Taksai kurgans



The Taksai kurgans (more precisely Taksai-1, Ru: Таксайский курган) are a series of Saka or Sauromatian  funeral mounds or kurgans, located in the Terekti District of the southern Urals, in northwestern Kazakhstan. They are dated to circa 500 BCE. The Kurgan was undisturbed and had provided numerous valuable artifacts. The Taksai-1 kurgan was the tomb of a rich Saka lady, dubbed the "golden lady". Some of her objects reflect the iconography of the Achaemenid Empire, which must have been in contact with these nomadic tribes.

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.