, decorated with alternating white and brown wavy lines (Fig. 8, 3). Another glass vessel (Fig.8, 3) lay to the left of the pelvis. Its mouth was covered with a gold stopper on a gold chain with a blue bead at the end (see Figs. 3, 3). Pieces of dark paint with mother-of-pearl inclusions were found nearby. Against the tibia were oval pebbles, Griphaea shells, one of which was filled with red paint. At the feet of the buried person was a stucco ritual vessel of biconic shape (see Fig. 7, II, c). On the right, at the level of the chest - a touchstone (see Fig. 7, II, a), a clay spinning wheel of biconic shape (see Fig. 7, II, b) and an iron object (knife?).

The Kyryk-Oba II necropolis stretches along the west-east line for a distance of up to 3 km on a vast plain 10 km south of the Ural riverbed, 5 km north of the" royal " burial ground Kyryk-Oba. It consisted of 30 earthen mounds, most of which were damaged during modern economic operations (Figure 9). 11 objects were excavated and 4 more were re-examined, which were opened in previous years by an archaeological expedition of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The diameter of the mounds is 30-42 m, the height is 1.0 - 2.5 m. All of them were looted - in the graves there were scattered bones of human skeletons and a few objects: fragments of iron swords, stucco vessels, gold and silver shackles of wooden vessels, etc. But in the preserved peripheral burials, numerous inventory is presented.

Due to the impact of fire on the burial structures immediately after the ritual ceremonies, the mud bricks were baked, so it was possible to establish that clay crypts of various shapes were built over the graves with dimensions around the perimeter of approx. 10 x 10 m. Walls with a width of 1 m, preserved to a height of 1.5 m, were laid out in four bricks. Typical features of the burial rite also include: clay ramparts around mounds (Figs. 10, 11); single burials of bridled horses laid with their heads to the north, south of the graves; hoards of bridles under the western hollow; remains of trizn (bones of horses, large (mainly shoulder blades and pelvic) and small cattle, fragments of blood vessels) on the periphery of mounds.

Features of the burial ground are as follows: 1) ground wooden structures of both tent and log type;

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Figure 9. Plan of the Kyryk-Oba burial ground. a - d-excavated mounds: a-in 2002, b-in 2003, e-in 2004, d-in 2005.

2) in some pits, the remains of supporting wooden pillars have been preserved;

3) the graves are square, wide rectangular with dromos to the south (Figs. 10, 11), and round;

4) collective burial on the ancient surface (mound 18) with burials of guards in graves equidistant from the center* and a children's burial on the eastern periphery;

5) sacrifice on the top of mound 18: at a depth of 0.5 m, the skulls and individual bones of four people were compactly located;

6) original bridles, individual items in almost every set have no analogues in the Scythian antiquities of Eurasia (figs. 12, 13);

7) a rich set of ritual objects (see Fig. 8,2) together with gold ornaments (see Fig. 8,4) from mound 23;

8) ritual complexes in mound 18: a) in the southern moat - a stucco pot with hundreds of ritual pebbles, covered with a horse bone on top and surrounded by cattle bones, a horse's skull and shoulder blades; b) under the southern hollow in a shallow pit-three sets of bridles, including six bronze psalms, eight round plaques, a large plaque in the form of a coiled predator of the feline family with a wolf's face, six slaps with the image of a wolf and a bird of prey (see Fig. 12, I);

9) the entrance to the grave of Mound 12 was blocked by the burial of a giant dog (Dzhubanov, 2004).

In addition, a so-called sanctuary was excavated at the burial ground (Kurmankulov, Ishangali, Raimkulov, 2002).

The Ilekshar I mound necropolis is located on the second river terrace near the floodplain of the Ilek river, 1.5 km east of the village of Ulguli. It consisted of 16 mounds stretched along the riverbed along a 420 m long chain (Fig. 14).

Mound 1 is hemispherical in shape, 5 m high, 48 m in diameter - the largest in the group. At its top is a funnel with a diameter of up to 25 m and a depth of more than 1 m. Around the mounds with a diameter of 12 m and a depth of up to 1 m. The grave crypt had a square shape in plan, measuring approximately 36 x 36 m; on the buried soil there was a flooring of thin blocks with a width of approx. 15 cm. Judging by the lower thickness of the collapse of adobe blocks in the southern part of the central brow, there was presumably a passage to the grave pit (Fig. 15).

