THIRTEEN FUNERARY RITUALS AND ARCHAEOTHANATOLOGICAL DATA FROM BMAC GRAVES AT ULUG DEPE (TURKMENISTAN) AND DZHARKUTAN (UZBEKISTAN)
INTRODUCTION
The Bronze Age cultures of Central Asia have long been viewed as marginal extensions of the more famous civilizations that surrounded them, particularly those of Mesopotamia and of the Iranian Plateau. However, discoveries from the past four decades have shown that this was, in fact, not the case. The Bronze Age of Central Asia, though lacking a writing system, has its own history and is an original complex civilization. The Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC) refers to the apogee of a proto-urban culture with sites often fortified (Gonur Depe, Adji Kui, Namazga Depe, Ulug Depe, Altyn Depe, Kelleli, Taip, Togolok in Turkmenistan; Dashly in Afghanistan; Sapallitepa, Molalitepa, and Dzharkutan in Uzbekistan) and organized among dispersed oases along the Murghab and Amu Darya Rivers and areas around (Figure 13.1).' Alongside their local specificities, these dispersed regions maintained socioeconomic relationships with one another and shared common cultural elements (material elements, funerary practices, architecture) and symbolic ones (iconography and pantheon).
The archaeothanatological approach that is presented in this chapter provides part of the key to understanding the BMAC societies and, more broadly, Central Asia Bronze Age societies. The study of skeletal remains constitutes an essential source of information for the following thoughts and interpretations. Archaeothanatology is the study of human remains in situ. It combines the knowledge of human anatomy, the recording of the burial context, and an understanding of the taphonomic processes in order to recognize those that interacted with the corpse from the time of its burial to that of its excavation.
Two vast necropolises from the apogee of the Oxus Civilization have been excavated, at Gonur Depe and Dzharkutan. Thousands of other burials in smaller graveyards or scattered within the settlements like those from Ulug Depe have also been dug out. These graveyards have given us a considerable mass of information, and
Figure 13.1 Map of southern Central Asia with the distribution of Bronze Age archaeological sites.
we are now able to propose a synthesis of the mortuary norms and of the recurrences in the funerary practices of the whole BMAC population. We will base our study on the example of graves we excavated at two more or less contemporary sites, Ulug Depe and Dzharkutan.
STUDIES ON THE BRONZE AGE: ULUG DEPE AND DZHARKUTAN
For more than 15 years, two French archaeological expeditions have been leading excavations together with both a Turkmen (MAFTUR) and an Uzbek (MAFOuz-P) team on two major protohistoric sites of Central Asia: Ulug Depe2 and Dzharkutan.-’
The MAFTUR expedition began working at Ulug Depe in 2001. This site is located in the prefecture of Kahka, 175 km east of the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat (Figure 13.1), halfway between Namazga Depe (45 km to the west) and Altyn Depe (45 km to the east). Discovered in 1930 by A. Marushchenko, the site was partially excavated in the late 1960s by V.I. Sarianidi (Sarianidi and Kachuris 1968; Sarianidi 1969,1972). From this short study, the historical importance of Ulug Depe as one of the most significant proto-urban sites in southern Central Asia could already be pointed out (Lecomte et al. 2002; Bendezu-Sarmiento and Lhuillier 2011, 2019; Lecomte 2011, 2013; Lhuillier et al. 2015; Lhuillier and Bendezu-Sarmiento 2018; Lhuillier 2019). Smaller than Namazga and Altyn Depe, Ulug stretches over an area of 13-15 ha at the top and 26 ha at the base, reaching a height of over 30 m. It testifies of the longest continuous stratigraphy of Central Asia, between the Early Chalcolithic and the Middle Iron Age.
Although no separated necropolis has yet been uncovered at the site, nearly too burials have been found in the habitation area (Bendezu-Sarmiento 2011, 2013). The first graves were excavated by Sarianidi between 1967 and 1970 (Sarianidi and Kachuris 1968; Sarianidi 1969; 1972), mainly in the northern zones of the site.
The site of Dzharkutan is located in southern Uzbekistan, 60 km to the north of the present-day city of Termez and about 10 km from the town of Sherabad, near the Afghani border (Figure 13.1). Situated on the left bank of the Bustansaj River, the city and the necropolis spread over multiple natural elevations in an area of ca. 50 ha. The chronology of the site covers most of the Bronze Age and overlaps into the Early Iron Age (Bendezu-Sarmiento and Mustafakulov 2013; Lhuillier et al. 2018; Lhuillier 2ot9).4The BMAC period is divided into several phases, successively the Dzharkutan, Kuzali, Molali, and Bustan, though there is debate on this succession (Kaniuth and Teufer 2001; contra Vinogradova 2001). At the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age, a simple settlement was founded (Bendezu-Sarmiento 2013; Bendezu-Sarmiento and Mustafakulov 2013; Bendezu-Sarmiento and Lhuillier 2019), evolving towards increasingly complex architecture to become a proto-urban site including a fortified “citadel,” craft areas, and residential neighborhoods, as well as two monumental buildings known as the “temple” and the “palace.”5
Our work began in 2006 with a prospection in the Surkhan Darya River valley, followed by an evaluation of the archaeological potential of the Dzharkutan site. In spring 2007, excavations started on necropolis 3 (Bendezu-Sarmiento and Mustafakulov 2008; Bendezu-Sarmiento 2013), and between 2009 and 2013 within the settlement, where other burials were excavated. In all, more than 1,500 graves have been uncovered by the successive Uzbeko-Soviet, German, and French missions at Dzharkutan, mainly in the several necropolises that cover three hills on ca. 2.5 ha (see esp. Askarov 1977; Askarov and Abdullaev 1983; lonesov 1996, 2002; Shirinov and Baratov 1997; Bendezu-Sarmiento 2013; Teufer 2015).
