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Bactria with major late-third and early-second-millennium sites mentioned in the text. Encircled is the area covered by the LBA Sapalli Culture.
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This article summarizes current knowledge about the metallurgy of the Late Bronze Age Sapalli Culture (Northern Bactria) and discusses its implications for the 'tin question'. It is suggested that tin was used in southern Central Asia predominantly to influence the visual appearance of copper objects. The Zerafshan ores, recently highlighted throug...
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... They show that the use of unalloyed, arsenical, and leaded copper dominated in the Early Bronze Age (3rd millennium BCE), while the proportion of bronzes increased significantly with the turn of the MBA (3rd to 2nd millennium). The use of bronze in the early 2nd millennium BCE was apparently more widespread in Bactria, where it was used intensively by the LBA Sapalli Culture as the eastern branch of the BMAC (Chernykh, 1992;Ruzanov, 1999;Kaniuth, 2006;Kaniuth, 2007;Kraus, 2021). The reasons for this divergence are not yet entirely clear, but the lack of nearby tin sources exploited by the BMAC in the Bronze Age necessitated interconnections with the people of the Andronovo cultural phenomenon living to the north of Bactria who were controlling the exploitation of tin sources (Figure 1). ...
... Burials yielded numerous metal artefacts consisting of a variety of alloys (arsenical copper, leaded copper, bronze), of which bronzes account for one quarter. The funerary customs of the time saw the burial of functional objects, which were withdrawn from circulation and may have been part of the deceased's possessions (Kaniuth, 2006;Kaniuth, 2007). The majority of objects discovered were part of cosmetic sets from female burials, from which bracelets (FG-850011, -012, -018, -027), mirrors (FG-850030, -031) and pins were included here ( Figures 4A, B). ...
... Compared to the preceding LBA I, the proportion of metal objects in male burials increased, and there is a change in the alloying practice. Half of the objects now consists of bronze, while the other half is unalloyed copper (Kaniuth, 2006;Kaniuth, 2007). Typologically, there are some indications of an Andronovo influence from the north, such as a socketed spearhead from Dzharkutan (FG-850168) ( Figure 4C). ...
The Bronze Age in Central Asia was dominated by the Andronovo Culture and the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC). Both cultural entities produced bronze, however, the extent of bronze production and use varied considerably in space and time across their territories. The introduction and spread of bronze metallurgy in the region is commonly associated with the Andronovo Culture, but comparatively little is known about the copper and tin sources that were exploited to make the bronze. To shed light on this aspect, this paper examines 91 bronze artefacts from the Middle Bronze Age (MBA) and the Late Bronze Age (LBA) recovered from twenty sites of Andronovo and the BMAC through a combined evaluation of chemical and isotopic analyses. Trace element patterns and isotopic compositions of lead, tin, and copper are determined for the objects complemented by tin isotope analysis of Central Asian tin ores. The data shows a clear separation of two source areas in the MBA and LBA I: the BMAC obtained copper from polymetallic (tin-bearing) deposits in Iran (Deh Hosein, Nakhlak/Bagh Gorogh) and possibly Afghanistan, while the Andronovo Culture mainly used copper from the Tian Shan Mountains. With the transition to the LBA II, a change in the material basis can be recognised, in which the BMAC increasingly relied on metal deposits from the Andronovo territory. The most important result in this context is the analytical proof of the coextraction of copper and tin from the copper-tin mine at Mushiston, Tajikistan, and the first direct link of tin in bronze objects with a tin deposit. Mushiston apparently supplied both cultural macro regions with a “natural” bronze, which accounted for about one third of all objects analysed, but there is no indication yet that metal or ores from Mushiston were traded or used at a distance of more than 500 km. Moreover, the artefact data indicates a decline in the exploitation of the mine in the course of the developed LBA, while other copper and tin sources in the Tian Shan and probably the Hindukush were exploited. This testifies to the intensive use of the rich mineral resources of Central Asia and beyond, as well as the intensification of cultural and trade contacts between Andronovo and the BMAC.
... Another possibility is copper, but trade in copper also antedates the BMAC and appears to have been locally distributed (Lyonnet and Dubova, 2020). Far more likely is tin (Lyonnet, 2005;Kohl and Lyonnet, 2008; but see Kaniuth, 2007). Although there is disagreement as to when tin became important in alloying copper to make bronze, with Kaniuth (2006) and Tekekhova (1990) claiming it was little used during the first two period of the BMAC (Sapalli, Djarkutan), while Piggot (2018) believes it became important as early as the Late Chaclolithic at Khapuz Depe. ...