* The outflow from these graves was located above the rampart bordering the burial area.

** A second investigation revealed that Mound 8 contained two anthropomorphic stone images that were ignored during the 2001 excavations.

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Fig. 10. Plan of the excavation and underburden structure. Burial ground Kyryk-Oba II, mound 16.

The main border 4 was identified in the center of the mound. The pit (8,2 x 8,3 m), which had the form of a five-step pyramid with its top facing down, with ledges at the corners, was oriented by the sides in the cardinal directions with a deviation of 30°. The width of the steps is 20-40 cm, the height is 15-25 cm. The depth of the pit is 1.5 m from the level of the buried soil. Human bones and tools lay in disarray at the bottom: bronze arrowheads, iron carapace plates, fragments of a stucco vessel, and bones of small cattle (MSS). Outside the grave, the skeletons of two horses were located near the southern wall, buried with their heads facing north (Fig. Iron bits and bronze psalms were found between the jaws of both of them,

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Fig. 11. Plan of the excavation and underburden structure, stratigraphic profiles. Burial ground Kyryk-Oba II, mound 19.

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12. Bronze bridle sets. I - mound 18; II-mound 16; III-mound 12.

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13. Bridle sets. Kyryk-Oba II burial ground, Kurgan. 15. 1 - 5, 7 - 9, 12 - 16, 19 - 21 - bronze, 6, 10, 11, 17, 18 - iron and bronze.

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14. Situational plan of the Ilekshar I burial ground. a-c-excavated mounds: a-in 2001, b-in 2003, e-in 2004.

nearby are bronze and iron cornices (Fig. 15, II). Bronze distribution plates made in the animal style were found under the ribs (see Figs. 8, 1).

In mound 5 with a height of 1.25 m and a diameter of 31 m, large clay blocks up to 20 x 30 cm in size, separated by layers of humus, and a clay shaft on the periphery were found under the humus in a layer of dense white loam (Fig. 16, II). In addition, the remains of a Bronze Age burial structure destroyed in the Scythian period are noted.

Later, the structure shifted to the south-west of the conventional center, was a rectangular log house measuring 5 x 7 m, oriented along the line west-south-west-east-north-east, overlain by a coasting (Fig. 16, I). It was based on pillars located 1 m apart on the burial site: paired round pits (18 pieces) with a diameter of 20-25 cm, deepened into the mainland by 10-15 cm were recorded. The site was covered with a layer (up to 5 cm) of bark. In 1-3 m from its edge there was a clay shaft with a width of 2 - 6 m, a height of 0.25 - 0.35 m with a gap in the southern part up to 10 m.

A set of horse bridles (bronze psalms, iron bits, and seven bronze fillets) is associated with this design (Figs. 16, III, 2, 3). Nearby were found the tubular bones of a horse, the upper jaw of a wild boar (?), the lower jaw of a horse, the bones of MRS (vertebrae, ribs, tubular), and the tubular bone of cattle.

Four burials were discovered. Moreover, pogr. 1, 2 and 4 were made on the described site, and the oldest pogr. 3 was located to the east of the others, and it was blocked by a clay rampart of later construction*.

Burial 1 was on an ancient surface in the northeast corner of the site. The human skeleton was lying on a bed of birch bark in an elongated position with a roll to the right side, the skull to the east-southeast. To the south-east of the skull, a bronze mirror with a wide disk and a handle with a mushroom-shaped tip was found (Figs. 16, III, 4), under it - a Griphaea shell with traces of ochre. Beads (15 pieces) were found in the neck area. At the feet of the buried person was a stone altar on three round legs with a carved ornament on the border (Fig. 16, III, 7), next to two bronze arrowheads.

Burial 2 was found in the western half of the mound at the level of the buried soil. The human skeleton was lying on a bed of bark in an elongated position, with the head turned to the right side and the skull to the southwest.

Burial 4 was performed in a log cabin. A rectangular burial pit measuring 2.4 x 3.45 m, oriented along the west-east line, was covered with wooden blocks (birch and poplar) in the transverse direction. The depth of the grave is 24 cm from the level of the buried soil. There were embers in the filling. In the center of the pit, at the western wall and

* Due to the fact that border 3 belongs to the Bronze Age, it is not described.

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15. Mound 1 of the Ilekshar I burial ground. I - plan of excavation and underburden construction; II-bridle set: 1, 3, 5-7-bronze, 2-bronze and iron; III - plan of horse burial; IV-stratigraphic profiles.

