Other Artifacts

Archaeologists working in the Karakabak cemetery on the Mangyshlak Peninsula, near the modern city of Aktau in western Kazakhstan, have discovered the grave of an elite young woman of Hunnic-period nomadic traditions, buried in ornate ceremonial clothing. She wore a remarkable set of 1,500-year-old gold-covered shoe fittings, popularly described as “golden shoes.” The shoes offer a glimpse into the wealth, craftsmanship, and long-distance connections of communities living along the Caspian Sea during the post-Hunnic period. Gold Covered Shoes Reveal the Status of an Elite Young Woman Archaeologists Andrei Astafyev and Evgeny Bogdanov excavated the burial site in 2019 and made a detailed study of the grave. Their research dated Burial 11 at Karakabak-10 to the second half of the fifth