Books by Gian Luca Bonora
Сакральный ландшафт Сарыарки: Коллективная монография, 2021
In the monograph, on the basis of the study of two geographical areas of the northern Saryarka, t... more In the monograph, on the basis of the study of two geographical areas of the northern Saryarka, the Ishim valley of the Akmola Region and the Tengiz-Korgalzhyn lake district, characteristics, features, and mechanism of landscape sacralization are described and investigated. Moreover, the role of cult memorials in the historical, cultural, and ethnic processes of ancient and medieval periods is shown. The excavation of the large burial mound of Kuigenzhar, dated to the early Saka time, and the Kazakh seasonal settlement of Sarkyram are here presented. The monograph redraws the route of the 1816 expedition of I.P. Shangin along the northern Saryarka, as well as the Muslim graveyard of Karaotkel, an important historical site in the center of Nur-sultan, the capital of Kazakhstan, is presented. One chapter of the monograph is devoted to the large-scale exploration work of the Kazakh-Italian expedition: new sites and monuments along the Silyt, Ishim, and Nura rivers are described and provided with photos and maps.
The publication is addressed to historians, archaeologists, ethnographers, university students, and everyone who is interested in Kazakhstan's historical and cultural heritage.
This book is the first Cultural Guide entirely dedicated to the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana, a ... more This book is the first Cultural Guide entirely dedicated to the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana, a dynamic city with majestic and unique buildings. A so-called bridge between East and West, this Guide also shows that Astana is a city with a glorious past, a present of strong economic and urban development and a future based on the peaceful coexistence between over one million people.
By far the most mysterious and unexplored of Central Asia’s countries, Turkmenistan is a land ric... more By far the most mysterious and unexplored of Central Asia’s countries, Turkmenistan is a land rich in history and monuments, as well as of great spirituality, tradition and natural beauty. This Guide to Turkmenistan. History, Architecture and Faith in the Desert presents the extremely wealthy, complex, and diversified cultural heritage of this relatively unknown country in an original way, describing the majority of the historical, archaeological, architectural and religious monuments that are spread along the Silk Road and on the edge of the Karakum desert. The ancient cities of Merv, Nisa, Anau, Konya Urgench, Serakhs and Misrian as well as their mosques, minarets, turquoise domes and mazars beautifully decorated with intricate tile work are here presented side by side with modern picturesque and symbolic buildings of Ashgabat, the white capital. Some of the monuments are presented here for the first time ever in a Western language.
Colophon, Foreword, Acknowledgments, Abbreviations, Contents and Bibliography of the Multilingual... more Colophon, Foreword, Acknowledgments, Abbreviations, Contents and Bibliography of the Multilingual Dictionary of Archaeological Terms (Kazakh-Russian-English-Italian).
Part IV. Italian - Kazakh - Russian - English Dictionary
Part III. Russian - Kazakh - English - Italian Dictionary
Part II. English - Kazakh - Russian - Italian Dictionary
Part I. Kazakh - Russian - English - Italian Dictionary
Papers by Gian Luca Bonora
Journal of Urban Archaeology, 2023
This paper reconsiders the archaeological picture and the involved historical narratives proposed... more This paper reconsiders the archaeological picture and the involved historical narratives proposed by important seasons of excavations at the third-millennium bc site of Altyn Depe (Turkmenistan) by the former Soviet academy. Thanks to these intensive efforts the site is and will remain crucial for the reconstruction of the evolution of social complexity in southern Central Asia and the neighbouring civilizations; however, we question the validity of some assumptions and interpretations, which appear somehow biased by an aprioristic desire to validate the influential paradigms on early urbanism of V. G. Childe, even at the expense of a realistic assessment of the archaeological evidence. Finally, the paper proposes some new hypotheses which might be tested by future fieldwork.
