Karakalpak-Australian Excavations in Ancient Chorasmia. An Interim Report on the Kazakly-yatkan Wall Paintings: the "Portrait" Gallery

Yagodin, Vadim N.; Betts, Alison; Kidd, Fiona

doi:10.1484/j.jiaa.3.20

Cited by 11 publications

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“…Betts and V.N. Yagodin, and of which the author is currently a member) unearthed at the site of Akshakhan-kala (formerly Kazaklȳ-yatkan) a painted fragmentary epigraph of the first century BC, mentioning a king son of a king (Yagodin et al 2009; see also Kidd and Betts 2010). Chronologically close documents also come from the Chorasmian site of Kalalȳgȳr 2 (Vaĭnberg 2004: 191 ff.).…”

Section: Historical Considerations Of Late Antiquity In Chorasmia: Re...mentioning

confidence: 98%

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A Four-Armed Goddess from Ancient Chorasmia: History, Iconography and Style of an Ancient Chorasmian Icon

Minardi

2013

Iran

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This article examines a miniature silver vessel characterised by two elements: a depiction of a four-armed female deity embossed in its emblema, and a Chorasmian inscription externally incised around its rim, with a date relative to a specific "Chorasmian Era". The representation of the goddess is analysed iconographically and stylistically and considered in the light of the available archaeological data. It is argued that besides her iconography, which shows an array of stratified Central Asian and Indian elements, the stylistic traits of the four-armed goddess clearly indicate cultural exchanges between Ancient Chorasmia and the Eastern Roman Empire during the sixth century AD, at the end of which the specimen can be dated.

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Section: Historical Considerations Of Late Antiquity In Chorasmia: Re...mentioning

confidence: 98%

“…It is an isolated upland area that in the past was once favoured as winter grazing land by the semi-nomadic tribes of Central Eurasia. SeeYagodin et al 2007 with references.…”

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confidence: 99%

A Four-Armed Goddess from Ancient Chorasmia: History, Iconography and Style of an Ancient Chorasmian Icon

Minardi

2013

Iran

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“…The Antique Khorezmian qalas , the fortified mudbrick enclosures that represented elite power, were not built for year round, permanent use (Honeychurch and Amartuvshin, 2007; Khozhaniyazov, 2006; Negus Cleary, 2008, 2013; Rogers et al, 2005). Monumental visual art within these structures shows that those who declared themselves ‘kings’ proclaimed a syncretic view of rulership, which drew its legitimacy in part from the steppe nomadic world (Betts et al, in press; Kidd, 2011, 2012; Kidd and Betts, 2010; Kidd and Brite, 2015; Kidd et al, 2008, 2012; Yagodin et al, 2010). The small scale of storage, found only in domestic contexts inside the qalas , suggests there were no large storage facilities on par with other agricultural states (Manzanilla and Rothman, 2016; Paulette, 2016) and that Khorezmian elites did not derive their wealth and status from surplus accumulation (for examples of Khorezmian storage, see Kolyakov, 1991: 110–123; Mambetullaev, 1978: 83–87).…”

Section: The Khorezm Oasismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Throughout the first millennium BC and first millennium AD at Kyuzely-gyr and other Prisarykamysh sites, in spite of the new canals there remain few traces of ancient agricultural fields; the emphasis on pastoralism continues; settlements lay in dispersed, low-density patterns reflective of semi-mobility; and the landscape is marked with numerous ‘nomadic’ kurgan burial sites (Negus Cleary, 2015a; Tsalkin, 1966: 108–157; Vaynberg, 1979a, 1979b). Monumental art at Kyuzeli-gyr and Kalaly-gyr 1 and textual sources indicate links with the Achaemenid Empire (Betts, 2006; Betts et al, 2009, 2016; Helms et al, 2001, 2002; Kidd et al, 2008; Yagodin et al, 2010). This suggests to us that the power of newly established elites in Khorezm was not, at least initially, built upon a shift to intensive farming, but rather may have come from exchange .…”

Section: The Khorezm Oasismentioning

confidence: 99%

Millet cultivation in Central Asia: A response to Miller et al.