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16. Mound 5 of the Ilekshar I burial ground. I - plan of the excavation and underburden structure: a-wooden blocks; b-bark; c-border of the wooden structure; d - border of the clay shaft; II-stratigraphic profiles; III-inventory: 1-border 1; 2, 3, 4-embankment.

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A skull and other human bones were found near the north-eastern corner; fragments of an iron sword were found on the buried soil near the northern wall.

These burials belong to the first half of the fifth century BC, as indicated by the rite and inventory. (Since the end of the VI - V century BC, iron swords with bar-shaped pommels and butterfly-shaped crosshairs, flat-bottomed stucco pots with tubular spouts [Smirnov, 1961; Gutsalov, 2004], horse bridles [Smirnov, 1961], and other clothing materials (glass beads, gold pendants, etc.) have been widely used in the Ural steppes. patch plaques, etc.) [Smirnov, 1964].)

The burial mounds are generally uniform in their funerary rite: in the center of the site there was a grave pit, covered with a powerful wooden structure supported on a shaft of gravel and white or yellow clay, poured on the ancient surface. At the edge of the grave and at the top of the clay rampart, the remains of raw brick or adobe walls are traced. They were fixed on the brows in the form of layers, creating the illusion of an embankment. Most of the bricks fell inside the burial structure, which suggests that there was some kind of overlap, perhaps a clay vault, under the weight of which the walls collapsed to the center. In particular, a similar form of funerary construction can be assumed in the burial mounds of the Lebedevka burial ground. In Kyryk-Oba, probably, the clay vault was absent, since there are traces of wooden tents resting on a pole installed in the center of the pit. In mound 19 of this burial ground, the upper level of filling of the grave consisted of sterile yellow sand, so it can be assumed that the pit was filled with alluvial sandy soil for a long time.

In the literature, the terms "mound" and "mound"are generally accepted to refer to a ground burial object. Although M. P. Gryaznoye still believed that the mounds are only the remains of structures, the original appearance of which was strikingly different from their modern appearance, and behind a typical mound there are qualitatively heterogeneous structures that were destroyed as a result of climatic and tectonic processes [1961, p.22-25]. It is characteristic that on the Saka burial ground Beshatyr in Semirechye, burials were performed in wooden log cabins (Akishev and Kushaev, 1963). The considered objects are structures made of clay bricks. At the same time, they show similarities with the mud mausoleums of the Aral Sea region of the Saka era (Itina and Yablonsky, 1997). It is significant that in three necropolises, hundreds of kilometers apart from each other, simultaneous burials were carried out in earthen crypts and no traces of mound were recorded in them.

Wooden funerary structures at the Kyryk-Oba II burial ground were burned after the funeral rituals were performed, some time later. Thus, the remains of powerful bonfires were recorded in mounds 15-19. As a result of thermal exposure, the walls of the crypts lost their strength and fell apart. At the same time, the grave pits were covered with the ruins of earthworks. Almost all the bones of those buried in the excavated mounds were not exposed to fire. This would not have been possible if the bonfire had been lit during the burial ceremony.

The historical and cultural specifics of the Kyryk-Oba II necropolis were revealed in the variability of the funeral rite and horse bridle. M. P. Gryaznov explained a similar situation in the mound of Arzhan by the fact that the bridle sets found there belonged to representatives of different tribes buried together with the "tsar" [1980, p.49-50]. Perhaps, representatives of the tribal nobility, brought from afar to their resting place at the graves of the South Ural lords, are also buried at the Kyryk-Oba II burial ground. A similar attitude to the graves of "saints" is still observed among nomads. So, in Western Kazakhstan, the mausoleum of the XIV-XV centuries. Abat-Baitak is currently surrounded by modern burials of representatives of various Kazakh clans and tribes.

If there are common features in the funeral rite, the studied burial grounds differ from each other in a number of ways, as was shown above. There was also a significant difference in the rite of "poor" and "rich" burials. In addition to the difference in the size of burial mounds and graves, many elements typical, on the one hand, of the aristocracy, and on the other, of the ordinary population, were revealed. Signs of elite burials include: powerful wooden tombstones, human sacrifices, burials in mounds of horses, burials at the level of the ancient horizon, two-chamber crypts, collective burials with orthogonal orientation of the dead. At the same time, guards or soldiers were more often oriented with their heads to the south (Tairov and Gavrilyuk, 1988, p.151). The graves of the nobility are characterized by a large amount of inventory, including prestigious ones. Burials of ordinary pastoralists are distinguished by the simplicity of grave structures, small size of graves, Western orientation of the deceased, etc.

