Remote Sensing and Survey of the Murghab Alluvial Fan, Southern Turkmenistan: The Coexistence of Nomadic Herders and Sedentary Farmers in the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age1 Barbara Cerasetti2 Abstract In the present as in the past, life in Central Asia has depended on erratic water supplies. Thanks to the recent intensification of archaeological work throughout the region and the combined support of GIS software and remote sensing, we can now study the relationship between urban development and innovations in hydraulic engineering and water management during the transition from the Bronze to the Iron Age. We are convinced that a reconstruction of a detailed model of the ancient river system is a crucial step towards developing a better understanding of human settlement in the alluvial fan and in elucidating the relationship between sedentary and nomadic people in Southern Turkmenistan. One of the archaeological areas in the deeply transformed Murghab alluvial fan able to shed light onto this issue is the area located between the sites of Takhirbai, Auchin and Gonur, among the dense settlement evidence of the Achaemenid period. Introduction At the beginning ‘The Archaeological Map of the Murghab Delta’3 (Gubaev et al. 1998; Salvatori and Tosi 2008) was designed to carry out the systematic recording 1
I would like to thank the President of the IsIAO, Prof. Gherardo Gnoli, for his constant support and Prof. Mukhammed A. Mamedov, Director of the National Department on Protection, Research and Restoration of Historical and Cultural Monuments of the Ministry of Culture and TV Broadcasting of Turkmenistan, and the colleagues of the Institute for their collaboration in and support of this research. A special thank goes to Prof. Maurizio Tosi, the scientific supervisor of the Project. Finally, I would like to thank Dr. Christopher P. Thornton who corrected my English, Dr. Gianni Marchesi for his precious suggestions and Dr. Lynne M. Rouse for both supports. 2 Department of Archaeology, University of Bologna, piazza S. Giovanni in Monte, 2 40124 Bologna; Italian Institute for Africa and the Orient, via U. Aldrovandi, 16 00197 Rome (ITALY); E-mail: barbara. cerasetti@unibo.it. 3 ‘The Archaeological Map of the Murghab Delta’ was originally designed as a joint research project by the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IARAN) in Moscow, the State
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of sites and palaeochannels across the Murghab alluvial fan, to reconstruct landscape and settlement variations, before most of them would disappear for the expanding irrigation works from the Karakum canal.4 The activities of the project, beginning in 1990 and continuing through the present, have coexisted with, and had to adapt to, the deep environmental change brought about by the expansion of cultivated land and the strategies and methods of archaeological field work had to change gradually. The archaeological survey activities were initially concentrated in the southern part of the alluvial fan of the Murghab river and characterized by a great intensity. Only later on, the activities were extended to the rest of the fan and it was then possible to significantly enrich the catalogue of the archaeological sites, with the help of aerial photograph coverage and satellite images. The aim was to produce some reconstructions of the ancient river system and of the old branches of the Murghab that were active during the 3rd, 2nd and 1st millennia BC, and to establish a relationship between them and the peopling dynamics in that area. After a first phase of research to create the archaeological map, nevertheless continuing the survey investigation of the unknown areas, we selected a micro-region to explore more systematically and in detail to gain a more accurate understanding of the relationships between nomad herders and sedentary farmers in the Murghab region. Water has always been an issue, both for agriculture and pastoralism, and the natural drying up of the river forced people to interact with the landscape in different ways. New evidence coming from the last researches suggests that pastoral nomads and agricultural communities were interacting to a great degree, and were much more integrated with one another than was previously believed. The assimilation of nomadic groups into permanent settlements formed a crucial part of state formation in this region during the Iron Age and pastoral nomadism represents a critical variable shaping the settlement history of Southern Turkmenistan.
The Murghab River Region Turkmenistan is approximately 488 km2 in size, 387 km2 of which are covered by ten different types of deserts, 67.2 % of which are sandy deserts (Jumashov 1999: 81, tab. 7.1) (Fig. 1). The Paropamiz and Kopet Dagh mountain ranges and plateaus frame the country’s south-western border. The main rivers are the Amu Dar’ya, Tejen
University of Turkmenistan (TSU) in Ashgabat, the Italian Institute for Africa and the Orient (IsIAO) in Rome and the University of Naples “L’Orientale” (UNO). Funding for this research was provided by the Italian Ministry for Foreign Affairs (MAE), IsIAO, the University of Bologna (UNIBO) and recently the Washington University in St. Louis. Additional support was provided by the Interdepartmental Center of Environmental Sciences (CIRSA) of UNIBO, UNO and Fondazione Flaminia in Ravenna. 4 Karakum canal is one of the largest irrigation and water supply canals in the world, carrying water from the Amu Dar’ya river across the Karakum desert in Turkmenistan.
