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Cultures of Northern Bactria in the Late Bronze Age

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Cultures of Northern Bactria in the Late Bronze Age CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE CULTURES OF NORTHERN BACTRIA IN THE LATE BRONZE AGE BMAC sites in Uzbekistan As already mentioned, the Sapalli variant of the BMAC formed no later than the first quarter of the 2nd millennium BC in northern Bactria as a result of migration from the south-west (Map 17). It comprises the following sites: on the Sherabad river—the cemeteries of Bustan and Dzharkutan and the settlement of Dzharkutan (the upper horizon; Fig. 88), on the Surkhan-Darya river—the settlement and cemetery of Mollali (Pugachenkova 1972; Belyaeva and Kha- kimov 1973; Askarov 1977, 1989; Askarov, Abdullaev 1983; Askarov and Io- nesov 1991; Rakhmanov 1982; Rakhmanov and Shaydullaev 1985; Avanesova 1992; 1995a, 1995c; 1996; 1997; 2002; Shirinov and Baratov 1997). A. Askarov assigns the monuments to the Sapalli culture, the other researchers attribute them to the Namazga VI culture or the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex. Recently A. Askarov and T. Shirinov (1993: 42) suggested that a Namazga historical and cultural community should be distinguished comprising the entire south of Central Asia, north-eastern Iran and northern Afghanistan. As men- tioned above, I deem it more appropriate to use the term ‘the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Culture (BMAC)’, considering the similarity of the historical destinies of the population of this region and the considerable differences in the cultural development from western Turkmenistan and eastern Iran. The relative chronology of the sites was developed by A. Askarov (1977: 60- 63), who singled out the following stages: I – Sapalli, II – Dzharkutan, III – Molalli. Later the Molalli stage was divided into III – Kuzali and IV – Molalli (Askarov and Abdullaev 1983: 40) and further into IV – Molalli and V – Bustan (Rakhmanov 1987: 13, Shirinov and Baratov 1997: 88). The accepted chron- ology of the stages are as follows: Kuzali: 1300-1200 BC, Molalli: 1200-1050 BC, Bustan: 1050-950 BC. They were succeeded by the culture of painted ceramics Kuchuk II-Yaz I. The relative chronology is based on the stratigraphy and dynamics of the cer- amic complexes. The absolute chronology is contestable (see below and Askarov and Shirinov 1993: 84-92 for a discussion). One can trace the genetic succession of the culture’s stages, but at each stage some innovations come into being. In the Sapalli period burials were placed within the precincts of the settlement in a ground pit or a catacomb blocked up with brick; burial was in the flexed position, men on their right side, women on the left. Occasionally, the deceased person was placed in a large vessel (Khum). Cenotaphs are familiar containing a clay dummy or a ram’s skeleton instead of the deceased (Askarov 1973). 268 CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Beginning with the Kuzali stage relations with the Andronovo tribes are recorded, reaching their apex in the Molalli and Bustan periods (Kuz’mina 1972; Askarov 1989; Rakhmanov et al. 1985; Avanesova 1992; 1995; 2002). The burial ritual has changed. Discrete cemeteries come into existence. Burials are found in pits or catacombs, blocked by bricks or stones. The dead lie flexed, men on their right side, women on the left, head oriented predominantly to the west. There are also dismembered burials. The graves contain wheel-made BMAC vessels, sometimes clay or metal votive articles (vessels, spoons), as well as ovicaprid bones. The fire-cult becomes widespread. Cremation has been revealed in the cemeteries of Dzharkutan IV, Bustan 3 and 6. In the Bustan 6 cemetery 17 of the 130 burials are interred according to the cremation rite. It is notable that it is in these burials that Andronovo ceramics of the Fedorovo type were found (Fig. 70; Avanesova 1995, fig. 12). Evidence of a fire-cult has been discovered in 82 burials: fires, hearths, pits and vessels with ashes, ashes in the entrance to the catacomb with inhumation, small round clay altars (one—with a hand-made bird’s head) with coals and ashes. In some constructions there were found pieces of red ocher and white plaster. Cenotaphs, occasionally containing a sheep skeleton, are numerous. In 17 graves 22 unbaked clay anthropomorphic figures were found. Of considerable interest is the discovery in Bustan of three fires and in their vicinity three cists—one rectangular and two trapeziform. They are formed from bricks with the help of a clay solution and show signs of repeated fires that were then put out by water and oil. Fire was made three times in the ritual and the burnt layers were covered over with sand and white gravel. In the boxes there were found calcined bones of a man and ovicaprid, the leg of a Molalli type wheel-made vase, a fragment of an Andronovo vessel, a cylindrical urn with a conical lid and a bronze earring with a hook. N. Avanesova (1995: 33-35, fig. 3, 4) interprets these constructions as a crematorium. The Andronovo provenance of the fire-cult and the cremation rite is beyond dispute. Bustan’s type of fires and crematoria goes back to the cult constructions discovered in the Fedorovo-type cemetery of Kinzerskiy in the southern Urals (Kuz’mina 1975: 222, 227). In the center of the cemetery in mound 33, the lar- gest one, in a pit under the apex, there was a fire and animal sacrifices; another fire and sacrificial pits were revealed inside the circular rampart. In burial mound 17 under the bank, surrounded by a circle of stones placed in horizontal rows, there was a ring of red clay and ocher; and deeper yet, there was a solid red circle with a pit in the center. The pit’s walls were burnt as a result of repeated strong fires. At the bottom of the pit there were found fragments of two vessels (one bearing a swastika on the base) and an animal’s shoulder-blade; above there was a layer of pure ashes covered over with red clay and yellow ocher with traces of water and oil poured on. I interpret this construction as a crematorium. In central Kazakhstan in the Shapat cemetery of the Atasu late stage type alongside the inhumation rite there was discovered a construction related to the fire-cult. It was a ground pit (2.0x1.6x0.5m) with a ledge in the western section 0.5m in height and 0.2m in width. It was filled with bones of cattle and .
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