Bulletin of the Karaganda University, num. 3 (107), 2022
A complex community of the early Iron Age in Eurasia is represented by the Tasmola archaeological... more A complex community of the early Iron Age in Eurasia is represented by the Tasmola archaeological culture, which was mainly spread in Central Kazakhstan. In the last decades, new research directions have appeared
which are mainly related to the analysis of massive burial mounds. These latter, preserving the human remains and the material culture associated to the Tasmola high class and nobility, share features with several cults and commemorative structures spread across the Eurasian steppe. Their architecture and building layout provide different evidence about their modeling and the reconstruction of ancient ceremonies and activities,
as well as a better understanding of the past material and spiritual culture. The study of massive barrows is today carried out with new methods and approaches, which are aimed at reconstructing the whole funerary construction: unexpected details show a very complex structure and open new perspectives both in the architecture knowledge of the ancient Eurasian tribes, as well as in identifying some features of the Saka funerary mythology. A detailed and careful study allows to determine substantial evidence of ritual practices in the structure of large funerary monuments. The purpose of the article is to provide a characterization of the building structure of large funerary barrows and, on the basis of diverse construction features, to present some worldview and cosmological ideas of the Tasmola community. The article then provides a brief description of the main characteristics of the Tasmola archaeological culture, and outlines the main historiographic information on the reconstruction of ethno-geography, namely the ethnic names, of the early Iron Age population in Central Kazakhstan. Based on the analysis of the burial architecture of large mounds located along the Ishim River, in the Nur-Sultan region, it is proposed here a reconstruction of some worldview ideas and mythology of the ancient Saka tribes.
C. Baumer, M. Novak, and S. Rutishauser (eds) Cultures in Contact Central Asia as Focus of Trade, Cultural Exchange and Knowledge Transmission, Harassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden, 2022: 51 - 87. ISBN 978-3-447-11880-4, 2022
This paper is dedicated to the study of the stone handbags of a lock shape and other similar form... more This paper is dedicated to the study of the stone handbags of a lock shape and other similar forms discovered across Copper and Bronze Age Eurasia. Information, data, and measurements are collected and presented for the first time in a comprehensive paper. A preliminary typology of the
artefacts divided into six large super-types, with types and sub-types, is then advanced. Unfortunately, most of the handbags have been found by chance and lack useful information to understand and reconstruct
their original function – whether ritual, social or economic – which remains enigmatic. The earliest artefacts were found at Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic sites of south Turkmenistan. However, the period of their greatest diffusion comprises between the mid-3rd and the mid-2nd millennium BCE, as confirmed by the discovery of some handbags in stratigraphic contexts of farmers’ settlements located in northern and south-eastern Iran, southern Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan. Recently, other
handbags have been identified in the storerooms of different museums in southern Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, extending their area of diffusion northward toward the cultural world of the Eurasian steppes. With awareness that the geographical definition of the Oxus civilisation is a matter of broad scientific debate, the study of this class of objects allows some new light to be shed on the socio-economic and cultural contacts between the settled farming communities of southern Central Asia and
the mobile groups of cattle breeders widespread across the Eurasian steppes.
East and West, 2021
This text aims to provide a first and preliminary description of the Middle and Late Bronze Age g... more This text aims to provide a first and preliminary description of the Middle and Late Bronze Age graveyard of Adji Kui, in Margiana (southern Turkmenistan). This burial ground consists of over 800 tombs excavated both inside the residential structures of the fortified villages of Adji Kui 1 and 9, and in the ground between the two fortresses. Most of the burials are represented by in-ground pits and pseudo-catacomb tombs, but there are also mausoleums and cist tombs. Unfortunately, there are numerous looted tombs as well as several destroyed, wholly or partially, by agricultural work that took place a few decades ago. However, the excavation has also brought to light a large number of intact tombs without signs of forced entry and looting which contained funerary inventory composed of ceramic vases, copper/bronze, artifacts in precious metal, stone tools and instruments, and typical objects of the Oxus civilization (also known as BMAC - Bactrian and Margiana Archaeological Complex). There were in fact stone columns, scepters or command sticks in chlorite, and lead ingots. The analysis allows to date the entire archaeological context to the final phase of the Middle Bronze Age and to the Late Bronze Age, i.e. the last centuries of the third millennium BC.
