Abstract
In the field season of 2023, near the city of Jitiqara, the staff of the Kostanay Archaeological Expedition of the Margulan Institute of Archaeology at the Karatobe-3 burial ground investigated mound no. 2. During the excavations three burials were studied (b. 1–3). In the central part (b. 1), the burial of a woman was revealed, outside the clay shaft dividing the sacred space, in the southwestern and northeastern sectors of the mound, the graves of male warriors were found (b. 2, 3). The inventory is represented by a variety of objects characterizing the complex corresponding to the status and position of the buried (swords, arrowheads, mirrors, jewelry, etc.). The design of grave structures, the arrangement of grave pits and accompanying inventory indicate the originality of the complex, which allows it to be correlated with elite burials. The estimated dating of the studied material is the second half of the 4th–3rd centuries BC.