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and the Murghab;5 the source of the latter river lies in the Hindukush of Afghanistan. The Murghab transverses Turkmenistan from south to north and flows through the south-eastern desert of the Karakum. The endorheic alluvial fan of the Murghab river extends for 19.4 km2, with a drain basin of 62.7 km3. The average elevation is 120 m above sea level, with variation of less than 200 m throughout the entire alluvial fan. The landscape alternates between arid and steppe desert, characterized by sand dunes and interspersed with takyrs and takyr-like surfaces,6 which play an important role in preserving traces of ancient rivers. Progressively dryer climatic conditions and resulting desertification have greatly reduced the extent of the Murghab alluvial fan over the past five millennia. For this reason, the majority of archaeological sites are now located in the desert (Fig. 2). As is the case for most of the major rivers of Central Asia, the Murghab does not have a terminal point. Instead, the channels of the river run across the Karakum and evaporate due to environmental hyperaridity and the high evaporation rates of silt river water. River sediments and sands coming from the north further hinder the natural flow of the river. The high silt rate, together with prevailing climatic conditions and sand movement, thus, pose serious difficulties for the agricultural and pastoral exploitation of the region. The only evidence for change in the hydrographic network of the Murghab river is clearly visible at the north-eastern edge of the alluvial fan, where a tectonic deformation and resulting slope forces the river further westward.7 To understanding the geomorphological structure of the low gradient alluvial fan of the Murghab, the first NASA DEM (Digital Elevation Model) of the SRTM8 mission of 2000 was used, which shows a single fan-shaped conoid.9 In reality, however, we are dealing with two separate and consecutive but overlapping conoids at a continuous gradient. Called Bayram-ali and Mary, they shifted from north-east to south-west and are separated by a slight difference in elevation (Fig. 3). I have proposed elsewhere that the alluvial fan began to shift around the beginning of the Iron Age10 (Table 1), when the natural flow of the river was not intensive enough to reach the northern fringe of the floodplain. This hypothesis is supported by the location of the Iron Age regional capital of Yaztepe, which is situated on the Bayram-ali alluvial fan (Tosi and Cerasetti 2010: 98-99). 5 The Persian term Morq-āb or Murq-āb means ‘water of birds’ (S.M.S. Sajjadi, personal communication) or ‘water bird’ (U. Bisteghi, personal communication) and testifies to the fundamental importance of the river in the ecosystem of the region. 6 Thin, hard, smooth and bare or almost bare surfaces with a characteristic polygonal structure. 7 A. Nigarov suggests that the tectonic phenomenon along the piedmont plain of the Kopet Dagh mountains was one of the main causes for the formation of the western Murghab alluvial fan (personal communication). 8 Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission http://glcfapp.umiacs.umd.edu:8080/esdi/index.jsp 9 The SRTM images have a ground resolution of approximately 90 m with a minimum height interval of 1 m; in our area the absolute accuracy of the height is lower than 5 m. To optimize the DEM low pass filtering, a kernel mask of 9 x 9 pixels has been carried out, reducing the ground noise. The medium slope of the alluvial fan is 1,93‰ with a more frequent value of 1,16‰ and a standard deviation of 1,57‰ (A. Ninfo and A. Perego, personal communication). 10 For the chronology adopted, see table 1, ‘Italian Archaeological Expedition’ column.
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Lyapin (1996: 15) suggested that Yaz-tepe’s political power diminished at the end of the Iron Age and local populations migrated to Merv, the new regional centre. A likely factor in the abandonment of Yaz-tepe was a shift in the course of the main Murghab river to the south-west caused by continuous fluvial aggradations in the north-east. The gradient created by the alluvial deposits forced the river to shift towards the south-west and resulted in the creation of a new conoid.11 During the Achaemenid period, the natural water courses of the Merv system that had been active during the Bronze Age were augmented by artificial constructions such as dams, and thus new, artificial, and controllable hydraulic works conveyed water in otherwise natural channels (Tosi and Cerasetti 2010: 90).
Surveying the Murghab Alluvial Fan Fifteen years of surface survey in the Murghab alluvial fan have demonstrated the importance of GIS technologies to reconstruct the profiles of the ancient landscapes in this region. By employing historical maps and survey transects integrated through orthophotography from aircraft and space as well as oblique flights, we have been able to gain a much better understanding of the main movements of the Murghab river (Cerasetti 2002, 2008; Cerasetti and Mauri 2002). Survey techniques are always, to some degree at least, determined by the physical characteristics of the landscape in question. The alluvial fan of the Murghab river resembles an open hand, and for this reason surface survey has always been constrained by modern canals and by ongoing agricultural activities. The lush vegetation cover in the core area of the alluvial fan or the sand blanket in the north seemingly forced past surveyors to walk along pre-existing paths, and biased site distribution patterns. This bias is beginning to be addressed through the use of systematic survey methods such as transects, which transverse the alluvial fan from west to east and vice versa (Cleuziou et al. 1998; Cattani and Salvatori 2008). Between 1994 and 2005 portions of the Murghab alluvial fan located in-between already known settlement groups was surveyed in this manner (Fig. 4). Further transects were walked in the north-eastern part of the fan between 2006 and 2009 to better define the expansion of settlement into this area. The survey area was 500 km2 in size and included the sites of Takhirbai to the south-west, Gonur to the north-west, Auchin to the north-east and sites 211, 212, 213 to the south-east. This method proved highly successful in providing a fuller picture of the Murghab settlement pattern: in a total of 27 transects, 335 sites dating from the Bronze Age to Islamic period were recorded.