... Far more likely is tin (Lyonnet, 2005;Kohl and Lyonnet, 2008; but see Kaniuth, 2007). Although there is disagreement as to when tin became important in alloying copper to make bronze, with Kaniuth (2006) and Tekekhova (1990) claiming it was little used during the first two period of the BMAC (Sapalli, Djarkutan), while Piggot (2018) believes it became important as early as the Late Chaclolithic at Khapuz Depe. Indeed, a number of authorities claim that the acquisition and distribution of tin to the Russo-Kazakh steppes to the north and to the Iranian Plateau and ultimately to Mesopotamia to the west was a major factor in in the rise and expansion of the BMAC (Anthony, 2007;Kohl and Lyonnet, 2008). ...
A battery of 32 cranial nonmetric traits were assessed among 436 adult individuals recovered from nine Chalcolithic and Bronze Age archaeological contexts from the western, northern and southeastern peripheries of the Iranian Plateau. Three archaeologically based theoretical models of interactions across the plateau-the Neolithic food prodfuction, the Namazga expansion, and Bronze Age interregional interaction-were evaluated with four analytical models. In the first model all 32 traits were included. In the second model only those traits that differ across all nine samples at α< 0.05 were retained. In the third model only those that met the alpha threshold with Bonferroni's adjustment for multiple comparisons were included. In the fourth model, samples found not to differ from one another with the first three models were pooled and only those traits that met Holm's (1979) nested rejective modification of Bonferroni's adjustment were employed. Retained traits were assessed with correspondence analysis, neighbour-joining cluster analysis, and multidimensional scaling. Results indicate that the fourth method yielded the most robust and non-volatile patterns of intersample affinities. None of the three reconstructions were supported in their entirety by the pattern of biodistance affinities obtained from cranial nonmetric trait frequencies. However, the biodistance patterns are most congruent with those expected with a population expansion across the Iranian Plateau during Neolithic era fueled by food production and animal husbandry that resulted in a pattern of interregional biological affinities dominated by long-standing bouts of in situ continuity. Some support is found for an overlay on this general pattern laid down in the Neolithic due to population growth and dispersal during the subsequent Namazga expansion, especially in southern Central Asia. In contrast, no support is provided forsignificant impacts due to Bronze Age interregional interactionps.
... Especially the southeast of the Tajik territory has extensive mountainous areas, reaching altitudes of more than 5000 m above sea level. Although seemingly barren and hostile to life, a flourishing cultural tradition developed in the numerous high valleys and adjacent plains during the 3rd and 2nd millennia BCE covering the Bronze and Iron Age (Kohl et al. 1984;Eichmann and Parzinger 2001;Vinogradova 2004;Kaniuth 2006;Garner 2013;Doumani Dupuy 2016;Lyonnet and Dubova 2020). While the northern and western regions of Tajikistan and the neighbouring Uzbekistan were influenced by the Andronovo cultural phenomenon (complex of steppe cultures), the Bactria-Margiana archaeological complex (BMAC) or Oxus civilisation extended to the Tajik south and southwest (historically Karnab, Lapas and Čangali are located at moderate altitudes (450-700 m) in the steppe and uplands south of the Zeravšan River and were thus relatively easy to access. ...
This paper aims at contributing to a better understanding of the beginnings of tin and bronze metallurgy in Central Asia by investigating a hitherto unique piece of a bronze slag. The object was originally discovered as a stray find only 4 km away from the large copper-tin deposit of Mušiston in Tajikistan. It contains many prills of bronze and copper as well as small charcoal particles. Radiocarbon dating of the charcoal places the slag in a period between 1900 and 1400 BCE and thus in the Late Bronze Age of the region. This date coincides with radiocarbon dates of relics from underground galleries of the Mušiston deposit. Chemical and microscopic examination demonstrated the slag to be a relic of a co-smelting process, in which a natural assemblage of tin and copper minerals was smelted simultaneously. Both the chemical and the tin and copper isotope compositions clearly link the slag to the nearby polymetallic ores from Mušiston, of which an extensive dataset is presented. The artefact’s lead isotope ratios and increased iron concentration in turn indicate intentional fluxing of the original ore charge with iron-dominated ores. These results are the first tangible evidence of a smelting process of tin ores in the entire region and therefore add a new dimension to the findings from previous mining archaeological investigations. At the same time, the results give significant information about the smelting process of secondary polymetallic ores from Mušiston and help in assessing the scientific data of Bronze Age bronze artefacts from Central Asia.
