The joint Turkmen-American project on the study and conservation of Big Kiz-kala, one of the most valuable monuments on the territory of the State Historical and Cultural Reserve Ancient Merv, entered the final stage. The grant of the program of the US State Department "The Ambassadors Fund for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage" (AFCP) in the amount of 595 thousand dollars in 2011 was won on a competitive basis by the National Department for the Protection, Study and Restoration of Monuments of History and Culture under the Ministry of Culture of Turkmenistan. Over the years, under the leadership of the architect-restorer Rejep Jepbarov, who for many years was heading the administration of the reserve, a significant amount of research and conservation work has been carried out on the monument that has been intriguing historians of architecture from around the world for more than a century. At the end of the XIX century Old Merv and its surroundings became the object of interest of Orientalists and archaeologists. The trailblazer was Valentin Zhukovsky, thirty-two-year-old professor at the Faculty of Oriental Languages of St. Petersburg University, who in 1890 came to Merv at the request of the Imperial Archaeological Commission. It was he who conducted the first truly scientific presentation of history and the study of the monuments of the Mary Oasis. His fundamental work, once awarded the gold medal of the Russian Academy of Sciences, has still not lost its practical value. In the autumn of the same year of 1890, Merv was captured in detail by the French photographer Paul Nadar. He left Paris on the famous Orient Express and reached here via Istanbul, Tiflis, Baku and Krasnovodsk by only then constructed Trans-Caspian Railway. More than a thousand photographs were the result of a journey in which the curiosity and skill of a man who managed to take advantage of a new type of transport and the quality of photographic equipment of those years to unveil in the West previously inaccessible images of the mysterious East were combined. In 1904, Merv was attended by the American expedition of the Carnegie Institution under the guidance of Professor Raphael Pampelli. And although his research was short-time and incidental, it was they who marked the beginning of the archaeological study of the Murgab oasis. In the twentieth century, the great contribution to the study of the history and culture of the medieval Merv was made by academicians Vasily Bartold, Mikhail Masson and the South Turkmenistan Archeological Complex Expedition (UTAKE), which he headed from 1946 to 1986. Several volumes of the works of this mission are devoted to Merv, not to mention a whole series of monographs, scientific collections and articles on its monuments, many of which were identified and published by the UTAKE participants. The last decade of the last century was marked by fruitful work of the great expedition (International Merv Project) in Merv, headed by the English historian and archaeologist, Professor Georgina Herrmann. Its results have been summed up in a number of scientific publications, among which the fundamental monograph "Monuments of Merv: Traditional constructions of the Karakums", published in 1999 by the London Society of Antiquities, stands out. In the same year, thanks to a well-written dossier prepared by the specialists of the National Directorate for the Protection, Study and Restoration of Historical and Cultural Monuments with the active assistance of Georgina Herrmann and the group of experts, the Ancient Merv Reserve became the first object from Turkmenistan inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Finally, since 2001 a new long-term project (Ancient Merv Project) has been organized by the Institute of Archeology of the University College of London on the basis of the State Historical and Cultural Reserve Ancient Merv. Dozens of young specialists from Turkmenistan, Great Britain, Germany, Denmark, Iran, China, the USA and other countries under the guidance of the experienced mentor Tim Williams have already been trained here, mastering the wisdom of the profession and developing their own scientific topics, extracting material from the inexhaustible treasury of Merv. What is so attractive about Merv for scientists? Unlike other equally grandiose archaeological parks of the world, there has not been a stratification of different periods of history in the same place. When people for centuries settle in a certain piece of land and where old buildings have been erected, they erect new ones, a multi-layered cultural layer is formed. As a rule, this layer was disturbed by late construction works and archeologists in the course of excavations see a very complicated picture, where the layers are intermixed, very many of the lower layers are lost forever, so it is almost impossible to understand the chronology and planning of the earliest stages of the life of a particular settlement. But Merv was actually a nomadic city. As the main streams of the Murgab River fed it moved east to west due to natural patterns, people abandoned their former habitable areas and began to settle new areas, following the "fleeing" river. Thus, for approximately two and a half thousand years, five successive Merv fortifications were built, surrounded by fortress walls: Erk-kala (its original core), Gyaur-kala, Sultan-kala, Abdullahan-kala and Bayramalikhan-kala. They can be added to the last fortress - Kaushutkhan-kala, erected in the middle of the XIX century in the place of the modern city of Mary, where now Murgab flows. It turns out that for more than two dozen centuries the city has shifted by not less than 30 kilometers! A long time ago, at the beginning of the IX century, Merv became one of the most important centers of Muslim civilization. The Turkmen lands at that time were part of the Abbasid empire, and the Baghdad governor of Khorasan was al-Mamun, the son of Caliph Harun al-Rashid. His residence was in Merv. In 813 he himself became a caliph, but for a long time remained in the city he loved. As historians noted, during this period Merv was in fact the capital of the Caliphate - decrees and appointments throughout the Arab state came from there. In 821, al-Mamun at last went to Baghdad, and the emir of Khurasan and appointed Tahir ibn Hussein, the founder of the Tahirid dynasty, as his successor. But the real flowering of Merv comes in the 11th-12th centuries, the reign of the Great Seljuk dynasty, whose empire stretched from the left bank of the Amu Darya to Palestine. In those days it was one of the most beautiful cities of the East, and today - the largest archaeological park in Central Asia near the small town of Bayramali, where