An ancient grave containing bronze bracelets, jewelry and beads has been discovered in the Samarkand Region of Uzbekistan.

Human skeletal remains and bronze objects were found by a local resident of the village of Darvozagaz when he was digging in his yard. He reported the find to Y. Gulyamov Samarkand Institute of Archaeology and they dispatched archaeologists to investigate. They recovered all of the human bones and bronze artifacts for examination and conservation.

“According to preliminary observations, some of the found bronze bracelets are distinguished by their conical ends and spiral decorations,” says Mominkhon Saidov, director of the Samarkand Institute of Archaeology. “Their shape and decorative features are similar to jewelry typical of the culture of steppe pastoral tribes living in the last stage of the Bronze Age. Archaeological materials related to the culture of the steppe pastoral population of the Bronze Age have also been discovered in a number of settlements and cemeteries in the Zarafshan Valley.”

Objects of this kind are associated with the Andronovo-Tozabogyob culture and typically date to between the 13th and 10th centuries B.C. and circle. None of the finds have been conclusively dated yet, however. Further excavations are planned to clarify the period and cultural context, as well as osteological investigations and metallurgical analysis of the recovered remains.

If the preliminary conclusions confirm that this was a burial from the Late Bronze Age, the discovery will add important new information to the archaeological record of the ancient pastoral communities of Samarkand’s Zarafshan Valley.