Archaeology of Central Asia

In the middle of the 20th century the texts of two waqf documents, drawn up in the 11th century in Arabic in Samarḳand, were discovered, which are of great significance for studying the history and culture of Central Asia of the Ḳarakhanid period. One of them was drawn up for madrasa, and the second for the hospital in Samarḳand, which were donated for public use as a charitable donation by the Ḳarakhanid ruler of Samarḳand Ṭamghādj Bughrā Khān (ruled in 444-460/1052-1068) in the month of Radjab 458/June 1066. The originals of these two documents have not reached us, but their text was included in some works on jurisprudence by medieval jurists. Many manuscripts of these works, containing copies of these two documents, are kept in various manuscript collections of the world. In the Shāh-i Zinda complex at the Afrāsiyāb settlement in Samarḳand, the remains of a monumental building were excavated, which were identified with the madrasa of Ṭamghādj Bughrā Khān. The present book consists of a critical edition of two waqf documents of Ṭamghādj Bughrā Khān, a Russian translation and a detailed historical-geographical and archaeological-topographic commentary with the involvement of data from archaeological and toponymical studies.

The relicts of an abandoned village were discovered during an archaeological field survey in the autumn expedition of 2017. During the following season (2018) we focused on the detailed survey and documentation of the site. A systematic field survey was conducted there, which was based on the collection of finds that are visible on the surface. In the selected part of the site we recorded the visible relicts by total station, sorted and analysed them. We identified 22 linear features, 16 circular/square features and we marked 4 spots which show the area behind the features. Among the finds the Early Middle Age predominantly prevail, nevertheless, finds belonging to the Bronze Age, Late Kushan Period, High Middle Age, Late Middle Age, and Pre -Modern Period were also collected.

Co-authored with Ruth Young. Simultaneously published as ‘Zentralasien 500 v. Chr.-600 n. Chr.’ In Dumont Weltatlas der Kunst, heraus. John Onians. Köln: Verlag Dumont, 2004. Reprinted in The Art Atlas, ed. John Onians. London: Laurence King, 2008.

En Asie centrale, après la disparition de la fameuse civilisation de l’Oxus de l’âge du Bronze, se met en place, au milieu du IIe millénaire avant notre ère, une période de transition durant laquelle des cultures originales se forment, peut-être en lien avec de nouvelles croyances. C’est dans ce contexte que des populations s’installent dans l’oasis de Kayrit, au sud de l’Ouzbékistan actuel, offrant un exemple d’adaptation sociétale et économique à un environnement reculé.

Pazyryk Tattoos as an Artistic Testimony of Ancient Wars and Marriages.
Azbelev, Pavel Petrovich (The State Hermitage Museum, Educational Department)

Abstract. The Pazyryk culture of the Altai mountains (second half of the 1st millennium ВСЕ) is famous for its well-preserved organic materials which survived due to the permafrost beneath the barrows. Of all the extant objects that come from five burials the oldest tattoos in Animal style, found on seven human mummies, attract special attention. Pioneering is the author’s approach to the finds based on the principles of mapping main tattoos on the body with its interpretation: the development of the principles is traced according to territorial and chronological spreading of iconographic analogues. Finds of this kind allow us to propose certain preliminary systematization: it is possible to distinguish sustainable sets of images different for males and females.
Meaning of a tattoo correlates to the role which a body part that bears it played in a person’s life. Large images of predators placed closer to the heart make us recall that it is heart that is often considered to be the seat of courage, rage, and other characteristics by many folks associated with large predators. Ungulates shown in agony as defeated animals or victims are placed on forearms — it is with their hands that people fight, hunt, and make sacrifices. On legs, which are to be fast and strong, there are running herbivore animals chosen from among the most fast and hardy. All this is common for Animal style as a magic mascot that was believed to influence the carrier of a certain image.
An image of a hoofed griffin is quite a special phenomenon originating from Northern China and Mongolia. The Pazyryk images of these griffins are imitative; the Altai nomads should have associated the image of this monster with their neighbours endowing it with the idea of victim, and not only they knew the “owners” of the image, but also feuded and fought with them.
Analogies to the composition with predators surrounding tortured ungulates are found to the West of the Altai mountains. Communicative vector which is presented here corresponds with the Western analogies to the finds and imported items that come from the Fifth Pazyryk barrow. Perhaps, the woman buried there, born in Eastern Kazakhstan or in South-West of Siberia, could have arrived to the Altai via marriage as a result of strengthening ties between the Pazyryk culture and the West, to the detriment of connections with South-Eastern neighbours. It is possible that the Pazyryk tattoos in Animal style depict the system of the Pazyryk culture’s contacts and their dynamics in the 4th–3rd centuries ВСЕ.

