Bronze Age Kazakhstan – World Countries for Kids

Archaeologists have recognised more than 100 Bronze Age sites dated to as early as second century B.C. Bronze age people of Kazakhstan practiced mining, the production of bronze wares and nomadic animal husbandry. The sites bared foundries where metals were fused and utilized to make tools, weapons and ornaments.

According to the government of Kazakhstan: At the start of the 1980s some remnants of Prototown civilization were discovered in the steppe zone. Archaeologists who studied the Sintash and Arkaim excavations came across settlements with rounded or rectangular building enclosed by walls made from a special mixture of gypsum and clay blocks. The walls had the parapets, labyrinthine entrance, towers, ditches and external fortifications. Presence of dwellings for common population and nobles as well as working places and a central square space, possibly employed for meetings or ritual celebrations. These Protowns, or settlements, had a scheme of streets and a means for water collection. Dwellings were two-storied and ranged from 150 to 300 square meters.

Weapons, tools, bronze ornaments in considerable amount were found. Temple complexes were also discovered along with small stones in the shape of men. Clay “tablets” with dissimilar signs were found. The residents of the Prototown were farmers and cattle herders. There is proof of the production, melting and processing of bronze and copper.

A “Prototown” younger than the one in Arkaim was unearthed in Mangistau in Toksanbay. A Late Bronze Age site is situated in Kent in Central Kazakhstan. One of the most significant Bronze Age site belongs to the Begazy-Dandibai culture of Central Kazakhstan. This was one of the biggest centres of copper and bronze production and therefore weapons production in ancient Kazakhstan.

Tribes of the so called Andron and Begazy-Dandybay culture inhabiting territory of Kazakhstan in the Bronze Age, some four millennia ago, were engaged in cattle-breeding and farming. They were remarkable warriors who handled combat chariots wonderfully. Even today we can see images of chariots drawn on rocks. People would chisel out images of sun-headed deities, scenes of dances, mighty camels and bulls as impersonations of ancient gods on the surfaces of black cliffs scalded with the sun.

Burial mounds of noble warriors spread across Kazakh steppes are famed for magnificent size of mounds and burial vaults. Particularly famed are such necropolis (cemetery) in the steppes of Sary-Arka and Tagiskent in the Transaral area. People of that era were not only fine warriors, farmers and shepherds but also accomplished metallurgists. They would use bronze to manufacture axes, daggers, knives and various decorations thereof.