the mausoleums of the Prophet Muhammad's companions and still revered saints, the numerous ruins of mosques, palaces and clay castles, Sheds and bazaars, as well as kilometers of powerful fortress walls are preserved. The first large structures, which are seen today by visitors to the reserve, are the still mysterious clay castles-koshka Big and Small Kyz-Kala with their severe rhythm of tightly pressed half-columns forming corrugated facades. There are various assumptions about the age of these gigantic dwellings. In many publications of the last century it is written that they stand almost from the VI-VII centuries. English researcher Hugh Kennedy justified the hypothesis several years ago that it could well have been the constructions of Tahir ibn Hussein. And if the features of their designs and building materials can not serve as accurate indicators in this case, the presence of a mihrab in one of the premises of the Great Kyz-kala clearly indicates that the building was already under construction with the Arabs. This is confirmed by the findings made during the current work in Kyz-kala: with the removal of the swelling of the walls, archaeologists discovered gold and copper coins with inscriptions of the calligraphic, angular handwriting "kufi" - the classic Abbasid dirhams of the 9th century. Big Kyz-kala was erected as a rich country residence, like a well-fortified and inaccessible castle. New excavations revealed a second line of defense in the form of a wall with powerful corner bastions around the building. This wall was, apparently, along the perimeter of the outer courtyard. In other words, we have a rather vivid example of medieval palace architecture and the most well-preserved object of this kind in the entire Merv oasis. Initially, the building was two-story, but the premises of the upper floor over the past centuries almost completely destroyed, covering the lower floor with their debris. Now it is almost completely excavated and it became possible to judge its layout. But the most important thing is that up to now we have preserved the striking, almost original appearance of the monumental facades, showing the world the harsh beauty and magnificence of medieval Turkmen architecture. Back in the late 30-s architecture historian Vladimir Pilyavsky made the first professional measurements of this monument and expressed quite reasoned judgments about its designs. At the same time, its purpose was revealed in general terms. In the remote northern surroundings of Merv, he recorded the ruins of several other similar corrugated castles: Big and Small Nagim-kala, Haram-koshki, Suli-koshki at the settlement of Deshikli-kala, Akkuili-koshki at Durnali fort. All of them long ago turned into ruins, but how could they look like originally? A serious reason for reconstructing the original appearance of the corrugated houses of Central Asia is the image of the castle siege on the so-called Nildinskoe dish and its more famous copy, stored in the Hermitage - known as Anikovskoe. Both are cast from silver and covered with gilding, and refer to the products of craft workshops of Central Asia from VIII-early IX century. These products depict the siege of the castle with corrugated walls and you can clearly see the architectural décor almost everywhere and the angular wooden balconies. They are equipped with lattice barriers, and canopies above them are supported by wooden carved columns. These balconies are connected with the flat roofs of the first and second floors and serve as machicules - hinged areas for the defense of the sole of the castle and flank light. It is no coincidence that the French historian of architecture Auguste Choise connected the emergence of machinecules in West European castles with the East. Nildinskoe and Anikovskoe dishes demonstrate the lost everywhere decorations of the top of semicolumns-corrugations in the form of inscribed arches in one another. The very shape of the corrugation, according to a number of researchers, is due to the origin of the fortifications of the castles, that is, the arrangement of shallow loopholes between the semicircular protrusions, which give the possibility of lateral shelling. Academician Galina Pugachenkova at one time suggested the genetic connection of the corrugations with the four-bladed columns of the Parthian Nisa. Although the earliest case of wall decoration with corrugations was recorded in Merv (Parthian fortress of Chilburge), there were many such corrugated structures in Khorezm, in Bukhara and Termez, but they are completely absent in Iran. Clearly, this is a purely local architectural type that goes back to the pre-Islamic past and continued to be reproduced at least until the XII century, not only in raw brick, but also in burnt. A striking example of this is Rabat-i Malik, a steppe residence of the Karakhanids in the Bukhara oasis. The first years of the current expedition to the Great Kyz-Kala were entirely devoted to a comprehensive study of the monument. The entire documentation available in the archives associated with this object was studied, previously unknown photos, made about a hundred years ago, were found fixing more complete state of the Great Kyz-kala. The root causes of the destruction of raw walls were clarified, and a methodology for their conservation was developed, corresponding to modern standards and international principles for the preservation of historic buildings, as reflected in the relevant UNESCO Convention. Now the most difficult and controversial part of the project has begun - specialists need to decide to what extent it is permissible to restore the destroyed sections of walls, especially corrugated facades. These issues were discussed at a recent meeting of experts in Ashgabat. In addition to local experts, the Director of Ancient Merv Project, Tim Williams, with a group of his staff and an experienced architect and restorer from France, Sebastien Maurice, representing the International Clay Architecture Center (CRATerre-EAG), took part in the meeting. As a result of the meeting, a plan of further actions was developed that should be taken to ensure that the monument, on the one hand, did not lose its authenticity, and on the other hand it was reliably protected in the foreseeable future from slow destruction. Rain, snow, wind, sharp temperature changes, subsoil waters, as well as birds and rodents who like to settle in clay walls, are the main factors that negatively affect the safety of ancient raw structures. But by joining forces, people are able to extend the life of unique monuments and the Turkmen-American project of saving the Maiden's fortress in Merv can be an example of an effective solution to this problemRuslan MURADOV
||