As a result of archeoseismological research in the Ferghana valley, it was possible to identify traces of strong
earthquakes that occurred in ancient times. In our previous works, it was noted that the ancient city of Eilatan
died in the first century BC due to a strong earthquake. It was at this time that the capital city of Farghana
(Ahsiket) was severely damaged. Here we also found the exit of a seismic focus to the surface, as well as other
strong deformations of building structures built up to this time. The magnitude of the seismic disaster (M =
7.6) was determined by us from the maximum value of the displacement detected by us from the seismogenic
rupture that came to the surface directly on the territory of the ancient settlement. Seismic vibrations completely
destroyed or significantly deformed all buildings and seriously damaged and destroyed the city walls.
Therefore, it seems that the new kings of the Ferghana valley after 90 BC built a new residence on Mugtepe,
which was mentioned in the Chinese source “Hanshu” – as “Guishuan”. According to archaeological data,
it was possible to determine that the above-mentioned monumental fortifications of the capital were built between
104–90 BC, and the X-point earthquake itself occurred, approximately in 91–90 BC. It covered the
entire Ferghana valley, but the cities and settlements of Northern Ferghana were particularly hard hit. A striking
example is the subsidence of massive fortress walls on the citadel and Shahristan of the city of farghana
(Ahsiket). It is possible that the seismogenic rupture that came to the surface in ancient Ahsikent and Eilatan
occurred at the same time. A similar strong earthquake occurred later: in the XI – first half of the XII century.
Traces of this seismic event were traced by us on a number of objects of Karakhanid age in Shahristan and
rabad. The obtained materials should be taken into account in the new assessment of the seismic hazard of
the Ferghana depression.

The territory of Samarkand (Uzbekistan) represents an excellent case study for understanding the damage in- flicted on the archaeological heritage of the region. The hinterland of Samarkand became one of the largest urban areas of Central Asia through a number of transformations to its landscape since the 1950s, changes that continue today and have seriously compromised the integrity of the remaining archaeological record. Here we infer the temporal sequence of this destruction through a multi-proxy approach based on the collection of spatial datasets from different periods, field surveys, and interviews with local farmers in the Taylak district. The present research also made it possible to ascertain whether the loss of archaeological information was more likely to be a consequence of either agricultural expansion or urban development.

The book by Kharinsky A. V. describes some aspects of Medieval history of Priolkhonye area on the western coast of Lake Baikal. The notions of ancient inhabitants of the Baikal coast on the next world are disclosed based on the data on burial site investigation. It provides the historical-geographic overview of the knowledge collected on chronology and cultural approach to burial sites which were dug out in different years on the Baikal coast.
The monograph offers analysis of new materials on the medieval burials of Priolkhonye and presents detailed descriptions of the elements of burial rituals exemplified by five groups of burials.
V-IX century. Existence of Cherenkhynsky burial tradition characterized by placing the corpse on the right side with the legs bent, with the head to the north, north-east or east. Oval stone masonry was commonly erected over the graves.
Late VIII-XIV century. The time of application of Kharantsynsky burial ritual which is marked by placing the corpse into the grave covered with birch bark (this can be cover or case). The buried usually lay on the back elongated, with the head forwarded to the north-east.
VIII-XIX century. The time of existence in Priolkhonye  of the  Kurkutsky type of burials. They were typified by the absence of any special constructions within a grave. Position of the one to be buried was the same as in the burials of Kharantsynsky type. Some graves were covered with a ceiling made from stones or wooden sticks.
XIII(XII?) - XVI century. This is the period of applying burials of Anginsky type. They are characterized by the presence of wooden intra-grave construction, e.g. frame, blocks or coffin. The corpse to be buried was placed elongated, on the back, with the head forwarded to the east or north-east.
Middle of XIV - beginning of XV century. This is the period of applying Sarminsky burial ritual. Its specific features are: (i) location of burial site over the earth surface; (ii) placement of the corpse into a birch bark construction, like cover or cloth strip, which was surrounded with a wooden fence; (iii) cremation of the buried one; (iv) building of rectangular fence from vertically standing plates.

Alexej I. Terenozhkin and Sergej P. Tolstov were Soviet archaeologists who were both born in 1907, survived the Bolshevik Revolution, Russian Civil War, Stalinist repression and the Second World War. Both went into Central Asian archaeology, competed for discoveries in that region, and joined the Communist party. But they developed different attitudes to the
political and scholarly situations in which they found themselves. When they encountered one another in the course of their research, there was a clash of interests. Terenozhkin, the less pushy and career-oriented of the two, quietly withdrew to a different field and region of research: Scythian archaeology in the Ukraine. Tolstov, the pushy one, stayed in Central Asia where he became the dominant figure in regional archaeology for the next several decades. He arranged himself with the Communist regime and was rewarded with favours and funding.

