Bronze Age Cross-Shaped Stone Beads of Central Asia and Middle East (Revisiting the Dating of Zamanbaba Culture)

Abstract

The excavations of the Zamanbaba cemetery (belonging to the culture of the same name) in the ancient delta of the Zeravshan river (Bronze Age, South Uzbekistan) yielded 10 cross-shaped stone beads. The author of this paper thinks that the center for the production of such beads ap- peared in Northwestern Afghanistan at the end of the first quarter of the III mil. BC, after which they found their way to the south of Afghanistan (Mundigak) and to Southwestern Tajikistan (Farkhor). No items of this type are known to have been found in the regions lying to the south and southeast of Mundigak, while in the western (Tepe Hissar) and southwestern (Susa) regions of Middle East they and their replicas are represented by single finds only. They were mainly exported to the northwestern (Altyn-depe, Ulug-depe, Khapuz-depe, Parkhai II), northern (Za- manbaba) and northeastern (Farkhor) regions of Central Asia. Single beads could reach (probably, through multistage exchange) very distant lands, as is evidenced by the finds of analogous artifacts at the Sopka-2/4A cemetery in Southwestern Siberia, which can possibly be dated to the second quarter of the III mil. BC. The period of existence of cross-shaped stone beads in Central Asia embraces a long span of time from the end of the first quarter of the III mil. BC to the end of the first quarter of the II mil. BC. Therefore they cannot help to narrow the date of Zamanbaba culture.