Questo testo si propone di fornire una prima e preliminare descrizione della necropoli dell’età del Bronzo medio e tardo di Adji Kui, in Margiana (Turkmenistan meridionale). Questo sepolcreto si compone di oltre 800 tombe scavate sia all’interno delle strutture residenziali che componevano i villaggi fortificati di Adji Kui 1 e 9, sia nel terreno posto tra le due fortezze. La maggior parte delle sepolture è rappresentata da fosse terragne e tombe a catacomba, ma sono presenti anche mausolei e tombe a cista. Purtroppo numerose sono le tombe saccheggiate così come parecchie quelle distrutte, interamente o parzialmente, dai lavori agricoli avvenuti alcuni decenni fa. Lo scavo ha tuttavia portato in luce anche un ampio numero di tombe intatte e senza segni di effrazione e saccheggio che hanno restituito corredi funerari composti da vasi ceramici, manufatti in rame/bronzo e in metalli preziosi, utensili e strumenti in pietra e oggetti tipici della Civiltà dell’Oxus (nota anche come BMAC – Complesso Archeologico della Battriana e Margiana). Vi erano infatti colonnette in pietra, scettri o bastoni di comando in clorite e lingotti in piombo. L’analisi condotta in questo lavoro permette di datare l’intero contesto archeologico alla fase finale dell’età del Bronzo medio e all’intera età del Bronzo tardo, ovvero agli ultimi secoli del III millennio a.C.
Biology
The Asian Central Steppe, consisting of current-day Kazakhstan and Russia, has acted as a highway... more The Asian Central Steppe, consisting of current-day Kazakhstan and Russia, has acted as a highway for major migrations throughout history. Therefore, describing the genetic composition of past populations in Central Asia holds value to understanding human mobility in this pivotal region. In this study, we analyse paleogenomic data generated from five humans from Kuygenzhar, Kazakhstan. These individuals date to the early to mid-18th century, shortly after the Kazakh Khanate was founded, a union of nomadic tribes of Mongol Golden Horde and Turkic origins. Genomic analysis identifies that these individuals are admixed with varying proportions of East Asian ancestry, indicating a recent admixture event from East Asia. The high amounts of DNA from the anaerobic Gram-negative bacteria Tannerella forsythia, a periodontal pathogen, recovered from their teeth suggest they may have suffered from periodontitis disease. Genomic analysis of this bacterium identified recently evolved virulence a...
Biology , 2021
The Asian Central Steppe, consisting of current-day Kazakhstan and Russia, has acted as a highway... more The Asian Central Steppe, consisting of current-day Kazakhstan and Russia, has acted as a highway for major migrations throughout history. Therefore, describing the genetic composition of past populations in Central Asia holds value to understanding human mobility in this pivotal
region. In this study, we analyse paleogenomic data generated from five humans from Kuygenzhar, Kazakhstan. These individuals date to the early to mid-18th century, shortly after the Kazakh Khanate was founded, a union of nomadic tribes of Mongol Golden Horde and Turkic origins.
Genomic analysis identifies that these individuals are admixed with varying proportions of East Asian ancestry, indicating a recent admixture event from East Asia. The high amounts of DNA from the anaerobic Gram-negative bacteria Tannerella forsythia, a periodontal pathogen, recovered from their teeth suggest they may have suffered from periodontitis disease. Genomic analysis of this bacterium identified recently evolved virulence and glycosylation genes including the presence of antibiotic resistance genes predating the antibiotic era. This study provides an integrated analysis of individuals with a diet mostly based on meat (mainly horse and lamb), milk, and dairy products and
their oral microbiome.
