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Taksai kurgans

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Taksai kurgans
Taksai-1 Golden Lady and artifacts.
-500 SAKAS Tasmola Kulay Goro- khovo Itkul Sargat Ananyino culture Massagetae Sauro- matians Mumun Dian culture SABEANS Ordos culture Sha- jing Pazyryk Tagar Chandman Aldy-Bel YUEZHI Subeshi ACHAEMENID EMPIRE MAHA- JANAPADAS ZHOU DYNASTY Slab-grave culture DONGHU MEROË Scythians class=notpageimage| Location of the Taksai kurgans () and contemporary cultures circa 500 BCE

Saka kurgans[1]
Salbyk Arzhan Pazyryk Issyk Boralday Taksai Eleke Sazy Tasmola Ingala Tillya Tepe
Arzhan-1 c. 800 BCE Shilikty c. 700 BCE Arzhan-2 c. 650 BCE Bes Shatyr c. 550 BCE Taksai c. 500 BCE Ingala c. 500 BCE Tasmola 7th-5th centuries BCE Boralday c. 600-400 BCE Salbyk c. 600-400 BCE Eleke Sazy c. 600-400 BCE Berel-1 c. 350 BCE Pazyryk-1,2 c. 300 BCE Berel-11 c. 300 BCE Issyk c. 400-200 BCE Tillya Tepe 1st century BCE
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The Taksai kurgans (more precisely Taksai-1, Ru: Таксайский курган) are a series of Saka^[2][3]orSauromatian^[4][5][6] funeral mounds or kurgans, located in the Terekti District of the southern Urals, in northwestern Kazakhstan.^[7] They are dated to circa 500 BCE.^[7] The Kurgan was undisturbed and had provided numerous valuable artifacts.^[7][8] The Taksai-1 kurgan was the tomb of a rich Saka lady, dubbed the "golden lady".^[7] Some of her objects reflect the iconography of the Achaemenid Empire, which must have been in contact with these nomadic tribes.^[7]

The nomadic people of the southern Ural are traditionally identified as Sauromatians, but the people of the Taksai kurgan seem to be issued from the immigration of a new wave of nomads to the region around the 6th century BCE, who were caracterized by this type of kurgans, and may represent the immigration of Asian nomads to the Urals, possibly prompted by the conflicts with the Achaemenid Empire.^[4]

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  Taksai plan of barrow no. 6, burial ground Taksay-1; 2 – central pit covered by logs;3 – grave no. 3.
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  Taksai-1, barrow 6 artifacts
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  Taksai-1 Barrow 6 lady (reconstruction)
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  Pendant, Taksai I kurgan 6, 6-5th century BCE.^[9]
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  Gold appliqués in the form of a ram’s head, Barrow 6 of Taksai I, Kazakhstan
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  Decoration of the tip of the hat. Taksai I, kurgan 6, 5th–4th century BCE. H. 46.0 cm. National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan
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  Small sewed-on plaque in the form of a swastika, formed from four heads of griffins. Taksai I, mound 6
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  Taksai artifacts

See also[edit]

• Filippovka kurgans, about 100 km to the east
• Araltobe kurgan

Sources[edit]

• Summerer, Lâtife (1 January 2020). "The wooden comb of the 'golden lady': a new battle image from the Taksai-1 kurgan (western Kazakhstan)". Masters of the Steppe: The Impact of the Scythians and Later Nomad Societies of Eurasia.
• Altynbekov, Krym (2013). ВОЗРОЖДЕННАЯ ИЗ ПЕПЛА. Реконструкция по материалам погребения жрицы из комплекса Таксай I. Алматы-Уральск, 2013 / REVIVED FROM THE ASHES. Reconstruction on material of priestess burial from Taksay I complex. Almaty-Uralsk.

References[edit]