11 On the SRTM, the later Mary fluvial ridges are clearly overlapping those active during the preceding Bronze Age.
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ASTER satellite images proved invaluable for the preliminary planning of transects.12 The image mosaic provided us with rich information about the locations of palaeochannels, takyrs and sand dunes. The clayey surfaces of takyrs collect water during the rare rainfalls and provide a temporary source of fresh water for humans and animals living in the desert. Large takyrs and palaeochannels were, therefore, used as markers for potential points of archaeological interest, which were later groundtruthed. Satellite imagery also provided the survey team with information on modern obstacles such as canals. The satellite images proved only rarely out of date with regard to current landscape features.
Approaching Nomad-Sedentary Interaction in the Bronze and Iron Ages The Murghab experienced a dramatic population increase in the wake of the Achaemenid Empire, reflecting most probably the imperial incorporation of Margiana (i.e. the Achaemenid satrapy). During this period, the local Iron Age 3, the area to the east of Takhirbai was intensively settled (Fig. 2) and a series of hydraulic works such as dams and canals transported water to the dry north-eastern channels of the Murghab river (Cerasetti 2008: 34-36). A large number of multi-period sites are located in this region, most of which can be dated to the Iron Age 3 and show signs of administrative functions, domestic architecture, kilns and surrounding agricultural fields. A series of fortresses, aligned in north-south direction, guarded the easternmost fringe of the fan and served as the outermost defences of the Achaemenid satrapy (Cerasetti and Tosi 2004). Considering the extension of the settled area and the numerous micro-ecologic zones it encompassed, the area was probably divided into locally-controlled regions who answered to an Achaemenid central power. In the early Iron Age, a long process of territorial and socio-economic integration began and continued until the end of the 4th century BC. The large site of Yaz-tepe was probably the political centre of the Murghab region. Given the extent of the Murghab alluvial fan, however, secondary centres located at various distances from Yaz-tepe helped organize and control additional commercial, craft-production, and military populations. Particularly in the northeast where the alluvial fan borders the desert, these secondary centres were the main and direct point of contact for rural populations to engage with larger political structures. During the 2008 field campaign, along a transect 10 km to the north-east of Takhirbai (Fig. 4), a remarkable archaeological site was recorded, whose finds date primarily to the Iron Age 3 as well as the Late Bronze Age-Early Iron Age. The sherd scatter extends over 13 ha and includes several mounds. The main tepe (1529) (Fig. 5) 12 Dated 22. 06. 2000, 08. 07. 2000 and 25. 06. 2001. Three bands VNIR (Visible and Near Infrared) (bands 1, 2 and 3N) with a resolution of 15 m and six bands SWIR (Short Wave Infrared) with a resolution of 30 m. The TIR (Thermal Infrared) bands have not been considered up to now because of the low ground resolution of 90 m.
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located in the north-western part of the site measures one hectare in size and over three meters in height. Together with other peculiarities, the presence of seven large kilns testifies to the political-administrative importance of the tepe. Surrounding artefact concentrations represent rural villages, individual housing units and manured fields. In addition, traces of Andronovo camp-sites, characterized by the presence of Incised Coarse Ware (ICW), were recorded close to the main tepe. During the Achaemenid period, site 1529 together with its satellite settlements was an important and strategic political-administrative centre whose main function was the supervision of the desert border. The site also has the potential to shed light onto the relationship of nomadic and sedentary groups during the Bronze and Iron Ages. Approximately 16 km to the north of sites 211, 212 and 213, which date primarily to Iron Age 2-3, a dense concentration of large low mounds of the same date was recorded. Located close to the central tepe are a series of distinct functional areas, including production areas, kilns, housing units and agricultural fields. The distribution of Iron Age settlements and material culture in the eastern part of the alluvial fan resembles a carpet which obscures any earlier occupation episodes. Pre-Iron Age societies and the crucial interaction between nomadic herders and sedentary farmers can be studied through a few chronological ‘windows’ only. One such window is the area located among the Takhirbai, Auchin and Gonur sites (Fig. 6). During the 2006 campaign, a string of sites dated to the Late Bronze Age and the beginning of Iron Age was detected along a transect to the east of Takhirbai. The sites had been preserved under a massive Iron Age 3 presence. This unusual preservation of Bronze Age remains can be explained by a shift in river course, which is clearly visible on geomorphologic maps and CORONA images, which forced the Iron Age population to move from this area which is otherwise characterised by Bronze Age settlement (Cremaschi 1998: fig. 4; Cerasetti 2008) (Fig. 7). In the same transect, specialised camp-sites were recorded interspersed between sedentary agricultural communities, which indicate the beginning of interaction between nomads and farmers and an incipient process of sedentism (Cattani 2008a, 2008b; Cattani et al. 2008). An impressive ICW site (1468), c. 0.64 ha in size, with the evidence of three sunken dwellings, stone pestles and millstones was recorded approximately 7 km to the east of Takhirbai 3. The complexity and remarkable extent of the site suggests it may have been of an important new scale for the Andronovo community, possibly even a ‘center’ for their interaction with the settled community of Takhirbai. Elaborate incised pottery characterises this site (Cerasetti 1998: 67-70; Tosi and Cerasetti 2010: 94-95). Farther to the east, numerous sites with wheel-made Bronze Age wares were found surrounded by scatters of ICW pottery on the sands. The Bronze Age settlement pattern and hierarchy were structured according to the proximity of sites to the main river branches, soil quality and the morphology of the territory. The surface data recorded during survey allows us not only to investigate nomad-sedentary relations but also to compare different types of sites and prevalent economic strategies. To estimate the number of sites relating to the nomadic presence
