Proceedings, 9th ICAANE, Basel 2014, 615–626

Victor Sarianidi – Nadezhda Dubova

Types of Graves at Gonur Depe Bronze Age Site in Turkmenistan

Types of more than 5000 funeral construction (4408 tombs with remains) and their distri-bution around the territory of Gonur Depe Bronze Age site of Turkmenistan are described. Shafts (53,4%), ordinary (30,5%) and huge (0,15 %) pits, cists (6,1%), chambers (1,7%), sepultures (0,2%), burials in jars (2,1%) and in ovens (0,2%), one dakhma and five fractional burials were found.

All information in this article was prepared and discussed together by prof. V. Sarianidi and N. Dubova. The small abstract of it, which is published in the volume of 9. ICAANE, was also written together. Unfortunately, after the passing of Prof. Victor Sarianidi on December 22th, 2013, the preparation of the text and the illustrations were made by only one author, so all mistakes and misunderstandings are her’s only.

Gonur Depe (2300–1600 Cal BC), situated in the South-Eastern Turkmenistan in the Kara-Kum desert, is a typical and the brightest monument of the Bactria-Margiana archaeological complex (BMAC) and has some cultural parallels with Near Eastern cultures and with Indus civilization as well (Sarianidi 1990, 2002, 2005, 2007 etc.). It has been excavated since 1974. Since the 2000s, the work at the site is conducted within the framework of a Cooperation Agreement between the Ministry of Culture of Turkmenistan and the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology named by. N.N. Miklukho-Maklay RAS. These excavations have shown the high level of the culture of the population of Mouru-Margush-Margiana-Merv oasis in the Bronze Age, and made possible to assert that this region formed one of the Centers of ancient Oriental civilization (Sarianidi 2006; Turkmenistan 2006).

In addition to the monumental architecture, the cults of fire, water and, animals, fine examples of jewelry, a significant number of gold, silver artifacts, many testimonies of crafts, mosaics unique in their technique and image quality, and other finds, the differ-ent burial structures occupy a prominent place showing a significant social stratification of Margiana society. More than 5000 tombs in various cemeteries have been excavated:

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2831 tombs at the Main Gonur necropolis (2250–1600 Cal BC) (Sarianidi 2001, 2007), 1626 in different parts of the Palace temple complex (they were made when Gonur lost its sig-nificance as a «holy city»; 1800–1600 Cal BC), 109 in the Royal Gonur necropolis (61 of them belong to 2250–2000 Cal BC) and 106 in some satellite settlements close to Gonur (2000–1600 Cal BC) (Sarianidi/Dubova 2012: 39–52) (fig. 1). All graveyards show diversity of burial constructions. Shafts (pits with shaft in one wall), cist (pits with mud-brick walls and roof), ordinary pits, chambers (underground models of one-two rooms houses) graves, sepultures (large houses under the ground), burials in jars and in ovens, one dakhma in Gonur Palace and five fractional burials (3 at Main Gonur necropolis and 2 in the ruins of North Gonur) were found. Only 12,8% of the funeral constructions cannot be identified. Shaft graves (53,4%) make up the majority of the total amount of graves found at Gonur oasis, ordinary pits (30,6%) take the second place, cists (6,1%) the third one, the burials in jars (2,4%) the fourth one, and burials in chambers (1,7%) the fifth. Very rare burials were

Fig. 1. General scheme of Gonur Depe and the satellite sites.

617Types of Graves at Gonur Depe Bronze Age Site in Turkmenistan

Fig. 2. Types of tombs at Gonur Depe.

