THE BMAC GLYPTIC: GENERAL REMARKS

BMAC seals started to be known only after the discovery of the first Bronze Age remains in northern Afghanistan in the late 1960s and 1970s. From the later Russian excavations in southern Uzbekistan and southern Turkmenistan three facts emerge: (1) the seals clearly belong to a newly discovered urban culture; (2) the seals belong to the large “stamp seal-province” of the Iranian Plateau; (3) their very large number makes them the best conveyors of myths, rituals, gods, environment, flora, fauna, and a good provider of the social status of their owners in the absence of writing in the BMAC culture.

Seals are found on all the sites and in all the cemeteries of this culture, albeit in different quantities (Table8.i). Important sites are Dashly Tepe 1 and3 in Afghanistan, Sapallitepa, and Dzharkutan in southern Uzbekistan, but the greatest number of excavated seals has been found in ancient Margiana in southern Turkmenistan. It was V.M. Masson and VI. Sarianidi who discovered the first examples of seals during their surveys in the Kara Kum Desert in the 1950s, without being able to yet understand their character, however (Masson 1959; Sarianidi 1965, 1966; compilation of seals: Masimov and Salvatori 2008). But with the new surveys made in the 1970s by Sarianidi (1976,1981), I.S. Masimov (1979,1981), and B. Udeumuradov (1993), and with the beginning of excavations at the newly discovered sites in the Taip, Togolok, Adji Kui, and Kelleli oases of Margiana, Sarianidi was able to verify the affiliation of these seals to the BMAC.

Most of the Margiana seals come from the 40 years of excavations made at Gonur Depe, the major site of the BMAC in modern Turkmenistan. The second area of the Murghab delta that provided many seals is the Togolok oasis, mainly settled during the younger phase of the BMAC (i.e., Gonur periods II and III, see Table 8.1 ).^s In this oasis, the seals come from excavations at Togolok 1 (16 ex.), Togolok 2 (1 ex.),

Table 8.1 Published BMAC seals from different sites, except Gonur

(continued)

Table 8.i Cont.

Note: NM = National Museum.

Togolok 21 (33 ex.), and Togolok 24 (5 ex.). Other sites of the oasis only produced one seal found on the surface, like Togolok 3, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 29, and 30. These occurrences reflect the different sizes of the sites but also that only the larger sites have been excavated.

A total of 52 seals and many impressions come from rooms and graves in a third area of the Murghab delta, the Adji Kui oasis. Some 40 seals have been found in Adji Kui 1, the largest site in the oasis, excavated by G. Rossi Osmida (2011: 226-237 and personal communication).⁶ The Adji Kui 1 seals consist of 27 compartmented seals made of “bronze”, faience, and stone, and 14 classical stamp seals made of metal, stone, and unbaked clay. To them must be added seal impressions on pottery, and 26 cretulae, among them one cretula with the impression of a compartmented seal covering the mouth of a large vessel.⁷ Adji Kui 9 produced 11 seals, among which ten are compartmented seals, one is a simple round stamp seal in the “drilled style” with a long handle. From Adji Kui 9 also come 18 cretulae closing the opening of containers and bags.

Other sites in Margiana that provided seals in far smaller number are Auchin 1 (two seals), Kelleli 4 (one seal), and Taip 1 (six seals from the surface, see Table 8.1). Taip Depe is especially interesting in so far as all the six seals are cylinder seals, which thus make this site the place where the largest amount of cylinder seals has been found up to now. Unfortunately, it has not been further excavated. Finally, 21 seals of different types are surface finds from surveys in the Kara Kum (see Table 8.1 ).^s

All the seals from Margiana are today stored at the National Museum of Turkmenistan (NM) and the State Museum of Fine Art (MFA) in Ashgabat, as well as in the Mary Regional History Museum (MM). These seals are so far not scientifically published, but the author was able to study them thanks to the kind allowance of the Ministry of Culture of Turkmenistan and of Victor Sarianidi and Nadezhda Dubova, directors of the Margiana archaeological expedition.

