The artifacts of Margiana culture amaze the Europeans after 4 thousand years
Immediately, the directly opposite opinions have divided spectators into two camps. Alone with wonder, mixed with admiration, some exclaimed: “Sensation! An unknown civilization has been discovered in the center of the Karakum!”
And others insistently asserted: “This is nonsense! There could not have been life in a waterless desert, and even more so a civilization ...”
The famous conference, which took place in the Turkmen city of Mary in November 2006, put an end to disputes from the category of irreconcilable. Its organizer was academician Viktor Ivanovich Sarianidi.
Before that, the mysterious country of Margush (in ancient Greek and Roman chronicles - Margiana) existed in legends. In 1974, during the archaeological research of the Karakum dry sands, Sarianidi discovered the first buildings, as it turned out later, of an ancient metropolis with ideally flat streets, remarkable architecture and the infrastructure necessary for life support of the city.
After many years of excavation of the greatest archaeologist of the 20th century, V.I. Sarianidi, whose sensational discoveries are compared to Troy and the tomb of Tutankhamen made by Schliemann and Carter, will come to a final conclusion - he found the capital to this day the mythical country of Margiana, which after his archaeological research became scientific confirmed reality.
Margiana is the oldest country. The age of the finds discovered by Sarianidi (and this is neither more nor less than 4 thousand years) was determined not by eye and intuition, but by the most accurate scientific method of radiocarbon analysis.
The Marg River, full of water in those years, gave life to the ancient Margian cities (now it is called Murgab by the Turkmen).
The American scientist Fred Hibert, pointing to the numerous ceramic fragments with which sand was poured on the site of the ruins of Gonurdepe - the capital of Margiana, said: "To make such quantities of ceramic products fired, forests had to grow here."
The scientific work of the Italian paleo-hydrologist Barbara Cherozetti, who explored the old delta of the Murghab River, including a space satellite that, flying over the great Turkmen desert, sounded the earth to a depth of seven meters, testifies to the fullness of the Marg River.
According to scientific publications, reports and reports made by Cherozetti at conferences, the Murgab, a river that did not flow into the reservoir (there was simply no such), was lost in the sands. Therefore, due to the natural rotation of our planet around its axis, the river bed each year shifted to the west by a few centimeters. And for thousands of years the life-giving river has retired from the ancient city so much so that it was already difficult to provide the population with water. So, after the river, people also left the city. And the once fertile land under the sultry rays of the southern sun turned into sand...
Therefore, archaeologists, after Sarianidi, called Gonurdepe an archaeological paradise. This city was not destroyed by enemies, it did not experience the destruction of fires or natural disasters. People left their homes, leaving them safe and sound. True, the inexorable time has done its job - the majestic temples, workshops of skillful artisans, furnaces for the smelting of bronze, houses and other facilities left without owners, were gradually worn out. In the end, it all fell asleep in the sand of time. As preserved to this day, as archaeologists say, in a preserved form.
As for the numerous bronze products - tools and armaments, axes, harpoons, knives, arrowheads, rims for wooden wheels (do not be surprised - the oldest wooden wagon was found in Gonurdepe, the wheels of which framed bronze coatings), for their production furnaces were built in complex for the time structure.
Why do scientists distinguish the Bronze Age as an independent period in the history of mankind?
It was a time, in modern terms, of a technological breakthrough, since the production of bronze is a rather complicated metallurgical process. Bronze is an alloy of at least two metals (most often, copper and tin). But the difficulty was that this alloy had to be made for a certain time and at the same temperature, otherwise it would become brittle. And for a long time to keep the fire in place, where it was necessary to throw firewood, keeping the same temperature, was difficult for the ancient people.
However, the Margush people were inventive and created furnaces that were rather complicated for that time: they built a strong fire in one compartment, and the heat itself was distilled through special taps into the next compartment, where the metals melted. Thus, a constant temperature was ensured. And a lot of the furnaces of such structures were found by Sariani.
Margians had a high level of art, in particular, jewelry. Let us recall a unique golden gazelle the size of a few millimeters as one of the many examples. Sarianidi argued that this decoration could not have been made by a cattle breeder, a farmer, etc. It was created by a professional jeweler, a great master of his time. The golden gazelle, who proudly threw up its head, clearly shows all the details of its body, even the muscles in its legs.
It is worth remembering the world's first color plot mosaic, was discovered by Sarianidi in one of the rich tombs. The plot of this mosaic was recreated from ancient legends and tales by the Italian archaeologist Gabriele Rossi Osmid, who conducted excavations in another large city of Margiana, Ajigui (translated from Turkmen as “Bitter Well”).
The decoded plot of the color mosaic, as well as the whole Margiana, became the themes of a wonderful documentary by French cinematographers “The Secrets of the Karakum” with the participation of Rossi Osmid.
The listed and a huge number of other finds became evidence that Viktor Ivanovich Sarianidi opened the fifth center of world civilization, standing on a par with four well-known centers of world culture - Ancient Egypt, India, China and Mesopotamia.
These centers were not isolated from each other - they were united in ancient times by the Great Silk Road, creating opportunities for trade and cultural interaction.
Archaeologists during the excavation of the cities of Margiana found a large number of seals. But Viktor Ivanovich valued one of them especially - it was the seal of a man who was among the ten most close to the pharaoh people. Judging by the inscription, he was the holder of the cup when the ancient ruler of Egypt performed the sacrifice.
And scientists were surprised by the know-how of the ancient inhabitants of Margiana. They built a water supply system not much different from the modern one - they were ceramic tubes that were inserted into each other from baked clay, which gave them strength.
This is also said in an interview with ORIENT of Anton Gass, a researcher at the Museum of Prehistory and Early History, which is part of the system of state museums in Berlin. He is one of the organizers of the exhibition "Margiana - the Kingdom of the Bronze Age in Turkmenistan", which has been presented in Germany since April 2018, and the compilers of the catalog for it. Gass traveled to Turkmenistan with a German expedition to research the precious artifacts of Gonurdepe. It was he who compiled a description of thin-walled terracotta and alabaster vessels, ornate seals, miniature female figurines, and gold jewelry, the design of which is still relevant, according to German photographer Gerlinda Köhlbl, whose works have become a wonderful addition to the exhibition.
During the year, the exposition of the Margian treasures visited Berlin, then in Hamburg and recently moved to the Rice-Engelhorn Museum Complex in Mannheim. Here 230 exhibits will stay until June 2019.
These days, Doctor of Historical Sciences Anton Gass is again in Turkmenistan, now he is a participant in the meeting of the leaders and specialists of the museum affairs of the two countries held in Ashgabat, discussing areas of interaction, including in the area of promoting the unique heritage of Margiana.
According to him, for the visitors of the exhibition "Margiana - the kingdom of the Bronze Age in Turkmenistan" in Germany, of many exhibits, two nondescript objects are the most surprising - "the junction of two ceramic pipes of the plumbing system."
- No wonder - some have exactly the same pipes in the country nowadays, - says the scientist. - But when people say that these objects are more than 4 thousand years old, then there is an awareness of what this culture was like! What achievements were made 4 thousand years ago!
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Alexander BAYRIEV
