Osteological Materials of the Ancient City of Ak-Iriy Have Been Studied
09 Dec 2024
The head of the Zooarchaeology Laboratory at the A.Kh. Margulan Institute of Archaeology, M.S. Shagirbayev, conducted zooarchaeological research on the osteological collection of the ancient city of Ak-Iriy, stored in the funds of the North Kazakhstan Regional Museum of History and Local Lore in Petropavlovsk, from December 2 to December 7. The research was carried out as part of project BR18574223, "Northern Kazakhstan in the Context of Cultural and Historical Processes: From the Stone Age to Modern Ethnography."
The osteological material was collected under the supervision of Candidate of Historical Sciences, archaeologist A.A. Pleshakov, during archaeological studies conducted between 2008 and 2024.
Morphological analysis of the bones identified the remains of a horse, large cattle, a boar, an elk, and a dog that had been sacrificed. Additionally, a collection of fragmented bones identified as "food waste" was examined.
As part of the study, Mambet Shagirbayev delivered a lecture titled "Zooarchaeological Research and the Skeleton of a Horse Found in Ak-Iriy" to students of the Faculty of History, Economics, and Law at Kozybayev University.
Acknowledgments
We express our gratitude to Candidate of Historical Sciences, archaeologist A.A. Pleshakov, for providing the opportunity to work with the osteological collection from the museum's fund. We also thank the Director of the North Kazakhstan Regional Museum of History and Local Lore, G.M. Mukusheva, for organizing access to the museum's fund, and the head of the museum's archaeology department, R.A. Popovich, for their assistance in conducting the work.
Special thanks go to the laboratory assistant of the North Kazakhstan branch of the A.Kh. Margulan Institute of Archaeology and third-year student of the Faculty of History, Economics, and Law at North Kazakhstan University, A.K. Syzdykova, as well as the university's students S.U. Atantai (1st year) and M.T. Sarsenbai (2nd year), who participated in the laboratory processing and morphological analysis of the osteological material.