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on the border of the territories of agricultural occupation is fundamental in order to better understand the ‘off-site area’ among the large Late and Final Bronze Age sedentary settlements. A process of landscape degradation, for instance, caused by a decrease in humidity during the 2nd millennium BC (Wilkinson 2003: 20) was contained by the penetration of shepherds into marginal agricultural zones farther away from watercourses. Perhaps the most important region yielding information on nomadic-sedentary interaction is located to the west of the Auchin sites. Between Gonur and Auchin, a series of sedentary Late Bronze Age sites have been recorded alongside campsites, ancient agricultural fields, working areas and open pasture lands. During the campaign of October 2009,13 11 transects were surveyed in this part of the fan in order to define better the eastern extent of sedentary communities. The modern canal running to Auchin serves as convenient dividing line between the settled area and the open desert to the east, which is characterised mainly by high barkhans.14 In one of the survey transects we found an impressive 3 ha Andronovo compound (Fig. 8). The site, located mainly on sands, is characterized by a pottery spread and eight distinct concentrations. The central mound is separated from the other areas by sand dunes, which in some cases obscure continuous artefact distributions. The area with the highest concentration of finds yielded large quantities of hand-made pottery, mainly very large ICW fragments.15 The presence of a small number of Late Bronze Age wheel-made sherds testifies to interaction with sedentary communities. Numerous cooking-ware fragments suggest the presence of a living area to the north-west of the main mound. A craft production area with evidence for kiln, kiln-slags, metal prills and numerous stone tools is located c. 40 m to the south-west. Numerous fragments of wattle-and-daub building materials, typical for Andronovo camp-sites in the Murghab alluvial fan, were found scattered across the site. This site is the first example of a sedentary community with an Andronovo cultural identity. SRTM images suggest that river channels in this area were short-lived and the 1993 east-west transects across the Murghab alluvial fan confirmed the continuity of a Bronze Age pastoral presence in the areas between watercourses. Sometime during the Bronze and Iron Ages, Aeolian sands began to shift southward from the distal section of the alluvial fan. River water levels declined relative to the surrounding plain due
13 In June 2009, the participation of L.M. Rouse as a member of the Turkmen-Italian expedition marked the beginning of the collaboration with Washington University in St. Louis. In May of 2010, the collaboration was made official and the American University became an official partner of IsIAO and the Ministry of Culture and TV and Radio Broadcasting of Turkmenistan. 14 Arc-shaped sand ridges, comprising well-sorted sand. 15 In May and October 2010 a joint Italian-American-Turkmen team excavated three of the main areas, under the direction of B. Cerasetti from IsIAO, L.M. Rouse from Washington University in St. Louis and M.A. Mamedov from the Ministry of Culture and TV and Radio Broadcasting of Turkmenistan. The preliminary results will be published shortly.
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to the erosion of the riverbed, which lead to the drying up of lateral river branches.16 Reduced water supply to the area hastened its transformation from agricultural to pastureland and thereby facilitating the immigration of semi-nomadic groups into an area previously occupied by sedentary farmers. But water is not only important for sedentary people. Size and complexity of nomadic camps as well as the length of time spent in a particular location depend on the quantity and quality of available water (Babaev and Arnageldyev 1999: 25).
Conclusion As mentioned above, the progressive decrease in land suitable for agriculture presented a simultaneous increase of grazing areas during the Bronze Age. One can imagine that as a result, farmers leased their territories to cattle breeders in exchange for products such as milk and meat as well as textiles or pelts. Technology, including agricultural techniques, metalworking and possibly even architectural traditions seems to have been exchanged (Shishlina and Hiebert 1998: 222, 231). ‘Undoubtedly, no conflicts but synergies can better explain the fine-grained tapestry of intersecting farmers and pastoralists, resulting from a compensating strategy devised by the local farming communities to meet the diminishing return of irrigation farming across the land invaded by sand and salt.’ (Cattani et al. 2008: 43) A successful integration of steppe nomads and sedentary groups during the Achaemenid period is mentioned in Greek sources (Struve 1949: 10). Evidently, the initial co-existence and the subsequent integration of nomads and farmers reached a remarkable point, as testified by the archaeological compound described above, and both cultures incorporated and re-interpreted the traits of the other one. According to Cattani (2008b: 147), most of the finds in the Murghab alluvial fan belong to the Tazabag’yab Culture, which combines elements of sedentary and steppe traditions from the Akchadar’ya of Khorezm who, by 1750-1500 BC, had adopted a complex pastoral-agricultural system. On the basis of the data available at the time, Cattani writes (2008b: 148) that due to the almost complete absence of burial sites and of other forms of evidence, the social structure of the Andronovo communities in the Murghab alluvial fan were entirely unknown, and that there was no evidence for an assimilation into sedentary communities or uptake of sedentary cultural traditions. In view of the evidence collected during the 2009 survey, I would suggest that sedentary and nomad communities interacted not only through economic exchange, but also that ideas and traditions were exchanged and adopted, and as a result the two 16 The same phenomenon of incision characterized the alluvial fans of the Tejen and the Amu Dar’ya, and it is possible that climatic changes or tectonic movements are responsible for this phenomenon (A. Ninfo and A. Perego, personal communication).
