Abstract
During the 2024 field season, the Kostanay Archaeological Expedition of the Margulan Institute of Archaeology continued investigations of Kurgan No. 2 at the Karatobe-3 burial ground near the town of Jitiqara (burials Nos. 1–3 had been studied in 2023). Excavations revealed four additional burials (grave pits Nos. 4–7), located together with burials Nos. 2 and 3 outside the clay rampart in a ring around the central female burial (No. 1). The assemblages from burials Nos. 4–6 are represented mainly by ornaments (glass and stone beads and cabochons, iron and bronze bracelets, etc.), items related to female toilette and cult practices (bronze mirrors, bone tubes with pigments, a spoon, and others). The burial from grave pit No. 7 is of a warrior, containing a complete set of weaponry (bronze arrowheads, an iron sword, a spear, a bronze zoomorphic hook, and others). Analysis of the burial inventory and rite (ring-shaped arrangement of burials, narrow pits, side-niche graves, southward orientation of the deceased, etc.) attributes the site to the early stage of the Prokhorovka culture (4th–3rd centuries AD), primarily corresponding to the Filippovka horizon complexes of Eastern Orenburg and Trans-Ural Bashkiria.