Археологические вести - Archaeological News , 2021
While the catalogue of the graves from Adji Kui is being prepared for the upcoming publication, t... more While the catalogue of the graves from Adji Kui is being prepared for the upcoming publication, this paper describes and presents for the first time fifteen seals found in the burials. The seals were manufactured in stone, metal and faience; thirteen of them were one-sided stamp seals, one is a stamp seal atop a pin head in bronze and the last is represented by a two-sided seal in hematite. Their subjects, shape and material as well as their manufacturing techniques highlight that all seals belong to the Oxus Civilization. They find several close comparisons with artefacts
from other sites in Margiana and Bactria and their chronological distribution is dated to the late 3rd millennium BC. As evidenced in other Oxus Civilization graveyards, most of the Adji Kui seals were found in graves containing female individuals, surmising then that the place of women in
East & West , 2021
Questo testo si propone di fornire una prima e preliminare descrizione della necropoli dell’età d... more Questo testo si propone di fornire una prima e preliminare descrizione della necropoli dell’età del Bronzo medio e tardo di Adji Kui, in Margiana (Turkmenistan meridionale). Questo sepolcreto si compone di oltre 800 tombe scavate sia all’interno delle strutture residenziali che componevano i villaggi fortificati di Adji Kui 1 e 9, sia nel terreno posto tra le due fortezze. La maggior parte delle sepolture è rappresentata da fosse terragne e tombe a catacomba, ma sono presenti anche mausolei e tombe a cista. Purtroppo numerose sono le tombe saccheggiate così come parecchie quelle distrutte, interamente o parzialmente, dai lavori agricoli avvenuti alcuni decenni fa. Lo scavo ha tuttavia portato in luce anche un ampio numero di tombe intatte e senza segni di effrazione e saccheggio che hanno restituito corredi funerari composti da vasi ceramici, manufatti in rame/bronzo e in metalli preziosi, utensili e strumenti in pietra e oggetti tipici della Civiltà dell’Oxus (nota anche come BMAC – Complesso Archeologico della Battriana e Margiana). Vi erano infatti colonnette in pietra, scettri o bastoni di comando in clorite e lingotti in piombo. L’analisi condotta in questo lavoro permette di datare l’intero contesto archeologico alla fase finale dell’età del Bronzo medio e all’intera età del Bronzo tardo, ovvero agli ultimi secoli del III millennio a.C.
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Books by Gian Luca Bonora
The publication is addressed to historians, archaeologists, ethnographers, university students, and everyone who is interested in Kazakhstan's historical and cultural heritage.
Papers by Gian Luca Bonora
which are mainly related to the analysis of massive burial mounds. These latter, preserving the human remains and the material culture associated to the Tasmola high class and nobility, share features with several cults and commemorative structures spread across the Eurasian steppe. Their architecture and building layout provide different evidence about their modeling and the reconstruction of ancient ceremonies and activities,
as well as a better understanding of the past material and spiritual culture. The study of massive barrows is today carried out with new methods and approaches, which are aimed at reconstructing the whole funerary construction: unexpected details show a very complex structure and open new perspectives both in the architecture knowledge of the ancient Eurasian tribes, as well as in identifying some features of the Saka funerary mythology. A detailed and careful study allows to determine substantial evidence of ritual practices in the structure of large funerary monuments. The purpose of the article is to provide a characterization of the building structure of large funerary barrows and, on the basis of diverse construction features, to present some worldview and cosmological ideas of the Tasmola community. The article then provides a brief description of the main characteristics of the Tasmola archaeological culture, and outlines the main historiographic information on the reconstruction of ethno-geography, namely the ethnic names, of the early Iron Age population in Central Kazakhstan. Based on the analysis of the burial architecture of large mounds located along the Ishim River, in the Nur-Sultan region, it is proposed here a reconstruction of some worldview ideas and mythology of the ancient Saka tribes.
artefacts divided into six large super-types, with types and sub-types, is then advanced. Unfortunately, most of the handbags have been found by chance and lack useful information to understand and reconstruct
their original function – whether ritual, social or economic – which remains enigmatic. The earliest artefacts were found at Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic sites of south Turkmenistan. However, the period of their greatest diffusion comprises between the mid-3rd and the mid-2nd millennium BCE, as confirmed by the discovery of some handbags in stratigraphic contexts of farmers’ settlements located in northern and south-eastern Iran, southern Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan. Recently, other
handbags have been identified in the storerooms of different museums in southern Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, extending their area of diffusion northward toward the cultural world of the Eurasian steppes. With awareness that the geographical definition of the Oxus civilisation is a matter of broad scientific debate, the study of this class of objects allows some new light to be shed on the socio-economic and cultural contacts between the settled farming communities of southern Central Asia and
the mobile groups of cattle breeders widespread across the Eurasian steppes.