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ways of life became ever more interconnected. A crucial area of further research of this phenomenon are processes of landscape degradation along alluvial margins and the progressive advance of Andronovo settlements in this area and along palaeochannels. The phenomenon of pastoral nomadism in Central Asia, and in particular in Southern Turkmenistan, represents a crucial point to understand the sequence of settlement events characterizing the territory of the alluvial fan. According to T.J. Wilkinson (forthcoming: 11), ‘Certainly more of this type of field research should be conducted …, because … we have known that impressive “continuous” landscapes existed in Central Asia’.
Bibliography Babaev, A.G., Arnageldyev, A.A. 1999 People in deserts: in A.G. Babaev (ed.), Desert Problems and Desertification in Central Asia. The Researches of the Desert Institute, Berlin and Heidelberg, 22-31. Cattani, M. 2008a Excavations at sites No. 1211 and 1219 (Final Bronze Age): in S. Salvatori, M. Tosi (eds), The Bronze Age and Early Iron Age in the Margiana Lowlands. Facts and Methodological Proposal for a Redefinition of the Research Strategies. The Archaeological Map of the Murghab Delta. Studies and Reports, II (BAR S1806), Oxford, 119-132. 2008b The final phase of the Bronze Age and the “Andronovo” question: in S. Salvatori, M. Tosi (eds), The Bronze Age and Early Iron Age in the Margiana Lowlands. Facts and Methodological Proposal for a Redefinition of the Research Strategies. The Archaeological Map of the Murghab Delta. Studies and Reports, II (BAR S1806), Oxford, 133-151. Cattani, M., Cerasetti, B., Salvatori, S., Tosi, M. 2008 The Murghab Delta in Central Asia 1990-2001: the GIS from research resource to a reasoning tool for the study of settlement change in long-term fluctuations: in S. Salvatori, M. Tosi (eds), The Bronze Age and Early Iron Age in the Margiana Lowlands. Facts and Methodological Proposal for a Redefinition of the Research Strategies. The Archaeological Map of the Murghab Delta. Studies and Reports, II (BAR S1806), Oxford, 39-45.
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Cattani, M., Salvatori, S. 2008 Transects and other techniques for systematic sampling: in S. Salvatori, M. Tosi (eds), The Bronze Age and Early Iron Age in the Margiana Lowlands. Facts and Methodological Proposal for a Redefinition of the Research Strategies. The Archaeological Map of the Murghab Delta. Studies and Reports, II (BAR S1806), Oxford, 1-27. Cerasetti, B. 1998 Preliminary report on ornamental elements of «Incised Coarse Ware»: in A. Gubaev, G. Koshelenko, M. Tosi (eds), The Archaeological Map of the Murghab Delta. Preliminary Reports 1990-95. Reports and Memoirs. Series Minor, III, Roma, 67-74. 2002 A 5000-years history of settlement and irrigation in the Murghab Delta (Turkmenistan). An attempt of reconstruction of ancient deltaic system: in G. Burenhult, J. Arvidsson (eds), Archaeological Informatics: Pushing the Envelope CAA 2001. Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology. Proceedings of the 29th Conference, Gotland, April 2001 (BAR S1016), Oxford, 21-27. 2008 A GIS for the archaeology of the Murghab Delta: in S. Salvatori, M. Tosi (eds), The Bronze Age and Early Iron Age in the Margiana Lowlands. Facts and Methodological Proposal for a Redefinition of the Research Strategies. The Archaeological Map of the Murghab Delta. Studies and Reports, II (BAR S1806), Oxford, 31-39. Cerasetti, B., Mauri, M. 2002 The Murghab Delta palaeochannel reconstruction on the basis of remote sensing from space: in Space Applications for Heritage Conservation, Strasbourg (France), 5-8 November 2002 (CD-Rom support). Cerasetti, B., Tosi, M. 2004 Development of the “open frontier” between Iran and Central Asia: the Murghab defensive systems in the antiquity and the variants of the Silk Road across the Karakum: in Parthica 6, pp. 1-6. Cleuziou, S., Gaibov, V., Annaev, A. 1998 Off-site archaeological transects in northern Margiana: in A. Gubaev, G. Koshelenko, M. Tosi (eds), The Archaeological Map of the Murghab Delta. Preliminary Reports 1990-95. Reports and Memoirs. Series Minor, III, Roma, 27-33. Cremaschi, M. 1998 Palaeohydrography and Middle Holocene desertification in the northern fringe of the Murghab Delta: in A. Gubaev, G. Koshelenko, M. Tosi (eds), The Archaeological Map of the Murghab Delta. Preliminary Reports 199095. Reports and Memoirs. Series Minor, III, Roma, 15-25.