... 30 There is no agreement either on the use of tin in Central Asia, with some claiming that it was little used during the first two main periods of the Oxus Civilization (Terekhova 1990;Kaniuth 2006), while others see its importance growing in the Namazga sequence already from the NMG IV period (Ruzanov 1999;Pigott 2018; see also Chapter 27). All agree that it was more widespread in Bactria, especially at Sapallitepa (Askarov and Ruzanov 1977;Hiebert and Killick 1993;Kaniuth 2007;Ruzanov 2013). Recent research on one of the closest tin-producing areas along the Zeravshan valley (Parzinger and Boroffka 2003;Garner 2013) has not produced proof of an exploitation of the mines at Karnab before the 17th century BC -though we cannot exclude that earlier traces of work would have been erased. ...
... While field and analytical studies on archaeometallurgical materials from Central Asia, including Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, can provide interesting evidences of copper-base metallurgy of the Bronze Age (e.g. Masioli et al. 2006;Kaniuth 2007), but an intensification of archaeometallurgical studies in north-eastern Iran seems necessary so as to examine this "unknown" region of Iran from technological viewpoint. The absence of significant data from copper-base metallurgy in this area, which lies close to some important copper resources of Iranian Plateau (Momenzadeh 2004) and of its neighbouring Central Asian metallurgical centres such as Aldyn Depe and Ilgynly Depe (Turkmenistan) (Salvatori et al. 2009), Dashly 3 settlement (Afghanistan) (Chernykh 1992), makes north-eastern Iran (especially Khorasan) an important region of interest for further archaeometallurgical studies. ...
Despite the importance of copper-base metallurgy during Iran’s Bronze Age, limited systematic scientific data exist on the alloying patterns and processes of the period. While it seems that tin bronze metallurgy existed in the Early Bronze Age in western Iran and it was widespread through the Middle and Late Bronze Age, tin bronze technology was less common in eastern Iranian Plateau during Bronze Age. In this paper, a multianalytical study has been undertaken on a series of copper alloy objects excavated from the Late Bronze Age site of Shahrak-e Firouzeh, Neyshabur, located in north-eastern Iran. The study was performed using inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) and scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), as well as optical microscopy (metallography) methods. Results revealed that the prevalent copper-base metallurgy in the site was unalloyed and arsenical copper in general, with objects manufactured by a partially simple procedure, including cold working and annealing (not enough to remove the original coring occurred during solidification of the metallic ingots or pieces). These findings, coupled with comparative and descriptive interpretations, also showed that while tin bronze was made in Early Bronze Age of western Iran, arsenical copper was the main metallic material used in other parts of the country, in central and eastern Iran in particular.
... Given the lack of evidence for direct Oxus control of distant resources (cf. Indus Civilization outposts in Francfort 1989;Law 2008, 759-760), metal/ore procurement in particular would have entailed regular exchanges with the steppe 'Andronovo' groups known to have worked the mines and initial tin-bronze smelting sites in southern Uzbekistan and Tajikistan during the Bronze Age (Boroffka et al. 2002;Kaniuth 2007). At present, the archaeology points to an increased focus on these northern-oriented networks during the late Oxus period (Luneau forthcoming), though Lyonnet (2005) proposed that tin exchange facilitated by nomadic networks may have played an important role in the emergence of the Oxus Civilization. ...
Civilizations are as complex as the human relationships that engendered them, and outlining these relational qualities within open notions of mobility and interaction frames a reconceptualization of Central Asia’s past. Recent Eurasian archaeological research deconstructs deterministic political-economic or hierarchical typologies of civilization and the overly simplified narrative that roots it in urban centres perpetually juxtaposed with nomadic groups. Archaeological evidence from the Oxus Civilization, Central Asia’s earliest complex polity (ca. 2500–1400 BCE), reveals the deep roots of sedentary–mobile interactions. I argue that Oxus–steppe relationships helped maintain the long-term structural cohesion of the Oxus Civilization as a multicultural entity, with implications for subsequent Central Asian polities. As we begin to balance the lopsided conversations about the social formations of Central Asia’s past and present, the silent partnership that characterized the Oxus Civilization is given a voice that forces us to reconsider who, exactly, belongs inside our notions of civilization.