et al. 2017

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In a recent special issue of The Holocene, Miller et al. review the evidence for the spread of millet ( Panicum miliaceum and Setaria italica) across Eurasia. Among their arguments, they contend that millet cultivation came to Eurasian regions with hot, dry summers when irrigation was introduced, as part of a region-wide shift toward agricultural intensification in the first millennium BC. This hypothesis seems to align with the pattern of agricultural change observed in the Khorezm oasis, a Central Asian polity of the first millennium BC and first millennium AD. While we wholeheartedly accept this hypothesis for its explanatory value regarding trends across Eurasia, in this paper we nevertheless suggest that the introduction of millet to Central Asia needs further explication. Specifically, we seek to address the underlying assumption that this introduction was predicated upon centrally organized, state-level land development, increased sedentism, and the rise of Mesopotamian-style social complexity. We describe how millet cultivation in Khorezm was preceded by multi-resource strategies that included the cultivation of summer crops, and emphasize that this earlier history mattered significantly to the evolution of Khorezmian society and agriculture in the first millennium BC. In contrast to the imperial systems of West Asia, in Khorezm the introduction of complex irrigation works supported the expansion and greater stratification of pre-existing agropastoral lifeways, and helped to buttress the rise of nomadic elites within an agrarian zone. We believe the example of Khorezm is important because it helps to explain the emergence of integrated mobile-sedentist societies in the first millennium AD in Central Asia as a result of agricultural change. It also provides cultural and historical context to the spread of millet cultivation in the first millennium BC, suggesting that this phenomenon had significantly different implications for societies across Eurasia.

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“…Diverse communities existed along Khorezm's ancient canals, whose inhabitants integrated steppe nomadic and sedentary agrarian ways of life (Negus Cleary 2008. These ancient populations produced art and engaged in rituals that synthesized the ideologies of the oasis and the steppe (Betts et al forthcoming;Kidd and Betts 2010;Kidd 2011Kidd , 2012Kidd et al 2008;Yagodin et al 2009), and they mixed agricultural and pastoral production as a key adaptive response to Khorezm's volatile resource environment (Brite 2011(Brite , 2014Brite and Marston 2013). As a result, they designed their irrigation systems to meet the diverse needs of people practicing semi-nomadic pastoralism as well as agriculture.…”

Section: Brite Irrigation In the Khorezm Oasismentioning

confidence: 99%

Irrigation in the Khorezm oasis, past and present: a political ecology perspective

Brite

2016

JPE

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The Khorezm oasis sits at the epicenter of an environmental disaster. Since the late 19 th century, the continual expansion of irrigation in this region has altered the natural hydrology of the Amu Darya delta, leading to widespread desertification and the near total disappearance of the world's fourth largest lake, the Aral Sea. The situation is widely acknowledged as an environmental catastrophe of unprecedented scale, and yet it is not the first irrigation crisis in Khorezmian history. Numerous events of irrigation collapse are recorded in the archaeological record of this oasis, with many in the scientific community now very interested in this past record for its potential to inform on the modern crisis. Unfortunately, there has also been a tendency to overlook the different historical conditions that led to irrigation in this oasis over the last three millennia. In this article, I take an alternative approach that draws on political ecology's insights about the cultural embeddedness of environmental behavior. I compare two periods of irrigation in Khorezm, one ancient and the other modern, to show how the particular social contexts of each period shaped irrigation schemes in different ways. Significantly different design and implementation features are apparent in the ancient versus modern systems, with vastly different implications for environmental sustainability and human well-being. Keywords: water, irrigation, Aral Sea, archaeology, collapse, Soviet Union, nomadic pastoralism Résumé L'oasis de Khorezm se trouve à l'épicentre d'une catastrophe écologique. Depuis la fin du 19e siècle, l'expansion continue de l'irrigation dans cette région a modifié l'hydrologie naturelle du delta Amou-Daria. Cela a conduit à la désertification généralisée, et la disparition quasi totale de quatrième plus grand lac du monde, la mer d'Aral. La situation est largement reconnu comme une catastrophe environnementale à une échelle sans précédent, et pourtant il est pas la première crise de l'irrigation dans l'histoire du Khorezm. L'effondrement de l'irrigation a été enregistrée plusieurs fois dans le dans le dossier archéologique. Certains scientifiques pensent que le passé peut aider à comprendre la crise actuelle. Malheureusement, il ya également eu une tendance à négliger les différentes conditions historiques qui ont conduit à l'irrigation dans cette oasis, ce qui rend les comparaisons difficiles. Dans cet article, je prends une approche alternative qui attire sur les idées de l'écologie politique sur l'implantation culturelle du comportement environnemental. Je compare deux périodes de l'irrigation dans Khorezm, un ancien et l'autre moderne, pour montrer comment les contextes sociaux particuliers à chaque période ont contribué à créer les différents systèmes d'irrigation. Conception et réalisation étaient très différents, conduisant à des résultats différents pour la durabilité environnementale et le bien-être humain. Mots clés: l'eau, l'irrigation, la mer d'Aral, l'archéologie, l'effondrement, l'Union soviétique,...

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Karakalpak-Australian Excavations in Ancient Chorasmia. An Interim Report on the Kazakly-yatkan Wall Paintings: the "Portrait" Gallery

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

A Four-Armed Goddess from Ancient Chorasmia: History, Iconography and Style of an Ancient Chorasmian Icon

A Four-Armed Goddess from Ancient Chorasmia: History, Iconography and Style of an Ancient Chorasmian Icon

Millet cultivation in Central Asia: A response to Miller et al.

Irrigation in the Khorezm oasis, past and present: a political ecology perspective

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