The Taldy II Burial Ground of Tasmoly Culture in the Central Kazakhstan (Craniological Analysis)

The article is devoted to the craniological study of the individuals buried in the burial ground of tasmoly culture Taldy II in the Central Kazakhstan.According to the absolute and relative chronology, the barrows are dated to the 7-6 centuries BC.However, the radiocarbon dates received at Royal University of Belfast, Northern Ireland, Great Britain contradict this information.Big embankments of barrows, their structure and the unique findings were revealed as a result of the burial ground research.They include a number of monuments and anthropological data of the early sak nobility (4 skulls, including 3 male and 1 female).The comparative analysis of the craniological materials of the early Iron Age from the regions of Kazakhstan, Sayan-Altai, Tyva, Xinjiang is carried out.The archaeological materials are similar in the burial grounds of the Sak era on the wide territory from Aral Sea Region to Tyva.However, the anthropological data on individuals from the burial ground Taldy II allows distinguishing them within the wide background of comparative series with the greatest concentration of "east" signs not only from the population of tasmoly culture, but also from other series which were used in the analysis.The craniological series from the burial ground Taldy II can be considered as the special group which has been already created at the joint of the Evropeoid and Mongoloid components, with the specific features which are distinguished against the background of tasmoly archaeological culture.The list of signs of this series indicates the proximity to materials from Altai and, especially, from Xinjiang.Purposeful comparison of series from the Central Kazakhstan with craniological materials of the neighboring territories was never carried out before, that is why the research in this direction have to be continued for receiving complete results of tasmoly culture as a whole.