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The Agricultural Tribes of South Central Asia in the 2Nd Millennium Bc

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The Agricultural Tribes of South Central Asia in the 2Nd Millennium Bc CHAPTER SEVENTEEN THE AGRICULTURAL TRIBES OF SOUTH CENTRAL ASIA IN THE 2ND MILLENNIUM BC The culture of Central Asia is still divided into the south and north. In southern Turkmenia the 2nd millennium BC belongs to the Namazga VI stage (Pumpelly 1908; Ganyalin 1956; Marushchenko 1959; Masson 1959; Shchetenko 1999). The date of this stage ranges from the (20th) 18th to the 13th centuries BC. The population failed to recover from the earlier crisis and the number of settlements decreased, e.g., Anau (Southern hill), Namazga-depe, Tekkem-depe, El’ken- depe. Their area does not exceed 1-2ha. But the prolonged development of the stage is reflected in the thickness of the cultural layers, e.g., Namazga—7m, Tekkem—6m. The culture is genetically related to the preceding Namazga V culture. Its traditions are preserved in the architecture of the fortified settlements with blocks of multi-room houses and in the manufacture of unornamented wheel-made ceramics, fired in two-tiered kilns, in the types of decoration and in metal objects. The economy is based on irrigation farming (barley and wheat). The importance of cattle-breeding increased: cattle, ovicaprids and Bactrian camels. The horse appeared for the first time. V. Masson (1959: 109, 110) notes progress in the development of craft and irrigation. Innovations are also recorded in the sphere of spiritual culture: special burial grounds (Yangi-Kala and Asgabat) came into being. Relations with India continued, indicated by the discovery of stone beads of the Jhukar type with circular ornament. Yet the orientation of the main contacts changes: ties are established with the northern pastoral tribes, and high-tin bronze articles of the Andronovo-type become widespread. In the 2nd millennium BC the center of the farming culture shifts eastwards. As early as the Namazga V and, possibly, even the Namazga IV period, a new seat of the ancient Near Eastern civilization forms in the delta of the Murgab river (future Margiana) and in northern Afganistan and south-east of Central Asia downstream of the Oxus river (Amu-Darya): the Oxus culture or the BMAC (Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex) (Sarianidi 1977, 1990; 2002; Masimov 1979; Francfort 1989; Hiebert et al. 1992; Lamberg-Karlovsky 1994). Both these names are inexact, since the Oxus culture characterizes only Bactria, while the BMAC is merely a complex, although we are dealing here with a full culture with several variants. The development of this culture dates back to the late (?) 3rd–2nd millennium BC. In Margiana the BMAC is represented by the major settlement of Gonur and its affiliated cemetery as well as the settlements of Kelleli, Togolok 1, 21, 24, Auchin I, and Takhirbay 3. In southern Bactria BMAC settlements include Girdai-Tepe, Dashly 1,3, Shortughai (stage B), numerous 226 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN cemeteries destroyed by looters, the Fullol hoard, and chance finds (Sarianidi 1977, 1990, 1998, 2001a,b, 2002; Francfort 1989; Amiet 1977, 1986, 1997; Pottier 1984; Tosi and Wardak 1972). The origin of the culture is debatable. H.-P. Francfort emphasizes the continuity of life at Shortughai and the continuity of building techniques during stage B of the Harappan cultural traditions. V. Sarianidi (1987) presumes that the culture emerged in eastern Iran where it has not yet been discovered. Now he, following T. Gamkrelidze and V. Ivanov (1984), points out its western sources, noting ties with Anatolia and even Greece. Initially, V. Masson (1989: 172,173) supposed that the development of the Murgab was associated with the cultural crisis of southern Turkmenia in the Namazga V period, when part of the excess population moved to the Murgab. This view seems unquestionable. The decisive argument in its favor is the continuity in the BMAC of the Namazga IV and V traditions of the manufacture of light-slipped ceramics, and the industrial technology that was maintained in Central Asia up to the time of Alexander the Great (Kuz’mina 1971, 1976). The ceramic complex of Central Asia during the Bronze Age and Achaemenid period differs from the gray-black polished pottery of north-eastern Iran (Shah-Tepe, Hissar), just as from the cultures of Baluchistan and India. The second component of the BMAC is the culture of Elam, as has been convincingly demonstrated by P. Amiet (1986, 1997). Of critical importance is not just the similarity of random types of articles but of the whole complex of the material culture (specific axes with a figured top, mirrors with an anthropomorphic handle, pins, steatite columns and female figures in Elamite dress) and, most importantly, images of art reflecting the spiritual culture of society. As a rule, their borrowing is associated not with cultural influences but with the migration of a population bringing along a new ideology. This conclusion is reliably supported by analysis of the semantics of the images on the seals (Klochkov 1997; Antonova 2000; Francfort 2001). As for ties with Anatolia, identified by Sarianidi, they are likely to reflect not a migration but wide cultural relations characteristic of the Bronze Age of the whole of south- west Asia (Amiet 1986; Lamberg-Karlovsky 1987, 1994; Hiebert and Lamberg- Karlovsky 1992). In the evolution of the Margiana culture several stages are singled out, reflecting the development of the oases on the Murgab. The earliest was the Kelleli oasis (Masimov l979). At the settlement of Kelleli the Namazga V traditions are represented particularly clearly. The heyday of the culture goes back to the Gonur period. V. Sarianidi believes that a shift of the Murgab delta brought about also a migration of the population to the south. The latest Bronze Age sites are the settlements of Takhirbay 3,1 dating from the second half of the 2nd millennium BC (Masson 1959). Somewhat later than in Margiana and southern Bactria there forms a culture in northern Bactria (Map 17). In southern Uzbekistan it is represented by the sites of Sapalli, Dzharkutan, Mollali, Bustan and others. A. Askarov distinguishes them as the Sapalli culture. In actual fact, by all the culture- determining characteristics they belong to the Oxus culture and may be viewed only as its local variant. Based on the stratigraphy and ceramics the stages of Sapalli and Dzharkutan have been assigned to 1700-1300 BC and those of .
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