Furthermore, some BMAC seals come from excavated sites outside Margiana and Bactria proper (see Table 8.1). Two stamp cylinders and one “Murghab-style” (see p. 245) stamp seal were found in a cenotaph at Sibri (Pakistan) together with BMAC material in Mehrgarh VIII levels dated between 2000 and 1800 BC. Other seals concern compartmented seals and their impressions, and three “Murghab-style” stamp seals. We will return to them later in the chapter, but we can say here that they were found in the following places: Harappan cities (Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, Chanhu-daro, and Lothal); Mehi, a site of the Kulli culture in eastern Baluchistan, for one “drilled-style” stamp seal; Shahi Tump in western Baluchistan for one compartmented seal; Luristan for one “Murghab-style” stamp seal; Susa for two compartmented seals; and finally Bahrain/Dilmun in the Persian Gulf for one “Murghab-style” stamp seal.

At Gonur Depe, the majority of the seals comes from graves. Most were found in the Large Necropolis, excavated since 2002 by the Margiana archaeological expedition in cooperation with the Ligabue Research Center (see Salvatori 1993, ^T994^a, 1994b, 1995, 2000; Rossi Osmida 2002). This necropolis, where 2,944 graves have been excavated, was mainly used during Gonur periods I and II. Some 123 graves contained seals (126 pieces in total) (Table 8.2). Of these graves 13 belong to males (13 graves with 16 seals), 77 to females, while for 33 graves the sex could not be determined (cenotaphs, double graves male/female, or unclear sex). The 126 seals consist of 121 compartmented or simple stamp seals and three cylinder seals made

Table 8.2 Gonur Depe Large Necropolis: distribution of the 126 seals discovered between male, female, or unknown sex graves (from Sarianidi 2007)

of different materials. Some 74 seals are in “bronze”, 14 in silver, 4 in steatite, 12 in faience, 2 in lead, 19 in gypsum, and 2 in stone (Table 8.3, compiled after Sarianidi 2007: 202-289).

Two bronze compartmented seals have been found in the later graves dug into the abandoned palace of Gonur North (graves 7 and 15; Sarianidi 2007: 290). Smaller areas with graves at Gonur North as well as at Gonur South also produced seals. Up to now, the oldest datable seals have been found in the small “Royal Necropolis” related to the earliest occupation period at Gonur North (Sarianidi 2009: 204, 206, fig. 105, grave 3220: 1 seal; grave 3230: 2 seals on the shoulder of women) (for the “Royal Necropolis,” see Chapter to).

Beside graves, seals have been discovered also in rooms, temples, and in cult areas (Sarianidi 2009: 142 and 129 fig. 33).

Sarianidi (2007: 99) first noticed the interesting fact that seals from the Large Necropolis come mostly from women’s graves (60.6% against 12.8% in men’s, the rest being undetermined). This percentage is even higher in favor of women when one considers only the graves with a sure sex identification. Seals were mainly found at the waist of the deceased, but also at the neck, wrist, head, and shoulder. During the author’s excavations in Area 12,’ it was found out that seals were sometimes stored under the floor of newly built houses, maybe as a founding ritual. A further revision of the earlier excavated seal contexts within the settled areas is necessary to confirm if this was a general rule or not.

Beside seals coming from scientific excavations, an increasing number of seals come from illicit diggings. It was again Sarianidi who, over many decades, compiled more than 1,500 seals and sealings from the art trade and published them together with

Table 8.3 Gonur Depe Large Necropolis: type and material of the seals (from Sarianidi 2007)

Note: ? = sex uncertain; f = female; m = male; - = cenotaph.

the 253 seals known then from excavations in his seminal work Myths of Ancient Bactria and Margiana on Its Seals and Amulets (Sarianidi 1998a). This book contains 1,802 seals and sealings.¹⁰ At the same time, Susanne Baghestani (1997) presented in another book all the known compartmented seals from Iran, India, and China. Since then, I have been able to examine hundreds more seals in private collections. Thus, the overall number of seals related to the BMAC largely exceeds 2,000, making glyptic its most important type of artifact after pottery. My studies in the museums in Turkmenistan and elsewhere now allow a detailed classification of BMAC glyptic. As said in the introduction, this chapter is an attempt to give an overview of the 535 seals found in Margiana up to 2013." Some additional seals were excavated in 2013

and 2014, making a total of 545 pieces. But references will also be made to seals from other sites, or from illegal excavations when published. The reader will find in the last table (Table 8.14) the correlation between the numbers of the seals presented in the figures, the museum’s, and those given by Sarianidi (1998b).