2,200-year-old gold bear figurine and surprising number of bones found in massive burial mound in Kazakhstan

Archaeologists in Kazakhstan have discovered a unique gold bear figurine in a 2,200-year-old burial mound that looters had hit but failed to empty completely.

The sculpted bear stands on its hind limbs and holds a pot-like container between its front paws. The artifact would have been worn as part of a headdress, and holes at its base indicate that it could have been sewn onto the garment, according to a translated statement from the Kazakhstan government.

The gold bear was unearthed at an Early Iron Age burial mound at the Karagaily burial ground in the southern city of Almaty, along with a surprisingly high number of human bones for a single burial mound.

Although other gold-crafted animals have been found in the region, the newly unearthed bear is the first of its kind.

"The sculpted bear figurine is unique to Kazakhstan. No similar finds have been discovered previously," Lyazzat Sagyndykova, director of the Almaty Museums Association, which conducted the excavation, said in the statement. "This discovery allows us to trace cultural parallels across the whole of Eurasia, from the Black Sea region to Altai."

The figurine dates to the Saka period, named for a nomadic horseback-riding people from Iran who lived on the Eurasian Steppe and Tarim Basin of what is now western China. Archaeologists have found comparable gold objects at other excavations in Kazakhstan, according to the statement. For example, a headdress element shaped like a small leopard previously came to light at the Almaty Kok-Kainar burial ground, which dates to the fourth century B.C. Also, the headdress of Kazakhstan's famous "Golden Man," a young Iron Age warrior buried in an extraordinarily lavish grave, also has a gold, sheep-shaped decorative element.

It's unclear which bear species the figurine depicts, but today Kazakhstan is home to two subspecies of brown bear: the Tien Shan or Himalayan brown bear (Ursus arctos isabellinus), which lives in the Tien Shan Mountains in the southeast, and the East Siberian brown bear (Ursus arctos collaris) in the Altai Mountains in the east, according to a study published earlier this year.

Preliminary analyses date the recently excavated site to the fourth to third centuries B.C., according to the statement. Based on the number of bones they excavated, experts suspect that the mound, which is around 8 feet (2.4 meters) tall and roughly 85 feet (26 m) wide, may have been the final resting place for four adults and three children.

"Of particular interest is the unusually large number of human remains in a single burial mound, as such burials are atypical for Kazakhstan," Marat Mugalovich Nurpeisov, a senior research fellow at the Almaty Museums Association, said in the statement. "As a rule, burial mounds of a comparable size were intended for the burial of one or two people."

Archaeologists also found pieces of Saka pottery, most of which had been strewn about after the burial had been looted in ancient times, according to the statement. The thieves left behind a 10-foot (3 m) looting pit.

"Research into the Karagaily burial ground is ongoing," Nurpeisov said in the statement. "To clarify the circumstances of the burial and determine the exact number of individuals interred, further analyses are planned, including the involvement of anthropologists."

After all of the investigations are finished, some of the artifacts will be put on display at the Almaty Museum, according to the statement.