Ilek Barrows

a group of barrows on the left bank of the Ilek River, a left tributary of the Ural River. The most ancient Ilek barrows date from the pit-grave culture (iamnaia culture) (3000 B.C.); there are also burials of the Andronovo culture (2000 B.C.). The most interesting are the barrows of the Saul omatians and the Sarmatians of the sixth to second centuries B.C. (excavations in 1911, 1935, 1957, 1960–61). The rich barrows of the Sauromatians of the fifth-fourth century B.C. have revealed the burials of clan-tribal nobles, armed servant-bodyguards, and war-horses with harnesses along with numerous weapons, gold ornaments, and objects of Near Eastern and Middle Asian origin.