Questo testo si propone di fornire una prima e preliminare descrizione della necropoli dell’età del Bronzo medio e tardo di Adji Kui, in Margiana (Turkmenistan meridionale). Questo sepolcreto si compone di oltre 800 tombe scavate sia all’interno delle strutture residenziali che componevano i villaggi fortificati di Adji Kui 1 e 9, sia nel terreno posto tra le due fortezze. La maggior parte delle sepolture è rappresentata da fosse terragne e tombe a catacomba, ma sono presenti anche mausolei e tombe a cista. Purtroppo numerose sono le tombe saccheggiate così come parecchie quelle distrutte, interamente o parzialmente, dai lavori agricoli avvenuti alcuni decenni fa. Lo scavo ha tuttavia portato in luce anche un ampio numero di tombe intatte e senza segni di effrazione e saccheggio che hanno restituito corredi funerari composti da vasi ceramici, manufatti in rame/bronzo e in metalli preziosi, utensili e strumenti in pietra e oggetti tipici della Civiltà dell’Oxus (nota anche come BMAC – Complesso Archeologico della Battriana e Margiana). Vi erano infatti colonnette in pietra, scettri o bastoni di comando in clorite e lingotti in piombo. L’analisi condotta in questo lavoro permette di datare l’intero contesto archeologico alla fase finale dell’età del Bronzo medio e all’intera età del Bronzo tardo, ovvero agli ultimi secoli del III millennio a.C.
region. In this study, we analyse paleogenomic data generated from five humans from Kuygenzhar, Kazakhstan. These individuals date to the early to mid-18th century, shortly after the Kazakh Khanate was founded, a union of nomadic tribes of Mongol Golden Horde and Turkic origins.
Genomic analysis identifies that these individuals are admixed with varying proportions of East Asian ancestry, indicating a recent admixture event from East Asia. The high amounts of DNA from the anaerobic Gram-negative bacteria Tannerella forsythia, a periodontal pathogen, recovered from their teeth suggest they may have suffered from periodontitis disease. Genomic analysis of this bacterium identified recently evolved virulence and glycosylation genes including the presence of antibiotic resistance genes predating the antibiotic era. This study provides an integrated analysis of individuals with a diet mostly based on meat (mainly horse and lamb), milk, and dairy products and
their oral microbiome.
from other sites in Margiana and Bactria and their chronological distribution is dated to the late 3rd millennium BC. As evidenced in other Oxus Civilization graveyards, most of the Adji Kui seals were found in graves containing female individuals, surmising then that the place of women in
The publication is addressed to historians, archaeologists, ethnographers, university students, and everyone who is interested in Kazakhstan's historical and cultural heritage.
which are mainly related to the analysis of massive burial mounds. These latter, preserving the human remains and the material culture associated to the Tasmola high class and nobility, share features with several cults and commemorative structures spread across the Eurasian steppe. Their architecture and building layout provide different evidence about their modeling and the reconstruction of ancient ceremonies and activities,
as well as a better understanding of the past material and spiritual culture. The study of massive barrows is today carried out with new methods and approaches, which are aimed at reconstructing the whole funerary construction: unexpected details show a very complex structure and open new perspectives both in the architecture knowledge of the ancient Eurasian tribes, as well as in identifying some features of the Saka funerary mythology. A detailed and careful study allows to determine substantial evidence of ritual practices in the structure of large funerary monuments. The purpose of the article is to provide a characterization of the building structure of large funerary barrows and, on the basis of diverse construction features, to present some worldview and cosmological ideas of the Tasmola community. The article then provides a brief description of the main characteristics of the Tasmola archaeological culture, and outlines the main historiographic information on the reconstruction of ethno-geography, namely the ethnic names, of the early Iron Age population in Central Kazakhstan. Based on the analysis of the burial architecture of large mounds located along the Ishim River, in the Nur-Sultan region, it is proposed here a reconstruction of some worldview ideas and mythology of the ancient Saka tribes.