The search for analogs led us to remote regions. Thus, the Lebedevka mounds are close to the monuments of the Sauromatian culture of the Lower Volga region of the VI-IV centuries BC, which are characterized by rolling stones as wooden barrow structures, simple grave pits, and a western orientation of burial sites.-

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Ochir-Goryaeva, 1987]. Parallels with the Sauromatian (Blumenfeld) culture are also found in the inventory. For example, in mound 1 of the Lebedevka III burial ground, a bone fragment was found (see Figures 3, 9), which is most similar to a similar object from the Blumenfeld burial ground (Smirnov, 1989, Tables 66, 12).

The Kyryk-Oba mounds are similar in a number of features (pillar structures, traces of fire, collective burials on buried soil) to the Early Saka monuments of the Aral Sea region (Vishnevskaya, 1973). By the way, an analog of the ceremonial sword found in the burial of mound 18 is found in the materials of the Tagisken burial ground (Itina and Yablonsky, 1997, Fig. 44, 5, 6).

The Scythian direction of relations was manifested in Kyryk-Oba and Lebedevka. In the first case, the southern orientation of skeletons, dromos graves*, and horse cheek pads, which are widely used in Scythia (Ilinskaya, 1968), serve as ethno - cultural markers; in the second case, the Scythian cultural "indicators" are a bronze mirror with zoomorphic handle decoration, gold pendants, and plaques in the form of deer heads.

It is impossible to explain the ethno-cultural mosaic by mutual influence due to the fact that in the previous time in the Southern Urals, the population was virtually absent and the culture was formed as a result of the merger of several ethno-cultural components. At the time under review, there were three large massifs in the region: "Scythian", "Massaget" and "Sauromatian". The materials of these excavations indicate that the main features of the Prokhorov culture * * appear in the mounds of the military-priestly nomadic elite (and in close connection with each other) already at the turn of the VI-V centuries BC. Archaeological data are confirmed in the anthropological material. Thus, R. M. Yusupov made an important conclusion about the lack of continuity between the nomads of the Southern Urals of the Sauromatic period and the population of the previous epoch and pointed out the presence of a Saka component among the nomads of the region under study [1991, p.4-5; 1993, p. 127]. This point of view is shared by L. T. Yablonsky. He drew attention, first, to the anthropological heterogeneity, and secondly, to the special social status of the population of the VI-V centuries BC. who left the Pokrovka-2 burial ground, which has features typical of burials of the population of Kazakhstan and Central Asia [2000].

The considered monuments are located at a considerable distance from these regions, surrounded by other ethno-cultural massifs. Thus, a fairly strong Aral Sea influence on the territory of the Ural left bank is observed in the mounds near the lake. At the same time, the materials of the Alabastrovo (Zhelezchikov, 1998), Uvak, and Tanabergen burial sites (middle course of the Ilek) show parallels with the Sauromat (Blumenfeld) culture of the Lower Volga region, and the materials of the upper reaches of the Ilek (Besoba, Syntas) (Kadyrbaev, 1984)and Ori (Novokumaksky, Novoorsky, and Urkach) sites [Smirnov, 1977] - Central Asian analogues. Thus, the ethno-cultural map of the Southern Urals at the end of the VI-V centuries BC was a mosaic, which can be attributed to the process of conquest and development of new lands by nomads. An example of this kind is the ulus system of Genghis Khan, as a result of which the old tribes were split up and new ethnopolitical unions were formed.

It should be borne in mind that during migrations, the nature of cultural development is influenced by various factors. Breaking old ties and establishing new ones, breaking out of the old system of relations, changing the natural and social environment, weakening old norms and authorities-all this gave rise to a sharp restructuring of the alien culture. In addition, the composition of migrants and the culture they carry is usually not identical to that of their homeland: 1) very often it is not the whole society that migrates, but a group that represents not a proportional cross-section of all its strata, but a single segment (for example, young male warriors); 2) the initial foci of the components of the culture of the alien population often appear in different places - its roots diverge in different directions (Klein, 1973).