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Gubaev, A., Koshelenko, G., Tosi, M. (eds) 1998 The Archaeological Map of the Murghab Delta. Preliminary Reports 199095. Reports and Memoirs. Series Minor, III, Roma. Haerinck, E. 1988 The Iron Age in Gilan-Proposal for a Chronology: in J. Curtis (ed.), Bronzeworking Centres of Western Asia c. 1000-539 BC, London, 63-78. 1989 The Achaemenid (Iron Age IV) Period in Gilan, Iran: in L. De Meyer, E. Haerinck (eds), Archaeologia Iranica et Orientalis. Miscellanea in honorem Louis Vanden Berghe, Gent, 455-474. Hiebert, F.T. 1994 Origins of the Bronze Age Oasis Civilization in Central Asia: in American School of Prehistoric Research Bulletin 42, Cambridge. 2002 The Kopet Dag Sequence of Early Villages in Central Asia: in Paléorient 28, 2, pp. 25-41. 2003 A Central Asian Village at the Dawn of Civilization, Excavations at Anau, Turkmenistan: in University Museum Monograph 116, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology, Philadephia. Jumashov, A.P. 1999 Genetic types of deserts in Central Asia: in A.G. Babaev (ed.), Desert Problems and Desertification in Central Asia. The Researches of the Desert Institute, Berlin and Heidelberg, 77-87. Kohl, P.L. 1992 Central Asia (Western Turkestan): Neolithic to the Early Iron Age: in R.W. Ehrich (ed.), Chronologies in Old World Archaeology, Chicago, 155-162. Koshelenko, G.A. (ed.) 1985 Drevnejshie gosudarstva Kavkaza i Sredney Azii, Moskva. Lyapin, A.A. 1996 Early Murgap Dams: in Problems of Desert Development 1, pp. 13-21. Masson, V.M. 1959 Drevnezemledel’cheskaya kul’tura Margiany: in Materialy i issledovaniya po arkheologii SSSR 73, Moskva and Leningrad. Masson, V.M., Sarianidi, V.I. 1972 Central Asia. Turkmenia Before the Achaemenids, London. Salvatori, S., Tosi, M. (eds) 2008 The Bronze Age and Early Iron Age in the Margiana Lowlands. Facts and Methodological Proposal for a Redefinition of the Research Strategies. The Archaeological Map of the Murghab Delta. Studies and Reports, II (BAR S1806), Oxford.
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Shishlina, N.I., Hiebert, F.T. 1998 The steppe and the sown: Interaction between Bronze Age Eurasian nomads and agriculturalists: in V.H. Mair (ed.), The Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Peoples of Eastern Central Asia, Journal of Indo-European Studies, 26, Washington and Philadelphia, 222-237. Struve, V.V. 1949 Vosstanie v Margiane pri Darii I. Materialy yuzhno-Turkmenistanskoj arkheologicheskoj kompleksnoj ekspedizii, 1, Ashkhabad, 9-34. Tosi, M., Cerasetti, B. 2010 Once upon a time.......A brief reflection on the history of The Archaeological Map of the Murghab Delta (AMMD): in P.M. Kozhin, M.F. Kosarev, N.A. Dubova (eds), On the Track of Uncovering a Civilization. A Volume in Honor of the 80th-Anniversary of Victor Sarianidi Transactions of the Margiana Archaeological Expedition 3, Sankt-Petersburg, 86-103. Wilkinson, T.J. 2003 Archaeological Landscapes of the Near East, Tucson. forthcoming A Perspective on the “Continuous Landscape” of the Murghab Delta (to appear in a volume of studies in honour of Maurizio Tosi). Young, T.C.Jr. 1967 The Iranian Migration into the Zagros: in Iran 5, pp. 11-34.