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Type of tomb

Main Necropolis

Royal Necropolis R1 R2 R3 All territories

N % N % N % N % N % N %

Shaft 2096 79, 2 7 7, 9 37 35, 9 119 9, 6 77 23, 6 2336 53, 0

Shaft without step 0 0, 0 0 0, 0 2 1, 9 13 1, 0 1 0, 3 16 0, 4

Pit 225 8, 5 63 70, 8 34 33, 0 868 69, 9 155 47, 5 1345 30, 5

Large pit 0 0, 0 1 1, 1 1 1, 0 3 0, 2 1 0, 3 6 0, 1

Burnt pit 194 7, 3 0 0, 0 1 1, 0 4 0, 3 5 1, 5 204 4, 6

Fire place 31 1, 2 0 0, 0 0 0, 0 0 0, 0 0 0, 0 31 0, 7

Chamber 52 2, 0 2 2, 2 0 0, 0 10 0, 8 10 3, 1 74 1, 7

Sepulture 0 0, 0 5 5, 6 1 1, 0 4 0, 3 0 0, 0 10 0, 2

Cist 49 1, 9 8 9, 1 23 22, 3 124 10, 0 62 19, 0 266 6, 0

Large cist 0 0, 0 0 0, 0 0 0, 0 0 0, 0 4 1, 2 4 0, 1

In Jars 0 0, 0 3 3, 4 4 3, 9 78 6, 3 8 2, 5 93 2, 1

Jar in the pit 0 0, 0 0 0, 0 0 0, 0 10 0, 8 2 0, 6 12 0, 3

In old oven 1 0, 0 0 0, 0 0 0, 0 9 0, 7 1 0, 3 11 0, 2

All types 2648 89 103 1242 326 4408

R 1 – Tombs outside North Gonur - at South Gonur, Gonur 20 and Gonur 21.R 2 – Tombs inside the encircling wall of North Gonur R 3 – Tombs outside the encircling wall of North Gonur, but close to it

Table 1. Distribution of different types of funeral constructions by the territories of Gonur oasis.

made in huge (diameter about 5–7 m) pits (0,1%), in sepultures (0,2%) and in old ovens (0,2%) (fig. 2). Huge cists (length about 6 m) were found only four and only in one area (Area 19 on the North-West of North Gonur). Specific type of pits, where only sick people were buried, are named ‹burnt pits›, pits with burnt walls (but not floors!). Most of these pits (77% of 204) were empty; they were found, as the 31 fire places (small pit, diam. not more than 50 cm, with traces of hard fire) at the Main necropolis (in table 11 only constructions with identifiable type are mentioned).

1 In the tables and figures only tombs with human or animal remains are analyzed.

619Types of Graves at Gonur Depe Bronze Age Site in Turkmenistan

Fig. 3. The comparison of the distribution of different tombs’ types at North Gonur and other territories (South Gonur, Gonur 20 and Gonur 21).

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The comparison of the distribution of different types of tombs by territories provides interesting information. As can be seen on fig. 3 in Gonur and at other settlements about 30% of the burials are in pits; shaft tombs are rarer at others settlements, but not in North Gonur. The difference is 17,5%. More significant is the difference in the share of cist: more often (4 times!) they are found outside North Gonur. But at the same time only one sepulture from the total 10 ones was found outside the main site. It was found at Gonur 21, a satellite settlement 4 km to the south of North Gonur that looks like a small «feudal castle». It seems that such a «feudal lord» or «large landowner» (we have no idea about the form of the prop-erty at that time) was to be buried in a sepulture but not in the cist or shaft. Additionally it can be said that not one chamber tomb was made outside the main city.

The large share of cists outside the main city corresponds to the twice larger percentage of them outside the encircling wall2 of North Gonur (fig. 4) than inside it. It may be a sign that even representatives of the top of Margush community (the ruler or governor-High Priest was the only exception) could not bury their dead in the sacred part of the city. But they tried «to be so close to it» as possible and made tombs=cist just near the encircling wall.

