A small cast gold bear, weighing seven to eight grams, has been found in the Karagaily burial mound in the Nauryzbay district of Almaty. Lyazzat Sagyndykova, director of the city's Museum Association, said the figurine is "unique for Kazakhstan" and that nothing like it has been found before. City authorities announced the find on 5 November 2026. The age of the mound, the number of people buried in it and the purpose of the bear are still preliminary data.
Specialists from the Museum Association are leading the rescue dig, with support from the city authorities. The mound dates from the early Iron Age. It is 25–26 metres across and about 2.5 metres high. Work on it began about a month before 6 November.
Specialists believe the bear was sewn onto fabric, probably a ceremonial hat, because the small plate has tiny holes. One theory is that the ornament may have been for a woman's hat.
The Saka were steppe herders who lived across almost all of today's Kazakhstan in the first millennium BC. Their art is known as the "animal style": stylised animals, shown alone or fighting. The most common are deer with curved antlers, cats, birds, horses, wolves and bears. Bronze was the main material. Gold was mostly for the ruling elite, who sewed small figures onto clothes, belts and horse harness. The rich wore clothing covered with stamped gold plates.
City officials compare the bear with two Kazakh finds: the gold mountain goat finial from the hat of the "Golden Man", and a leopard figurine from the Kok-Kainar mound in Almaty, found in 2014. Only some reports explicitly place the bear in the "animal style"; others do not use the term. The claim that it is the "first in the country" comes from the museum. One report says similar ornaments have been found before, but not with a bear.
The mound was looted in ancient times. The robbers left a pit about three metres deep, and the objects are scattered at random. Even so, the mound holds human remains and pieces of Saka pottery. The remains are not in their original place, because the digging moved them.
The preliminary version is that four adults and three children were buried there, but the exact number has not been established. The remains include bones of an adult woman and of children. Senior researcher Marat Nurpeisov said mounds of this size are usually for one or two people, and that so many burials in one mound are unusual for Kazakhstan. It is not clear why there are so many, or whether all were buried at the same time. Nurpeisov said anthropological tests may show whether the cause was a tragedy, an enemy attack or a massacre.
The date of the 4th–3rd century BC is also preliminary. It is earlier than the 3rd century BC, when, according to reference sources, Scythian art ended in the Kingdom of Pontus.
At another rescue-dig mound, in the Alatau district, Nurpeisov said in October 2022 that the "sensational" thing was that it was untouched. It holds a sword with gold decoration, gold sheets with animal motifs on the clothing and silver objects. The man buried there was about 50 years old.
More tests are due, including by anthropologists. After scientific study, the most valuable items will go on show at the Almaty Museum, but no date has been set.