Vent’anni di ricerche della Missione italiana nel deserto del Karakum hanno rivelato come la regione del Murghab sia stata teatro dei primi scambi e interazioni tra le popolazioni sedentarie locali e i nomadi delle steppe euro-asiatiche ponendo le basi delle future caratteristiche geo-economiche della cosiddetta Via della Seta

The fourth volume of the “Archaeological sites of the Xiongnu” consisted of reedition of first data from these sites, which were discovered by J. Talko-Gryntsevich in Trans-Baikal area near Russian-Mongolian border during 1896-1902. The materials were published in local department of Russian Geographical Society under the common name “Materials for paleo-ethnology of Trans-Baikal area”. These
publications are a bibliographic rarity and need for reprinting. Materials of Xiongnu sites (Ilmovaja pad, Eduj, Burdun, Derestuj) as well as number of sites of adjacent epoch are included into the issue. Maps of the sites and the burials, drawed by J. Talko-Grintsevith, tables and photos of finds, the data of anthropological measurements are reproduced. In addition the article by J. Talko-Gryntsevich “The Population of barrows and cemeteries of Trans-Baikal area” is included in the volume.

The Türgesh – one of the 10 “tribes” of the On Oq federation of the Western Türk – succeeded the Western Ashinas-Türk as an imperial power in the Western Central Asian steppes. Although the Türgesh Empire was relatively short-lived – it thrived for only about 20 years under their energetic khagan Sulu – it played an important role in the concert of great powers during the first half of the 8th century, largely on a par with Tang China, the Umayyad Caliphate, Tibet, and the Eastern Türks. The Türgesh are particularly known for having posed a serious threat to Umayyad rule in Mawarannahr and Eastern Khorasan/Tokharestan, inflicting several major defeats on Muslim armies in the 720s and 730s C.E. After the death of Sulu the Türgesh Empire quickly disintegrated, giving way to the immigrating Qarluq as the new dominant power in the steppes north of the Tianshan.

Keywords: mid-6th–mid-8th centuries ce; Chinese Empire; Eurasia; imperialism and conquest; nomads; steppe

V.A. Kolchenko. Christian Cemetery of Mongol Time at Burana Town (according to archival documents on excavations in 1886).
In 1885, two Christian medieval cemeteries were opened in the north of present-day Kyrgyzstan, in the Chuy Valley. They were identified from the finds of gravestones with Syrian epitaphs. Soon the epitaphs were translated and published by D. Khvolson and S. Slutsky. Archaeological excavations were carried out on the necropolis of Buranа town, in 1885—1886, but the data from these studies were not published. They are stored in the Archive of the RAS Institute of History of Material Culture, among documents of the Imperial Archaeological Committee.
Data on the excavations in late 19th century on the medieval cemetery near the settlement of Burana are cited and analyzed in this article. Most of the burials were made in pits. The second largest group is the burial in the pits with niches. All the deceased lay stretched on their backs heading west. The burials contained no grave goods, but sometimes they contain personal adornments or wearable crosses.
At the end of the article, the burials from Burana Christian cemetery are compared with the burials from the necropolises of Ak-Beshim, Krasnaya Rechka and Belovodskaya fortresses, also located in the Chuy Valley. By comparing them, we come to conclusion about a break in development of Christianity in the Chuy Valley, and emergence of a new cultural tradition, associated with gravestones with epitaphs, at the beginning of 13th century.

В 1885 г. на севере современного Кыргызстана, в Чуйской долине, были открыты два христианских средневековых кладбища. Они были идентифицированы по находкам намогильных камней с сирийскими эпитафиями. Вскоре эпитафии были переведены и опубликованы Д. Хвольсоном и С.Слуцким. На некрополе городища Бурана в 1885—1886 гг. проводились археологические раскопки, но данные этих исследований не публиковались. В настоящее время эти материалы хранятся в Архиве Института истории материальной культуры РАН среди документов Императорской Археологической комиссии.
Данные о раскопках конца XIX века на средневековом кладбище у городища Бурана приводятся и анализируются в настоящей статье. Большинство погребений было совершено в простых ямах. Вторую по численности группу оставляют погребения в ямах с подбоем. Все погребённые лежали вытянуто на спине головой на запад. Погребения безынвентарные, но в некоторых найдены личные украшения, нательный крест.
Погребения Буранского христианского кладбища сравниваются с погребениями некрополей городищ Ак-Бешим, Красная Речка и Беловодская крепость, также расположенных в Чуйской долине. На основании сравнения мы приходим к выводу о прерыве в развитии христианства Чуйской долины и появлении в начале XIII в. новой культурной традиции, связанной с установлением надгробий с эпитафиями.