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Table 1: A comparative chronological table for the Bronze Age-Iron Age sequences Table 1: A comparative chronological table for the Bronze Age-Iron Age sequences of the area, according to various of the area, according to various authors. authors. Iran NW (Young 1967; Haerinck 19881989)
Iran NE/ Turkmenistan S (Masson 1959)
Iran NE/ Turkmenistan S (Kohl 1992)
Iran NE/ Turkmenistan S (Hiebert 1994; 2002; 2003)
Iran NE/ Turkmenistan S (Italian Archaeological Expedition) (Gubaev et al. 1998; Salvatori and Tosi 2008)
Namazga III 3000-2500 bC
Namazga IIILate Eneolithic 3500-3000 bC
Namazga III c. 3100-2700 bC
Late Chalcolithic 3300-2800 bC
Namazga IV 2500-2000 bC
Namazga IVEarly Bronze Age 3000-2500 bC
Namazga IV c. 2700-2300 bC
Early Bronze Age 2800-2400 bC
Iran NE/ Turkmenistan S (Masson and Sarianidi 1972)
Iran NE/ Turkmenistan S (Koshelenko 1985)
BRONZE AGE
Namazga V 2000-1600 bC
Namazga VNamazga V Middle Bronze Age c. 2300-1900 bC 2500-2200 bC
Middle Bronze Age 2400-1950 bC
Middle Bronze Age Transition 2300-2100 bC Namazga VI 1600-900 bC
Namazga VINamazga VI Late Bronze Age A c. 1900-1500 bC 2100-1800 bC
Late Bronze Age 1950-1500 bC
Late Bronze Age B 1800-1500 bC Final Bronze Age (andronovo Phase) 1500-1300 bC IRON AGE Iron Age I 1300-1000 bC
Yaz I 900-630 bC
Yaz I 900-670 bC
Iron Age 1 1300-900 bC
Iron Age II 1000-800 bC
Yaz II 630-440 bC
Yaz II 670-500 bC
Iron Age 2 900-550 bC
Iron Age III 750-550 bC
Yaz III 440-300 bC
Yaz III 500-400 bC
ACHAEMENID Iron Age 3 550-340 bC Iron Age 4 340-300 bC
Fig. 1: Map of Central Asia and a detail of the Murghab alluvial fan to the right.
552 Barbara Cerasetti
Fig. 2: Distribution of Late Bronze Age (dark grey dots), Andronovo (white dots) and Iron Age 3 archaeological sites (light grey dots) in the northeastern area of the Murghab alluvial fan along the ancient fluvial ridges, with basemap of CORONA KH-4 images (SeptemberOctober 1972).
Remote Sensing and Survey of the Murghab Alluvial Fan 553
554
Barbara Cerasetti
Fig. 3: Original network of the Murghab River with two main alluvial fans, with basemap of 2000 SRTM images. In the circle the overlapping of the fluvial ridges serving the ancient Merv.
Fig. 4: Walking transects from 1994 to 2005 (black lines) and from 2006 to 2009 (white lines) carried out in northeastern part of the Murghab alluvial fan, with basemap of 2001 Aster images.
Remote Sensing and Survey of the Murghab Alluvial Fan
Fig. 5: Archaeological compound Site no. 1529: A) View of the main tepe, facing north; B) One of the kilns of central mound.
555
Barbara Cerasetti
556
Fig. 6: Map of archaeological site distribution in north-eastern part of the Murghab alluvial fan: Bronze Age sites (light grey dots), Iron Age 3 sites (dark grey dots), with basemap of ESRI World Imagery Map Server. Map by L.M. Rouse.
Redrawn from Cremaschi 1998: fig. 4.
Fig. 7: 1:75,000 geomorphological map of the north-eastern part of the fan with 2010 archaeological sites (black dots). The evidence of the shift of the meander (black rectangle) and the distribution of the Bronze Age sites with Andronovo Site no. 1468 along one of 2006 transects (black line in the grey circle).
Remote Sensing and Survey of the Murghab Alluvial Fan 557
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Barbara Cerasetti
Fig. 8: Andronovo archaeological complex between Gonur and Auchin sites: A) Location of the ICW site along the palaeochannels, with basemap of CORONA KH-4 images (September-October 1972); B) Details of the environment around the ICW archaeological compound, with basemap of CORONA KH-4 images (September-October 1972).
Proceedings of the 7th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East 12 April – 16 April 2010, the British Museum and UCL, London Volume 1 Mega-cities & Mega-sites The Archaeology of Consumption & Disposal Landscape, Transport & Communication Edited by Roger Matthews and John Curtis with the collaboration of Michael Seymour, Alexandra Fletcher, Alison Gascoigne, Claudia Glatz, St John Simpson, Helen Taylor, Jonathan Tubb and Rupert Chapman
2012
Harrassowitz Verlag ¡ Wiesbaden
ISBN 978-3-447-06684-6
Contents Foreword of the Editors...............................................................................xi Programme of the Congress........................................................................xiii
VOLUME ONE Mega-cities & Mega-sites Arkadiusz Marciniak, Lech Czerniak Çatalhöyük Unknown. The Late Sequence on the East Mound.......................3 Peter F. Biehl The Transition of the Megasite Çatalhöyük in the Late Neolithic and Early Chalcolithic...........................................................................................17 Rita Dolce On Urban and Ideological Routes at Ebla: A Look at the Topography of Cult Places in the Early Syrian City................35 Marco Ramazzotti The Ideological and Aesthetic Relationship between Ur and Ebla during the Third Millennium BC...............................................................................53 Dirk Paul Mielke Fortifications and Fortification Strategies of Mega-cities in the Ancient Near East.........................................................................................................73 Friedhelm Pedde The Assur Project: The Middle and Neo-Assyrian Graves and Tombs..........93 Fernando Escribano Martín, Alejandro Gallego López Babylon as a Great Urban Area of Religious Character...............................109 Mahmoud El-Hamrawi Iá-at-ri-bu (> arab. Yathrib), The Ancient Name of Medina ................................. ....125 Tobin Hartnell, Ali Asadi Achaemenid Persepolis in Context...............................................................139 Roberta Menegazzi Creating a New Language: The Terracotta Figurines from Seleucia on the Tigris..................................157 Vito Messina Seleucia on the Tigris. The New Babylon of Seleucid Mesopotamia..........169
