Namazga-Tepe
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Namazga-Tepe (Namazga-depe) is a Bronze Age (BMAC) archaeological site in Turkmenistan, some 100 km from Ashkhabad, near the border to Iran. Excavated by Masson, Sarianidi and Khlopin from the 1950s, the site set the chronology for the Bronze Age sites in Turkmenistan (Namazga III-VI)
- Namazga IV around 2500 BCE shows proto-urban and village settlement patterns.
- Namazga V around 2000-1600 BCE is the period of "urban revolution" following the Anatolian model with little or no irrigation. Namazga-Tepe emerges as the production and probable governmental center, covering some 60 hectares, with Altin-depe likely a secondary capital. Around 1600 BCE, Altin-depe is abandoned, and Namazga-depe shrinks to a fraction of its former size .
- Namazga VI in the Late Bronze Age 1600-1000 BCE is characterized by the incursion of nomadic pastoralists from the Alekseyevka culture and/or Srubna culture.
[edit] References
- V. M. Masson and V. I. Sarianidi, Central Asia: Turkmenia before the Achaemenids (trans. Tringham, 1972); review: Charles C. Kolb, American Anthropologist (1973), 1945-1948.
