Complex archaeological bactro-margien

Name archaeological Complexe bactro-margien is the translation of the expression English E Bactro-margian archeological complex , usually shortened in BMAC . One will find also Civilization of Oxus . All that is used to indicate a civilization which opened out between the Bactriane and the Margiane (Turkménistan, Ouzbékistan and current Afghanistan) at the beginning of thousand-year-old IIe before J. - C. (C. 2000-1700). It was identified by Soviet archeologists starting from excavations having begun in the years 1950. It presents a great homogeneity of one site to the other.

Principal sites

The archeological sites of the BMAC are divided into two principal groups, determined by two important whole of river. The first is the delta of Murghab, in the Western part. Its principal site for this period is Gonur-depe. The other important establishments of this area are Kelleli, Taip, and Togolok for a later phase. More recently, the site of Adji-kui was put at the day. In Bactriane, around the affluents of Amou-daria, another unit is formed by the sites of Sapalli-depe, Dashly-depe then later Jarkutan.

Town planning

The establishments of the BMAC had a relatively important size, in any case ever reached before in the area (their equivalents having to be sought more in the west in the culture of Namazga). Gonur-depe covers 28 hectares thus. The other great sites cover more than 10 hectares. Their heart was formed by a fortress often forming an almost square quadrilateral flanked turns of duty to each one of its angles. The remainder of the city was organized around this center. They comprised districts of dwelling, as well as zones where the craftsmen were gathered.

Around these great centers revolved a whole of small villages measuring for the majority less than 3 hectares, rather turned towards the agricultural activity, and not comprising any defense work.

Material culture

Many objects were updated in necropoles of the BMAC. Those of the elites comprise obviously a great number of objects: Vase S in Ceramic of various types, objects in Copper or Bronze, in particular of the weapons. Female statuettes were also found. Three types of seals were identified, testifying to the various cultural influences received by the BMAC: a bronze seal, dish, simple at the beginning before becoming more and more complex, returning to the seals of Namazga; an seal-amulet, often of cruciform form, according to the centrasiatic tradition, but whose repertory are influenced by the Mésopotamie, the Élam and Civilization of Indus; a Cylinder seal, typical object of the tradition mésopotamienne and élamite.

The BMAC and its neighbors

The material culture of the carriers of the culture of the BMAC testifies to the influences that they could receive their neighbors. One initially counts the culture of Namazga, nearer geographically, which had an important influence during the phase of Kelleli, which marked the beginning of the BMAC in the delta of Murghab. More remote but more radiant, the ages of Mésopotamie, Élam and Indus saw they also some their aspects taken again in Bactriane and Margiane. One also found objects typical of the steppes located at the north of the valley of Oxus.

Contrary, objects of the BMAC are found in the close areas: in all the plate Iran IEN, with the Balouchistan especially. That concerns the strong bonds which link the various cultural units ranging between Mésopotamie and Indus at this period.

Ethnic composition

One of the reasons for which the BMAC is most usually mentioned is the interest that carried to him those which tried to identify the course of the ancestors of the Indians and the Iranians during the protohistoire, which according to any probability arrived of the North-West of the Central Asia, since the steppes of Russia, before being established in their current countries in the current of the 2nd millenium (in first Indians, later Iranians). The fact that one found many objects of the type of those of the BMAC in Baluchistan (Mehrgarh VII, Sibri) made that one wants to sometimes identify the carriers of this culture with the ancestors of the Indo-Aryan ones, which would have then essaimé towards the valley of Indus, where they supplanted little by little the former populations of this area, while the south of the Central Asia, in particular Bactriane and Margiane, saw the arrival of Proto-Iranian.

Posterity

At all events of these questions attached to the thorn-bush problem of the Indo-European migrations, the period of BMAC was followed in Bactriane and Margiane by a culture which is built in its continuity, represented by two principal sites, Togolok in the delta of Murghab and Jarkutan in Bactriane, known in particular for their large " temples".

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