Newly discovered burials of the Bronze Age in the territory of Tajikistan

Abstract

This paper publishes newly discovered materials of the Bronze Age from Southern Tajikistan — six burials at the cemetery of Khulbuk occupying the southern section of the hill on which a palace was built in the 9th century. The archaeological complex represented in these burials can be attributed, on the whole, neither to the Beshkent-Vakhsh culture of Tajikistan nor to the agriculturalist cultures of the Sapalli or Namazga type. By contrast, it demonstrates an undoubted interaction of different cultural communities. The skeletal remains of five individuals have been examined. They are characterized by gracility and a small size of the head and body. Their parameters, are generally found to be within the limits of the variations of typical representatives of the Bronze Age populations of Southern Tajikistan.