Contents
VI
The Archaeology of Consumption & Disposal
Mehmet Özdoğan The Archaeology of Consumption and Disposal: A Survey of Changing Trends .....................................................................183 Joanna S. Smith Layered Images and the Contributions of Recycling to Histories of Art ....199 Florian Janoscha Kreppner Site Formation Processes in the Lower Town II of Dur-Katlimmu. The Case of the Red House .........................................................................217 David Ben-Shlomo, Austin C. Hill, Yosef Garfinkel Storage, Feasting and Burials at Chalcolithic Tel Tsaf ................................229 Valentina M. Azzarà The Organization of Food Processing at HD-6 (Sultanate of Oman) ..........251 Licia Romano Banqueting in a Temple ...............................................................................269 Leann C. Pace Consuming Transitions: What Can a Foodways Approach Tell us About the 3rd–2nd Millennium Transition in the Levant?...............................................283 Carmen del Cerro Linares Only Storage Jars? Large Jars at al Thuqeibah, Sharjah, (UAE): An Interpretation According to the Excavation Data and the Nature of the Environment. ...............................................................................................291 Susan L. Cohen Weaponry and Warrior Burials: Patterns of Disposal and Social Change in the Southern Levant .................................................................................307 Andrea Polcaro Disposal of Food Funerary Offering and Reconstruction of Funerary Banquet Rituals in Middle Bronze Age Syria: the Tomb P.8680 at Tell Mardikh-Ebla ...............................................................................................321 Davide Nadali Things Also Die. Considerations on the Meaning and Function of Funerary Furnishings in Mesopotamia and Syria ........................................339 Johnny Samuele Baldi Coba Bowls Production, Use And Discard: A View From Tell Feres Al-Sharqi ..............................................................355 Francesco del Bravo Production Processes During the Formative Ninevite 5 Period. Ceramic Processing Sites of the Upper Tigridian Region ...........................369
Contents
VII
Marta D’andrea Trickle Painted Ware: Social Self-representation and Exchange during Early Bronze IV in Palestine and Transjordan ............................................379 Liat Naeh Just a Sip and a Bite: The Miniature Pottery Vessels of the Middle Bronze Age II Temple at Nahariya, Israel. The Key-Questions ..................405 Anacleto D’Agostino Kilns and Ovens from the 2nd millennium BC Settlement of Tell Barri (NE Syria) ...................................................................................................421 Federico Manuelli From the Early to the Middle Iron Age: Development of the Pottery Inventories from the New Excavations at Arslantepe. ................................447 Andrew McCarthy Figuring Out Figurines: A Sealed Zoomorphic Clay Figurine from 3rd Millennium Tell Leilan ................................................................................461 Luca Peyronel Resources Exploitation and Handicraft Activities at Tell Mardikh-Ebla (Syria) during the Early and Middle Bronze Ages ......................................475 Oren Tal, Itamar Taxel Socio-Political and Economic Aspects of Refuse Disposal in Late Byzantine and Early Islamic Palestine ........................................................497
Landscape, Transport & Communication Jason Ur Landscapes of Movement in the Ancient Near East ....................................521 Barbara Cerasetti Remote Sensing and Survey of the Murghab Alluvial Fan, Southern Turkmenistan: The Coexistence of Nomadic Herders and Sedentary Farmers in the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age ...................................539 Hartmut Kühne Water for Assyria .........................................................................................559 Katia Gavagnin The Neo-Assyrian and Post-Assyrian Settlement in the Leilan Region, Northeastern Syria: Some Preliminary Results ...........................................573 Jesse Casana Site Morphology and Settlement History in the Northern Levant ...............593 Lorenzo Nigro Khirbet al-Batrawy: Rise, Flourish and Collapse of an Early Bronze Age City in Jordan ...........609
VIII
Contents
Yukiko Tonoike Beyond Style: Petrographic Analysis of Dalma Ceramics in Two Regions of Iran ............................................................................................629 Toby C. Wilkinson Macro-scale Analysis of Material Culture in Their Landscapes: Case-studies in ‘Invisible Flows’ .................................................................647 Kristina J. Hesse An Inland Levantine Perspective on Late Bronze Age Maritime Trade – the Case of Hazor .....................................................................................663 Irene Forstner-Müller The Urban Landscape of Avaris in the Second Intermediate Period ...........681 Fevzi Kemal Moetz, Bahattin Çelik T-Shaped Pillar Sites in the Landscape around Urfa ...................................695 Bethany J. Walker Political Ecology and the Landscapes of Northern Jordan in the Late Islamic Periods ............................................................................................ 711 Maurits Ertsen Understanding Irrigation as a Response to Climate in the Zerqa Triangle, Jordan – A Modelling Approach ..................................................................725