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A General Revision of the Chronology of the Tagisken North Burial Ground

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A General Revision of the Chronology of the Tagisken North Burial Ground Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia 24 (2018) 307-330 brill.com/acss A General Revision of the Chronology of the Tagisken North Burial Ground Gian Luca Bonora* ismeo [email protected] Abstract The burial ground of Tagisken North, characterised by seven monumental mau- solea and other adjoining structures made of mud brick and rammed earth, was excavated and studied by members of the “Khorezm Expedition” (KhAEE) in the 60’s and dated to the beginning of the 1st millennium BC (9th-8th centuries BC). This cemetery boasts a significant amount of artefacts pertaining to the Late Andronovo period. In light of new archaeological findings and recent chronological refinements, and thanks to improved scientific cooperation within the academic world, greater accu- racy in determining the chronology of steppe cultures through abundant radiocarbon dating and better research standards, the time has now come for a general revision of the chronology of this burial ground. The radiocarbon sequence for the Andronovo culture is notably a subject of heated debate, due to the wide range of absolute dating. The differences between the chronological frames of Central Asia proposed by Russian-Central Asian and foreign archaeologists are considerable. Calibrated dates have, of course, extended the tradi- tional periodization leading to alternative “high” chronologies, i.e. 300-500 years earlier than the traditional chronologies based on cross-cultural analogies and formal com- parisons. Steppe and Pre-Aral materials may now be unquestionably linked to artefacts from Middle Asia. In the best of circumstances, the latter may in turn be linked to historical chronologies established for the Ancient Near and Middle East. In light of this evidence, this paper proposes that the northern part of the Tagisken plateau was used as a burial ground as far back as the mid-2nd millennium BC, if not earlier, and continued to be used as such until the 13th century BC. * Via Masi 360, 44124 Ferrara. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi:10.1163/15700577-12341334Downloaded from Brill.com09/27/2021 11:46:02PM via free access 308 Bonora Keywords Tagisken North Burial Ground – Andronovo Cultural Complex – Begazy Dandibay culture – Oxus Civilisation – hub-site The Plateau of Tagisken (44°15’55” N; 63°39’46” E) is located in the mid Syr- Darya delta, where the two of its main branches (the Zhana-Darya and the Inkar-Darya) meet, about 160 km from the city of Kyzyl Orda as the crow flies. In 1959 S.P. Tolstov discovered two graveyards, set a mere 200 m apart, on this plateau: the first in the northern part of the upland (Tagisken North) and the second in its southern part (Tagisken South). Both areas were excavated by M.A. Itina between 1960 and 1963. The digs revealed outstanding monuments attesting the advanced building techniques and exquisite funerary architecture of the ancient stockbreeders of the region east of the Aral Sea. Unfortunately, most of the graves had already been plundered.1 In the northern half of the cemetery (Tagisken North), seven monumen- tal Late Bronze Age funerary buildings were excavated (so called mausolea). Nine more barrows (kurgans), as well as some rectangular and round-shaped mud brick buildings, and two rectangular earthen enclosures were also dis- covered nearby.2 The archaeologists S.P. Tolstov, M.A. Itina and L. Yablonskiï 1 Tolstov 1962a; 1962b; Tolstov et alii 1963; Itina & Yablonskiï 1997; 2001. 2 Such analogous rectangular or quadrangular earthen enclosures were also recognised on the Sengir Tam plateau and they were one of the main objectives of the IAEK (Italian Archae- ological Expedition in Kazakhstan) research in the Syr-Darya delta. One of them, labelled SNG 3-4, was partly excavated in the 2008 fall (Beardmore et alii 2008) and some others were singled out both on a plateau between Chirik Rabat and Sengir Tam and near the funerary barrow covered by slags of Kyzyl Depe, in the Balandy district. Very similar structures were identified by K.F. Smirnov and S.A. Popov in the burial ground of Shikhany, near the vil- lage of Lipovka, in the southern Ural region (Smirnov & Popov 1968; 1969; Moshkova et alii 1967). Unfortunately, the archaeological evidences gathered on the surface of these enclo- sures (Itina 1984) and during the IAEK excavation were so scanty that it is not possible to advance concrete hypothesis about their function (possibly, a corral or fence, i.e. a space closed by a palisade in reeds) and their chronology. Usually, these structures are found in association with sites of the second half of the 1st millennium BC, however their presence on the plateau of Tagisken North, close by mausoleums of the Late Bronze Age, seems to suggest a more earlier chronological attribution. This hypothesis finds some support in the discovery made by the writer some years ago of few potsherds of incised coarse ware on the surface of the SNG 3-4 enclosure. Later on, the structure SNG 3-4 was partially covered and consequently destroyed by a funerary barrow of the Chirik Rabat culture (second half of the 1st millennium BC). Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to SiberiaDownloaded 24from (2018) Brill.com09/27/2021 307-330 11:46:02PM via free access A General Revision of the Chronology 309 dated these funerary structures to the beginning of the 1st millennium BC.3 Their assessment was exclusively based on comparisons between pottery types and decorative patterns documented in other sites which had been previously excavated across Eurasia. This chronological hypothesis put forth by the former excavators has been uncritically supported by A. Askarov and E.E. Kuz’mina4 and, more recently, Zh. Kurmankulov and other scholars repeatedly attributed the North Tagisken structures to the beginning of the 1st millennium BC.5 Only one C14 date pertaining to Mausoleum 6 has been published.6 Charcoal sample LE-309 provided a radiocarbon determination of 2430±200 b.p., while the calibrated date with 1Ʃ range was 780-540 BC and calibrated date with 2Ʃ range was 950-450 BC. In my opinion, this result has never been adequately taken into account: according to this dating Tagisken North is more recent than the funerary barrow of Arzhan 1.7 The absence of animal-style arte- facts at Tagisken is significant in this regard. Arzhan 1 marks the beginning of the Iron Age in the steppes and documents the oldest, or one of the oldest kurgans pertaining to the Sakā culture in Eurasia.8 Artefacts, tools and instru- ments shaped in animal-style were not found in Tagisken North, which must therefore be older than Arzhan 1. In my opinion, the C14 date published in relation to Mausoleum 6 of Tagisken North is either incorrect or the sample was contaminated. This paper focuses on the site of Tagisken North and its chronological attri- bution which, in light of recent excavations and research in Central and Middle Asia, is in need of refinement. Tagisken North was a very important site of the transitional period between the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age. Its material culture and funerary architectural features highlight various cultural compo- nents which were prevalent in the steppe communities of the western and eastern Eurasian expanse (Srubnaya and Andronovo complexes), in the large cattle-breeder societies of the southern Ural region, as well as in the farming civilisation of the southern part of Central Asia (the so-called BMAC or Oxus Civilisation). 3 Tolstov 1962a; 1962b; Tolstov et alii 1963, 3-90; Itina & Yablonskiï 2001. 4 Askarov 1992; Kuz’mina 2007. 5 Kurmankulov et alii 2007. 6 Hall 1997. 7 A pooled date from the analysis of three samples (LE-2312, LE-2310, LE-2311) gave a radiocar- bon determination of 2773±28 b.p., while the calibrated date with 1Ʃ range was 950-840 BC and calibrated date with 2Ʃ range was 1000-800 BC (Hall 1997). 8 Hall 1997; Zaitseva et alii 2007. Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia 24Downloaded (2018) 307-330 from Brill.com09/27/2021 11:46:02PM via free access 310 Bonora Thus, it appears that North Tagisken was a very important “hub-site” for the diffusion of ideas, technologies and material, chiefly between the north and the south, during the Late Bronze Age. Syncretism came about through cultural contacts between the northern steppes and the southern valleys and highlands in association with certain innovative features. These innovations include the first use of mud bricks in architecture, the first wheel-thrown pottery north of the Amu-Darya river (documented in Mausoleum 6), the presence of brick columns in the inner corners of rectangular and square rooms suggesting hemispherical roofing, corridors and the entrances9 with arc-shaped vaults, and moreover the first gold and silver artefacts found in Central Asia.10 Thus a unique and distinctive, local cultural world, which would influence most of the art and architecture of Central Asia from classical Antiquity through to the high and late mediaeval period, came to be. Furthermore, most of the features of the funerary ritual, which would later become typical characters of the Sakā culture east of the Aral Sea, are found at Tagisken North. These features include: burning of the burial ground before the construction of the funerary structure; the burial structure itself, includ- ing the wooden roof placed over the burial chamber after the internment of the dead bodies; the square plan of the grave surrounded by a circle or con- centric post holes; the presence of gaps in the circular line of the post holes or recessed post holes
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