... Forestless landscape stretched toward North FIGURE 8 | Historic spread of copper metallurgy in Eurasia. This map displays the locations of earliest regional centers of smelting copper ores-according to the available archaeological research on the earliest metallurgy (Chernykh, 1966(Chernykh, , 1992(Chernykh, , 2012Sunchugashev, 1975;Zhuravlev, 1977;Sergeyeva, 1981;Prakash and Tripathi, 1986;Rybakov, 1987;Kon'kova, 1989;Thiel, 1989;Mishra, 1994;Reedy, 1997;Kiriushin, 2002;Tylecote, 2002;Nguyen, 1986;Baipakov and Taimagambetov, 2006;Simukhin, 2006;Yanin, 2006;Ciarla, 2007;Hauptmann, 2007;Kaniuth, 2007;Park and Gordon, 2007;Subbotina, 2008;Herva et al., 2009;Roberts et al., 2009;White and Hamilton, 2009;Radivojević et al., 2010;Erb-Satullo, 2011;Higham et al., 2011;Wan, 2011;Potts, 2012;O'Brien, 2014;Garner, 2015;Gelegdorj, 2015;Mei et al., 2015;Hung and Chao, 2016;Huo, 2016;Tripathi, 2018). The routes and timeline of its spread suggests the spread of metallic JHs along with the new homophonic tradition of JH music. ...
The current scientific research into music has been skewed in favor of its frequency-based variety prevalent in the West. However, its alternative, the timbre-based music, native to the Northeast, seems to represent an earlier evolutionary development. Western researchers commonly interpret such timbre-based music as a “defective” rendition of frequency-based music. They often regard pitch as the structural criterion that distinguishes music from non-music. We would like to present evidence to the contrary—in support of the existence of indigenous music systems based on the discretization and patterning of aspects of timbre, rather than pitch. Such music is distinguished by its personal orientation: for oneself and/or for close relatives/friends. Collective music-making is rare and exceptional because of the deeply rooted institute of “personal song” - a system of personal identification through individualized patterns of rhythm, timbre, and pitch contour—whose sound enables the recognition of a particular individual.
... In some cases, the arrival of these imports at Termez seems to have influenced the local production, as suggested by the specimen TA3: its decoration, consisting of palmette motifs painted in different brown hues, recalls that of the lustre-painted vessels although it is obvious that the potters did not known the secret of lustre. Therefore, it is possible that some local potters, specialized in producing slip-painted ware, tried to imitate imported luxury items from Iraq by using raw materials and techniques at their disposals; they possibly ignored the secret of the glaze opacification, even if there exist tin sources in Uzbekistan (in the area of Karnab, at about 450 km north of Termez, see for example Kaniuth 2007). ...
Ancient Termez, located on the southern border of Transoxiana/Mawarannahr, was an important pottery production centre during the Islamic period. Recent archaeological and archaeometric research carried out by the Spanish-Uzbek team evidenced the manufacture of glazed and unglazed vessels at the workshops found in the lower city (shahristan) and its suburbs (rabad). Glazed local products, mainly dated between the 9th and 16th/ 17th centuries, comprise slip-painted, underglaze and inglaze painted wares, splashed sgraffiato, and mono-chrome wares. The present study focuses on the chemical, mineralogical and petrographic examination of different types of glazed ceramics recovered at Termez excavations in order to identify the microstructure and composition of the glazes, the technological processes involved in their manufacture, and their evolution over the centuries. Thin polished sections were prepared and slips and glazes were analysed by optical microscopy (OM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results reveal that all the local/regional ceramics have a slip and a transparent glaze, with one exception. Colour decorations were applied over the slip, forming thinner or thicker layers depending on the desired final colour. Green (copper), red (iron) and brown/black (iron and in some cases iron plus manganese) pigments were used for the decorations. A high lead glaze was used in the ceramics found in the alluvial plain dating between the 9th and the 11th century, while an alkaline glaze is associated with the majority of ceramics collected in the shahristan dating between the 12th and the 17th century. An alumina rich clay mixed with lead oxide was used in the slip from the alluvial plain ceramics while the slip contained large quartz grains in the ceramics found in shahristan. Three imports from the Iraqi regions, a monochrome lustreware bowl and two white opaque glazed dishes dating from the 9th-10th centuries, were also analysed. They have the characteristic tin-opacified mixed lead-alkali glazes and fine calcareous pastes.
