Elite Burial Monuments of Juchi Ulus Period Studied in the Aktobe Region

During 13th – 14th centuries the territory of West Kazakhstan was a part of the Juchi ulus. As evidence of the political importance of the region, many of bright burial monuments have been found and explored. The results of study of Urkach I, Bulak III, Saltak I burials are the subject of the paper. These materials give the authors information about the burial rite of representatives of various nomadic groups left after the Mongol invasion. Despite the movement of the masses of the population and a certain resettlement policy, as well as a significant difference in the style of the burial rite, these burials are united by their belonging to the social elite of the developed Middle Ages. The buried were equipped with objects made of gold. They were accompanied by the complicated features of the burial rite. The inventories found in the burials make it possible the authors to attribute the burial to the period of the Golden Horde, i.e. – 13th – 14th centuries. At the same time, these burial rites were most likely performed in the second half of XIII. Because the burial rite performed during the 14th century was subjected to religious “equalization” under the influence of the spread of Islam. Localization of the population after the invasion in the early period of the Golden Horde was reflected in the difference of the burial rites. Further these various groups of nomadic people were taken part in the ethnogenesis of modern Turkic-speaking peoples.