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The history of the region had begun long before a military fortress was founded on the Malaya Almatinka River, at the foothills of the Alatau Mountains, in the middle of the 19 th century.
As early as the Late Bronze Age, in the 10-9* centuries ΒΡ . the area was inhabited by settled tribes who engaged in farming and cattle-breeding. Those people lived in earth-houses forming small settlements. Such settlements were discovered on the northern outskirts of the city and in the area of Koktyube Mount. Later the Sakian and subsequently the Usun tribes came to settle in the Almaty area. These tribes left after them numerous burial mounds which could be seen only recently in the old town.
In 1969. the ancient Sakian mound Issyk was excavated near Almaty. In the grave edged with fir logs, on the wooden floor, they found remains of a Sakian warrior dressed in clothes covered entirely with golden plates. His high pointed hat was decorated with the images of winged steeds symbolizing the God of the Sun. The warrior's arms were a long sword and a shoit dagger. Also found in the grave were clay jars, wooden trays, precious jugs made of silver and bronze, and a silver cup on the bottom of which they found an inscription consisting of 26 mysterious signs. The Issyk burial mound is believed to date from the 5-4 th centuries ΒΡ . In 1974, the so-called Golden Man was exhibited at the Leipzig Fair where, by the way, the capital of the Soviet Kazakhstan was for the first time widely presented to the European public.
Excavations of the sites of ancient settlements provide evidence of their long history.
In 1938. the researcher B.X. Dublitski excavated an ancient settlement in the territory' of the state farm of Gorny Gigant which represented a 140xl50-metre ground protected with a quadrangular clay wall, with four round watch towers erected at the corners. Inside the site, they found numerous fragments of ceramic and clay tableware, an iron knife, long iron nails, beads made of red-and-brown transparent stone, and bones of domestic animals. At a depth of 110 centimeters from the floor, they discovered a stone fireplace, remains of a tandyr, and a mouth of a badrab. Near the fireplace, there were found fragments of a jar decorated with the imprints of the sun. The settlement dates back to the 10- 13 th centuries.
Of greatest interest are the remains of an ancient settlement in the area of the Frontier Military College. In 1894. V.V. Bartold. who explored the site at the request of the architect P.V. Gourde, wrote: "Verny dwellers took the burnt-brick buildings to pieces for their household needs." In our time, two silver coins were found at that place during construction operations. Judging by their form, metrology, and coining technique, the find resembled the coins minted by the Central Asian and Eastern Turkistani towns late in the 13* — early in the 14 th centuries: "This dirham is coined in the area {balad) of Al. m. tu in the year of five...". The word was coined without dots but its graphics allowed the scientist V.N. Nastich to read the inscription as "Almatu" and to see in it the name of a settlement that existed in the territory of the present-day Almaty in the 13 th century.
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Among the random finds connected with the Sakian tribes we should mention bronze lamps, caldrons and sacrificial altars. Abroad range of such articles was collected accidentally in the territory of Almaty and in its vicinity. Of interest is a sacrificial altar which is known in literature as "the altar of Semirechye ". It is now kept in the Hermitage. It was found before the Russian revolution in the vicinity of Verny. The altar is a tray resting on four short legs. Placed along the board of the table are 25 figures of winged snow leopards.
Vesnovka site was located in the territory of the Botanical Garden in Almaty. In 1969 during construction a number of original ceramic articles were found. Of greatest interest are jars coated with glazing.
It is the time of the Usuns that one of the most well-known articles also found near Almaty - the so-called "Kargaly diadem" — dates from the 2 nd century ΒΡ .
Almaty History 1 - 2 - 3 - 4
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