Uzbekistan: Dzharkutan - Prehistoric proto-urbane settlement

Centres of Ancient Civilisations of Bactria. Excavations in Dzharkutan

Prehistoric proto-urbane settlement with monumental architecture: Temple or Palace?

Location

Western part of Surkhandaria province, southern Uzbekistan, ca. 50 km northwest of Termez, 5 km southeast of Sherabad. Extensive settlement on the banks of an ancient rivulet, with "citadel", two monumental buildings, potters quarters and vast cemeteries.

History

	Djarkutan, Lageplan

Djarkutan is among the largest settlements of the late Bronze Age Oxus Culture (Bactrian-Margiana Archaeological Complex, BMAC, in south-eastern Turkmenistan, southern Uzbekistan and northern Afghanistan) at the easternmost periphery of that specific culture, which became known only ca. 25 years ago and which seems to have developed from earlier Bronze Age Cultures of Turkmenistan. The components of its formation and its dating is disputed. Few signs found on sherds and taken for letters, scarcely indicate its linguistic relationship. Archaeological research, mostly done by Soviet scholars, tried to connect it with the formation and movements of Arian tribes and with the development of Zoroastrian religion, although others reject this. 

Objectives

The new excavations are to assemble a careful and comprehensive documentation of archaeological and scientific facts, which will provide basic material for an unbiased discussion of the many unsolved questions on the history of the site and the Oxus culture in general. Special attention will be given to the monumental architecture and to the dating of this period. 

History of Research

	Bestattung in der Nekropole am Südrand der Siedlung

Excavations in Djarkutan were begun in 1973 by the Uzbek Archaeological Institute and were resumed in 1994 as a cooperation project of the German and Uzbek institutes. The early excavations were concerned with the citadel hill and its castle-like monument, with the upper layers of some living quarters and of the monumental building in the settlement, and with the potters quarter; more than 1.500 tombs were excavated and partly published. The relative chronology of pottery and small finds and the relations with other sites of the Oxus culture was established. Starting from the pottery the sequence of the settlement was divided in three main periods: Djarkutan, Kusali, Mullalli, which were placed between the earlier Sapalli and the later Bustan periods. 

Current Work

	Djarkutan, Lageplan

Excavations in the different areas of the settlement indicate that the northern half was not only the older part but, regarding the high quality of the find material and of the mud brick architecture, it was also the area of a social upper class. The southern half seems to harbour mainly simple clay cottages and work shops. - In the lower layers of the citadel hill rich Bronze Age houses were uncovered under the remainders of the citadel wall. This proves that the wall must belong to a latest phase of Bronze - or even early Iron Age. It is noteworthy in this context that only on the citadel hill early Iron Age pottery is found. - Under a complex of rich living houses on Tepe V an extensive mud brick platform was traced, by which obviously the slope of the hill was stepped up.
- In the lower layers of the large monumental building on Tepe VI rounded bastions, 8m wide and protruding from the 4 m wide enclosure wall were identified as well as a sophisticated interior layout , comparable to the better preserved buildings of this type in Margiana (Togolok e.a.). Under the western half of the building traces of an earlier construction with regular layout and rooms up to 7 x 7 m, as well as different kinds of kilns were found. Pottery dates this older building into the earliest Djarkutan phase, still overlapping with the Sapalli period. Under the eastern part of the monumental building are workshops and kilns, belonging to the same earliest period. A catacomb tomb, found here among some other burials, showed for the first time the re-opening of the vertical entrance shaft some time after the first burial and the deposit of a second body in the burial chamber. - The find material from the cemetery as the best-defined correlated material of an excavation, serves as a guide for dating the pottery from the settlement. The newly found material will be analysed together with the partly not yet published material from the earlier excavations in Djarkutan and Sapellitepe. 

Methods

Beside archaeological field work scientific technological research is carried out on all kinds of find material: 14-carbon dating, archaeo-botanical and palaeozoological research, chemical analysis of frit-pearls, archaeo-metallurgical research on bronze objects from Djarkutan and other sites in Uzbekistan.  

Results

The new excavations show that the sequence of archaeological phases in Djarkutan is more complex than assumed before. The observations on the citadel hill are important for the question, whether there was an uninterrupted continuity of occupation from the late Bronze to the early Iron Age, or whether the site was abandoned for a while after the decline of the Oxus culture. The newly found mud brick platform on Tepe V seems not to be connected with the houses above, thus raising considerable questions about the original building program. Observations on the monumental building on Tepe VI finally verify its close relationship with the most important type of late Bronze Age Oxus architecture, as it is impressively represented by the buildings at Togolak in Margiana. The new detail observations will provide a broad basis for fresh discussions of the original function of that type of buildings, which is essential for our understanding of the social, political and ideological background of the Oxus civilization. 

Cooperation

The new excavations are a project of cooperation of the Eurasia Department of the German Archaeological Institute Berlin and the Archaeological Institute of the Uzbek Academy of Sciences, Samarkand. 

Further Contact Partners

Dr. Dietrich Huff, through the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Eurasien-Abteilung, Im Dol 2-6, D-14195 Berlin, Tel: +49-(0)1888-7711-187; Fax: +49-(0)1888/7711-189; Email: eurasien@dainst.de
Dr. Shapulat Shaidullaev, Archaeological Institute of the Academy of Sciences, 703051 Samarkand, ul. Akad. Abdullaeva 3, Uzbekistan, Email: archaeo@online.ru.

Bibliography

A. A. Askarov/T. S. Sirinov, Rannaja gorodskaja kul'tura epochi bronzy juga srednej Azii (Samarkand 1993).

A. A. Askarov/T. S. Sirinov, in: Bulletin of the Asia Institute 8, 1994, 13 ff.

D. Huff, in: Mitteilungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie und Urgeschichte 18, 1997, 83 ff.

D. Huff, in: Archäologische Entdeckungen I (Mainz 2000).

D. Huff, in: Istorija material'noi kul'tury Uzbekistana 31, 2000, 58 ff.

D. Huff, in: Archäologischer Anzeiger 1998 ff. (Jahresbericht 1996 ff.).