Noteworthy are the percents of the burnt pits: they are significant (4,7%) at Gonur Depe and only occasional at other settlements (1,0%, only one case). The fireplace like ones were found at the Main Gonur Necropolis, but they are absent in other territories. That situation together with an amount of empty burnt pits there highlights the specific rituals associated with fire which took place at this graveyard itself. There were real fire-altars near the sep-ultures in the Royal Gonur necropolis (see for example a reconstruction of thouse near the tomb 3235 – Sarianidi/Dubova 2013: 206–207) and many other traces of fire cult at this site (see Sarianidi 1998; 2001; 2010: 27–39, 130–134). The signs are not as clear as, a little later (2nd mill. B.C.), at the graveyard of the Sherabad oasis in Southern Uzbekistan (Avanesova 2013). But many parallels can be seen between these two famous monuments. Some of them are very important, and we need to take them into account when discussing two problems: 1) the interactions between nomadic (and semi-nomadic) tribes with agriculturalists communi-ties; 2) only correspondences between the fire worshipers, early Indo-Iranians and nomads/cattle breeders of the Eurasian Steppe.

It has been mentioned earlier that the main part of the tombs at Main Gonur necropolis were made as shafts (Sarianidi 2001; 2007). At the famous Chalcolithic-Bronze Age site Altyn Tepe situated near Kopet-Dagh foothills there are no such types of tombs (Kircho/Alekshin 2005: 473–474). This type of tombs is rare (9,6%) among the burials inside the encircling wall (fig. 4); they are three times more frequent outside it (23,6%). At the small graveyard close to the main site, the so called «Cemetery of the Temenos» (Dubova/Muradova 2008)

2 The encircling wall – is the third, not a defensive wall surrounding the city (fig. 1). It was, as it seems to us, the border between sacred, sacral (inside) and common (outside) space at Gonur.

621Types of Graves at Gonur Depe Bronze Age Site in Turkmenistan

Fig. 4. The comparison of the distribution of different tombs’ types inside and outside the encircling wall of North Gonur.

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9 out of 11 (81,8%) tombs were shaft ones. So were 36,6% of the 71 tombs at Gonur 20 and 19% of the 19 ones at Gonur 21; only 2 tombs out of 236 (0,8%) in the territory of Gonur Palace and Kremlin and 7 out of 108 (6,5%) tombs of the Royal necropolis were shafts.

If we analyze the distribution of shaft tombs in the territory of the North Gonur, it can be seen that all excavation areas3 can be divided into two groups: 1) eight defined areas with only occasional shafts (1,6–10,4% of the total amount of the graves); 2) five areas, where shafts amount to one-third (or slightly more) from the total number of graves (30,3–42,9%). Area 22 which has the maximum of such constructions among 28 tombs is situated to the south of the Royal necropolis (outside the encircling wall). Close to it is area 6 (west face of the site between second and encircling wall) which has 41,5% shafts among 65 graves. This type of graves accounts for about one-third (30–34%) of the total amount of graves at areas 12, 16 and 17. Two of the last ones are marked at the south-western side of Gonur, outside the encircling wall, the 17th – to the north of Gonur, again outside the third wall. Area 16 (242 tombs) is situated on the right bank of ancient Murghab river while on the left bank just in front of it the Main Gonur necropolis ends (Sarianidi/Dubova 2008: 28–49). When the Murghab river became smaller and smaller and the water disappeared from that place people of Margush began to use this area for burial. So we can consider area 16 as an extension of the Main burial ground at the end of the second chronological period of the site, although there were some inhabited areas in the earliest times.

The placement of area 12 is also special: it is marked to the north-east of area 16 by (inside and outside) the fragment of a wall that looks like an encircling one, but too far to the west of its main contour. The excavations in 2013–2014 showed that there was a graveyard of one family or of a group of relative families (it became clear thanks to the anthropo-genetic traits of the people buried and the construction of the tombs). We may suppose that this burial ground was not the only one. The similar shares of shaft tombs at different territories tell us about the possibility of presence of some local graveyards at Gonur Depe. At the same time this data may correct ideas on the social structure of Margush country. As it has been proved, the ratio of different types of graves at the Gonur necropolis is a reflection of the social structure of the country: 80% of the middle class (shaft tombs), 10% of poor (pit tombs) and 10% of rich people (chambers and cists) (Sarianidi 2001, 2007). Here it is neces-sary to clarify that Gonur was not a city where people lived. It was a palace-temple center, where the inhabitants of different settlements came to carry out ceremonies and rituals, to make sacrifices and pray. Only the ruler and may be his family lived there. As it can be supposed the cemetery on the other side of the ritual center bank of the Murghab river was