artefacts divided into six large super-types, with types and sub-types, is then advanced. Unfortunately, most of the handbags have been found by chance and lack useful information to understand and reconstruct
their original function – whether ritual, social or economic – which remains enigmatic. The earliest artefacts were found at Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic sites of south Turkmenistan. However, the period of their greatest diffusion comprises between the mid-3rd and the mid-2nd millennium BCE, as confirmed by the discovery of some handbags in stratigraphic contexts of farmers’ settlements located in northern and south-eastern Iran, southern Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan. Recently, other
handbags have been identified in the storerooms of different museums in southern Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, extending their area of diffusion northward toward the cultural world of the Eurasian steppes. With awareness that the geographical definition of the Oxus civilisation is a matter of broad scientific debate, the study of this class of objects allows some new light to be shed on the socio-economic and cultural contacts between the settled farming communities of southern Central Asia and
the mobile groups of cattle breeders widespread across the Eurasian steppes.
Questo testo si propone di fornire una prima e preliminare descrizione della necropoli dell’età del Bronzo medio e tardo di Adji Kui, in Margiana (Turkmenistan meridionale). Questo sepolcreto si compone di oltre 800 tombe scavate sia all’interno delle strutture residenziali che componevano i villaggi fortificati di Adji Kui 1 e 9, sia nel terreno posto tra le due fortezze. La maggior parte delle sepolture è rappresentata da fosse terragne e tombe a catacomba, ma sono presenti anche mausolei e tombe a cista. Purtroppo numerose sono le tombe saccheggiate così come parecchie quelle distrutte, interamente o parzialmente, dai lavori agricoli avvenuti alcuni decenni fa. Lo scavo ha tuttavia portato in luce anche un ampio numero di tombe intatte e senza segni di effrazione e saccheggio che hanno restituito corredi funerari composti da vasi ceramici, manufatti in rame/bronzo e in metalli preziosi, utensili e strumenti in pietra e oggetti tipici della Civiltà dell’Oxus (nota anche come BMAC – Complesso Archeologico della Battriana e Margiana). Vi erano infatti colonnette in pietra, scettri o bastoni di comando in clorite e lingotti in piombo. L’analisi condotta in questo lavoro permette di datare l’intero contesto archeologico alla fase finale dell’età del Bronzo medio e all’intera età del Bronzo tardo, ovvero agli ultimi secoli del III millennio a.C.
region. In this study, we analyse paleogenomic data generated from five humans from Kuygenzhar, Kazakhstan. These individuals date to the early to mid-18th century, shortly after the Kazakh Khanate was founded, a union of nomadic tribes of Mongol Golden Horde and Turkic origins.
Genomic analysis identifies that these individuals are admixed with varying proportions of East Asian ancestry, indicating a recent admixture event from East Asia. The high amounts of DNA from the anaerobic Gram-negative bacteria Tannerella forsythia, a periodontal pathogen, recovered from their teeth suggest they may have suffered from periodontitis disease. Genomic analysis of this bacterium identified recently evolved virulence and glycosylation genes including the presence of antibiotic resistance genes predating the antibiotic era. This study provides an integrated analysis of individuals with a diet mostly based on meat (mainly horse and lamb), milk, and dairy products and
their oral microbiome.
from other sites in Margiana and Bactria and their chronological distribution is dated to the late 3rd millennium BC. As evidenced in other Oxus Civilization graveyards, most of the Adji Kui seals were found in graves containing female individuals, surmising then that the place of women in
In English.
and archaeological context of the discovery is available. The search for comparable finds over a vast territory, which includes Central and Middle Asia as well as the surrounding regions of the Eurasian steppes, has led to the identification of somewhat analogous artefacts. Thus, this typological class of sceptres or pestles with grooved tip appears to have been prevalent across Eurasia between the mid-3rd and the mid-2nd millennium BC in stratigraphic association with Middle and Late Bronze Age material. Significant cultural analogies with Shipunovo V sceptres
appear to chronologically place the Western Kazakhstan sceptre to a period between the late 3rd and early 2nd millennium BC. From a semantic point of view, it is conceivable that this object may have been both a symbol of power and status (sceptre) as well as a work tool (pestle) among the pastoral and metallurgic communities that
inhabited Eurasia during the Middle and Late Bronze Age.