A similar situation may have developed in the Southern Urals by the middle of the sixth century B.C. Burials with stable rites and equipment typical of Early Scythian monuments in Eastern Europe belong to this time. The appearance of such burials by the middle of the sixth century BC on the Ileka River, as well as in the Trans-Urals, can be attributed to the return of the Scythians from Near Asia and their re-development of the Eurasian steppes. There are the following justifications for this:

* Elements inherent in the burials of the Posul military elite of the first half of the VI century BC in forest-steppe Ukraine (Ilinskaya, 1968).

** M. G. Moshkova's examples include: the meridional orientation of graves, the orientation of those buried with the head to the south, rectangular graves, bottom-lined graves with "shoulders", and the sprinkling of the bottom with chalk or white clay [1974, p. 11].

*** Tselinny I burial ground, mound 59 (Gutsalov, 1998), Pokrovka-2, mound 19, border 1 (Yablonsky et al., 1994).

**** Barrows of Ivanovo (Pshenichnyuk, 1983) and Bolshoy Klimovsky (Tairov, 1987).

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1) these mounds are characterized by the features of funerary architecture and ritual of pastoralists of the forest-steppe Ukraine and the foothills of the North Caucasus, namely, pillar structures erected over dromos and catacomb graves, and the southern orientation of the buried;

2) since the end of the VI century BC, objects of material culture derived from Scythian ones have been widely used. These are mainly items of weapons and horse bridles. Bronze bell-shaped arrowheads typical of burials in the forest-steppe Dnieper region and the North Caucasus of the 7th-6th centuries BC are represented in the early complexes of the studied region not by single specimens, but by dozens (Gutsalov, 1998). Some of them, apparently, appeared as a result of contacts with Scythians (as well as swords and daggers) [Gutsalov, 2004]. The Scythian origins of the bridle (Smirnov, 1961, p. 77) are emphasized by horse headbands and cheek pads in the mounds of the military nobility from the middle of the VI century BC.;

3) the presence of Scythians is confirmed by the spread of stone anthropomorphic images in the Southern Urals since the sixth century BC. The sculptures discovered in the region over the past decade have the closest analogs among Scythian stone sculpture (Gutsalov and Tairov, 2000). The rite of burial of statues is recorded (Gutsalov and Botalov, 1999), which has parallels in the burial practice of the Scythians of Ukraine.

Probably, the core of the nomadic union represented in the archaeological materials by the Prokhorov culture was the Scythians, who first invaded the Southern Urals and ideologically dominated the new association. In addition, we must not forget about their significant military potential - they themselves represented a formidable force, but even more impressive associations of related tribes were located in the Northern Black Sea region.

A clear manifestation of Saka cultural parallels in the mounds of the Southern Urals at the turn of the VI-V centuries BC suggests that at the end of the VI century BC, a large group of nomads of the Aral Sea region was incorporated into the South Ural union. Their appearance here should be considered as a result of the wars of Cyrus II and Darius I with the "Massagetae of Herodotus" ("saka-tigrahuda" of ancient Persian inscriptions). [Pyankov, 1964, 1975] at the end of the VI century BC [Tairov, 1999]. The elitist nature of the mounds, which trace the Aral Sea parallels, suggests that the Massagetae, along with the Scythians, formed the elite of the tribal union.

Tombs of prominent representatives of the nomadic society of the entire region were built around the "royal" necropolis of Kyryk-Oba. The functioning of these ancient cemeteries ceased at the end of the 5th century BC. The materials of the considered mounds show a tendency to form the Prokhorov culture of the Southern Urals at the first stage, when its fundamental features were inherent in the nomadic nobility.

List of literature

Akishev K. A., Kushaev G. A. Drevnyaya kul'tura sakov i usunei doliny r. Ili [Ancient culture of the Saks and Usuns of the Ili River Valley]. SSR 1963. - 320 p.

Vishnevskaya O. A. Kul'tura sakskikh plemen nizov'ev Syr-Darya v VII-V vv. B.C. (po materialam Uigaraka) [Culture of the Saka tribes of the lower reaches of the Syr-Darya River in the VII-V centuries BC (based on Uigarak materials)]. - 1973. - Vol. 8. - 160 p.

Grakov B. N. Survivals of the Sarmatian matriarchy. - 1947. - N3. - p. 100-121.

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The article was submitted to the Editorial Board on 26.12.05.

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