3 The location of twenty archaeological areas recorded at Gonur Depe was described many times in publications. On the cover of Volumes 4 and 5 of Transactions of Margiana Archaeological expedi-tion (Moscow 2012, 2014) their positions are marked on the schema.

623Types of Graves at Gonur Depe Bronze Age Site in Turkmenistan

Fig. 5. The comparison of the distribution of different tombs’ types at Main Gonur Necropolis and at the territory of the central part of Palace-Temple complex of North Gonur («Ruins of the Complex»).

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Fig. 6. Schema of the cist 2900 at area 5 of North Gonur.

organized by people of the surrounding settlements because the area near the «holy city» had become sacred. And nowadays modern Turkmen try to bury their dead close to the old cemeteries, close to the tomb of famous or holy men. But to carry the body and perform the necessary ceremonies far from home requires considerable effort which only the wealthy are able to make. Only few common people will do that. And we’ll receive reflection not of the real but specific situation. The proportion of different types of tombs at small grave-yards, especially those which belong to one settlement (for example our Gonur 20) is more demonstrative. As we have tried to show, about 30–40% was above the middle class (sign of which may be the shaft tombs). The share of pits as well as cists is about 30% each. May be this proportion is closer to the real one?

Burials in large ceramic vessels, jars are absent in the main Gonur necropolis. They were found only on the territory of the main part of the palace-temple complex. These burials were organized in the last period of occupation of the city (later they are named as «Tombs in the ruins of the Complex»). Only babies and children were buried in them.

The large difference can be seen when comparing the distribution of types of tombs in the Main Gonur necropolis and in the «Ruins»: the majority of tombs in the Necropolis, as it was said above, are shafts (79,2%), but in the «Ruins» pits (65,2%) (fig. 5). Following the logic just described, we can assume that the last inhabitants of Gonur Depe were poor people who could not leave this place together with the top of the society which had moved to the another oasis when there was no longer enough water. One more sign of the same phenomenon is the absence of the sepultures and chamber tombs

625Types of Graves at Gonur Depe Bronze Age Site in Turkmenistan

which are dated later than 19th–18th cc. B.C.4 The latest data from the main part of Gonur belongs to unplundered cist 2900 (Sarianidi 2007: 146–155). It got two names – «A Burial of Noble Warrior» and «A Burial of the Last Ruler of Gonur» due to the richest funerary offerings among contemporaneous graves. But it was not a chamber or sepulture, it was a typical cist (fig. 6). So in the last period of life at Gonur those who buried their dead in cists were the richest people. Cultural differences between people buried in different types of graves are not traced.

This short analysis of the distribution of the types of tombs in the territory of Gonur Depe and some satellite settlements shows some regularity. It helps us to understand not only the dynamics of formation of some graveyards there but also to come closer to the knowledge of the social structure of the society. One can hope that future excavations will give us new information, including those about the funeral rituals. For example huge cists mentioned above were found in Gonur only in 2010. And their placement was unexpected: outside the encircling wall, close to it, but not in a free space where there were most of the previously found burials of this kind but close to some buildings and other constructions on the north-western corner of the site – Area 19 (Sarianidi/Dubova 2014: 98–99). Also new information was obtained during the excavation on Area 12 in the south-western part of the site, where among other things some shafts without step and some variants thereof were excavated.

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4 There are more than 80 C14 data for Gonur Depe, the main part of which is published: Zaytseva et al 2008.

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Victor Sarianidi & Nadezhda Dubova, Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of sciences, Moscow, Russia. dubova_n@mail.ru.