Gold of the Great Steppe

Gold of the Great Steppe presents artefacts from the extraordinary burial mounds of the Saka people of East Kazakhstan, a.culture which flourished 2,500 years ago and is largely unknown outside Kazakhstan.

The exhibition is built around material from three different burial complexes in East Kazakhstan: Berel, Shilikty and Eleke Sazy. Saka society included agriculturalists, pastoralists, nomads, settled people, warriors, those engaging in ritual practice, with immense technological skill and deep knowledge of wild and tamed animals. Only now are we beginning to understand their culture and how it relates to the people who live in Central Asia today.Recent excavations and analyses led by archaeologists from Kazakhstan have helped us understand much better how the Saka lived and travelled, the things they made and what they believed in. They have revealed a distinctive, advanced society, which is still being uncovered as modern archaeological methods enable scholars and scientists to find and analyse not only burial mounds but also the remnants of settlements.