The Final Bronze/Early Iron Age in the Old Zerafshan Delta, Uzbekistan: Pilot Investigations at Kimirek-kum-1

ABSTRACT

The transition between the Final Bronze and Early Iron Age remains one of the least understood periods in the archaeology of southern Central Asia. In this paper, we introduce the newly discovered site of Kimirek-kum-1 (floruit ca. 1250–1050 cal b.c.) in the old delta of the Zerafshan River in present-day Uzbekistan. Combined pedestrian survey, geomagnetic prospection, hand augering, and stratigraphic excavation, conducted between 2021 and 2023, demonstrate the site’s unique potential to improve our understanding of the Final Bronze/Early Iron Age transition and the interface between the Central Eurasian steppes to the north and the Indo-Iranian world to the south. Notably, our investigations yielded nearly 400 objects in copper alloys, lead, gold, and semi-precious stone. These findings strongly suggest that Kimirek-kum-1 represents a substantial new Final Bronze/Early Iron Age center with extensive external links. It raises critical questions about the continuity of long-distance exchanges and elite networks after the end of the Oxus civilization.

KEYWORDS:

• Central Asia
• Final Bronze Age
• Early Iron Age
• Zerafshan Delta
• metallurgy
• long-distance exchanges
• elite networks

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all the participants of our 2021–2023 fieldwork at KK1 (in addition to the authors): Mariana Castro, Emily Everest-Phillips, Marco Ferrario, Václav Kalenda, Nathaniel Kitchel, and Miroslav Kratochvíl. Special thanks go to Munira Sultanova for her find drawings. The planning and interpretation of the geomagnetic survey was supported by Jesse Casana, Carolin Ferwerda, and Nathaniel Kitchel. Valuable suggestions on a draft version of this paper were kindly provided by Alexander Bechter. We are also grateful to four anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions.

Notes

1 Figure 2A:1–2: Beta-426624: 3110 ± 30 b.c. = 1497–1260 cal b.c. (99.9% probability); Beta-426625: 2790 ± 30 b.c. = 1055–820 cal b.c. (99.7% probability).

2 Preliminary XRD analysis of one tubular bead suggests a soft stone containing calcite and magnesite, possibly associated with steatite. Our sincere thanks go to Federico Carò from the Department of Scientific Research at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, who kindly carried out this preliminary analysis.

3 Previously, we had published one such pendant found by chance at the surface southeast of Bashtepa in 2017, i.e., before we understood their Final Bronze/Early Iron Age date (Stark et al. 2022, fig. 32:3).

4 It is intriguing to compare this wall-and-ditch feature with what we are told about Yima’s wara (vara-) in Vendidad 2, 22–41 (translation Malandra 1983, 180–182). Though later often interpreted as an underground structure, the etymological connection with Vedic valá- (an enclosure for cows known from a cycle of Vedic cattle-raiding myths) suggests that, originally, Yima’s wara was envisioned as an aboveground enclosure to shelter animals and men. Like the enclosure at KK1, it was of circular layout (Steblin-Kamensky 1995), well-watered (stanza 26), and built of pakhsa—see stanza 31: “zəmō … zastaēibya vīxaδa,” “beat the earth apart (i.e., knead) with (your) hands!”

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by a Gerda Henkel Foundation Grant, a Goodman Fund Faculty Grant through Dartmouth College/Department of Anthropology, and a Google Earth Image Grant.

Notes on contributors

Sören Stark

Sören Stark (Ph.D. 2005, Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Germany) is Professor of Central Asian Archaeology at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University. He is co-director of the Uzbek-American Expedition in Bukhara; his current research engages with the settlement and funerary archaeology of Central Asia between the Final Bronze Age and the early Islamic Period.

Lynne М. Rouse

Lynne М. Rouse (Ph.D. 2015, Washington University in St. Louis) is a Senior Researcher at the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin. She is the co-director for two ongoing field projects in Central Asia, which together deal with landscape archaeology, mobility, and subsistence strategies, ecological adaptation, and regional exchange networks in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages.

Sirojiddin J. Mirzaakhmedov

Sirojiddin J. Mirzaakhmedov is Junior Researcher at the Samarkand Institute of Archaeology. His research interests include early Medieval archaeology and architecture in Central Asia, with a focus on early Islamic caravanserais.

Zachary Silvia

Zachary Silvia (Ph.D. 2022, Bryn Mawr College) is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, Brown University. His research interests include remote sensing, domestic architecture, rural archaeology, landscape archaeology, and ancient Central Asia.

Sydney А. Hunter

Sydney А. Hunter is a doctoral student at the Ohio State University. Her research interests include archaeobotany, agricultural production systems, and human-environmental relationships.

Tomáš Bek

Tomáš Bek is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Archeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague. His research interests include the archaeology of Bronze and Iron Age Europe, landscape archaeology, and the history of archaeology.

Husniddin Rakhmanov

Husniddin Rakhmanov is Junior Researcher at the Samarkand Institute of Archaeology. His research interests include the archaeology of early Medieval Central Asia.

Narges Bayani

Narges Bayani is a doctoral candidate at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University. Her research interests include the archaeology of Bronze Age Iran and Central Asia, intercultural exchanges, and technological innovations.