... The former is sparsely but widely distributed throughout Iran during the third millennium, but extremely rare in the Indus and hardly found at all in Mesopotamia, despite its presence there in the preceding fourth millennium. Tin presents a mirror image, commonly found within areas connected to the Gulf network, but hardly at all in highland Iran (except in Lorestan) and Central Asia until the Zerafshan sources began to be exploited by Andronovo populations in the mid-second millennium (Potts, T. 1994: 281; see also Helwing 2009;Kaniuth 2007). ...
... Gold and silver assumed a position of great importance, particularly for adornments and vessels, though silver importantly appears to have assumed the role of an exchange mediator at the time. Tin-bronze alloys first appeared in Mesopotamia, although arsenic-bronze remained much more prevalent in Iran, Anatolia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia (Kaniuth 2007;Moorey 1993). Importantly, lapis and other precious/semi-precious stones became "essential symbols of elite identity and display" (Wilkinson, T.C. 2014: 295, emphasis added; see also Casanova 2019 however, it appears that during Shahr-i Sokhta IV (equivalent to late Yahya IVB), neither lapis lazuli nor the tools used to work it are found, suggesting that Sistan was cut off from the "international" lapis trade during this time, which seems to contradict the first conclusion (Tosi 1974a; see also Herrmann 1968). ...
... The exchange of Anatolian silver for tin obtained at Assur as attested at Kultepe-Kanesh, is particularly important for my 188 account here, insofar as this tin was purportedly derived from an "eastern" source (e.g., Barjamovic 2002Barjamovic , 2018; see also Boroffka et al. 2002;Helwing 2009;Parzinger and Boroffka 2003;Pigott 2012;Stöllner et al. 2011). It has been suggested that the BMAC played an important role in the provision of this tin (Wilkinson, T.C. 2014), but this is a difficult claim to substantiate at present, given unresolved controversies over the timing and intensity of the exploitation of tin deposits in the Pamirs and southern Hindu Kush (Kaniuth 2007;Thomalsky et al. 2013). ...
A persistent hypothesis in the archaeology of complex societies posits that the acquisition of raw materials for craft production underpins the emergence of first the division of labor, then the emergence of social stratification, and finally, the development of political institutions and ultimately state formation. In cases where such raw materials — especially those needed for the fashioning of status symbols — are not available locally, self-aggrandizing leaders and aspiring elites will seek to create or otherwise manipulate long distance flows of such materials to either acquire the status symbols or to furnish the craft industries which they control. While this theory has for decades been the subject of debate and revision according to theoretical and methodological fashions, its premises have nevertheless achieved a level of disciplinary common-sense. So much so in fact, that interregional trade is seen by many scholars as an unquestionably key variable in polity formation, especially in the case of so-called “secondary” polity-formation. A case study based on the Gorgan Plain in northeastern Iran focusing on the chronological interval between the Late Chalcolithic and the Late Bronze Age (ca. 3200-1600 BCE) shows that the necessity and chronological priority of increases in interregional trade cannot be taken for granted in the process of polity formation. Indeed, cases where the order of operations is reversed are not only possible but do in fact exist. Through an examination of the historiography of macro-historical narratives of the relationship between interregional trade and Bronze Age political geography in Iran, the synthesis of underutilized survey and excavation data, the conduct of a virtual site survey using Google Earth, and the computation of spatial-organizational models, I show that the period in which the Gorgan Plain was most involved in interregional trade actually follows a period of polity formation, and is instead correlated with what all previous scholars have considered to be a phase of polity disintegration and collapse.
... Central Asia has been continuously inhabited for thousands of years and was home to thriving late Bronze Age cultures, including the Oxus Civilization (Lamberg-Karlovsky 2013) and Sapalli culture (Kaniuth 2007). The city of Samarkand was founded around 600 BCE (Grenet 2002) and this may be associated with drying of central Asia and the initiation of irrigation of the Samarkand Oasis (Malatesta et al. 2012). ...
This chapter reveals how ecological zones and their division into steppe and sown, nomadic and sedentary people, helped Russian ethnographers to understand the heritage and urban neighbourhood principles of Bukhara. It charts the launch and significance of ethnographic enquiry into this former oasis city within the context of Eurasianism, and illuminates the notion of soil in Russian thought, together with the central role it played in the study of the interrelationship between environmental factors and socio-cultural changes. The evidence will be used to present ethnographic accounts as a way of transferring knowledge between Asia and Europe, and argue in favour of a flexible approach negotiating between nature and culture, and as a process of hybridization, whereby cultures come together and, by learning from each other, create a pathway towards Eurasian integration and global intellectual interaction.