The Steppe ancestry in South Asia has the same profile as that in Bronze Age Eastern Europe, tracking a movement of people that affected both regions and that likely spread the distinctive features shared between Indo-Iranian and Balto-Slavic languages.
The Steppe ancestry in South Asia has the same profile as that in Bronze Age Eastern Europe, tracking a movement of people that affected both regions and that likely spread the distinctive features shared between Indo-Iranian and Balto-Slavic languages.
Published in: ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL CULTURES OF CENTRAL ASIA
(THE FORMATION, DEVELOPMENT AND INTERACTION OF URBANIZED AND CATTLE-BREEDING SOCIETIES) Proceedings of the international scientific conference dedicated to the 100th birth anniversary
of Doktor Nauk in Historical Sciences Anatolii M. Mandelstam and the 90th birth anniversary of Doktor Nauk in Historical Sciences Igor’ N. Khlopin, 10–12 November 2020, St. Petersburg
The material culture associated to these sites attests some evidences of the Achaemenid presence. Besides of the fine, wheel-made pottery production, witnessed by bowls and plates, jars and canteens of different sizes and functions, always found in association with steppe-like ceramic of rough manufacture, it must be mentioned also the presence of square-shaped bricks (about 42 x 42 x 8-10 cm), from Sengir Tam, with fingers imprints on their surfaces in the form of crosses, double-crosses and single lines.
The most important artefacts so far collected, related to the Achaemenid presence, are represented by the fragments of two large vessels, alabastron, in gypsum inscribed by the same Old Greek writing on their shoulder and discovered in a square mausoleum in the site of Chirik Rabat, and by a complete pilgrim flask characterised by an Aramaic inscription on its body, found during the excavation of the site of Inkar-kala, about 5 km south-east of Chirik Rabat.
What is possible to infer from the archaeological evidences is that the Inner Syrdarya delta has to be considered not just a peripheral country but part of the Achaemenid socio-cultural reality. Its position, farthest north and close to the Saka lands (i.e. the steppes), was well known to the kindred populations of the south at least at the beginning of Achaemenid history, with Cyrus (or even before). The inhabitants of the inner Syrdarya from the end of the 6th – beginning of the 5th century BC developed a local sedentary culture in which the contribution of the southern areas of Central Asia under the control of the Achaemenid Empire is archaeologically proven, although this “control” needs to be still quantified and determined. The presence of Saka kurgans, the parallel development of first fortified settlements in the 5th century BC and the further transformation of the rural landscape attested at the end of the 5th century BC, show how the area at the middle of the 1st millennium BC was a land of connections and cultural interactions with a sudden development of infrastructures and settlements that cannot be explained in a peripheral and isolated area.
Archaeological fieldwork in Kazakhstan has been vigorously resumed since the beginning of the 1990s. However, the results of this work remains largely unknown to the non-Russian and non-Kazakh speaking public. This reports seeks to introduce and describe the results of archaeological fieldwork carried out in Kazakhstan over the last twenty-five years, thereby focussing primarily on the Early Iron Age and to discuss the impact of these new results upon currently prevailing opinions regarding the cultural development of the Saka mobile societies not only in Kazakhstan but also across the Eurasian expanse.
historical narratives proposed by important seasons of excavations at the second-millennium BC site of Kent (Kazakhstan). Thanks to these intensive efforts the site is and will remain crucial for the reconstruction of the evolution of social complexity in Central Asia and the neighbouring civilizations; however, we question the validity of some assumptions
and interpretations concerning the urban character of the discoveries. Finally, the paper proposes some new hypotheses which might be tested by future fieldwork.
Keywords: Syr Darya delta, Early Iron Age, Chirik Rabat culture, settlement patterns
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Grave 1 of the Farmstead.
Only the text is here provided: drawings and photos will be uploaded only after the publication of the whole book
For any further information and questions do not hesitate to contact me: [email protected]