Anahita Gallery, Inc. art articles View of the palace complex at Gonur North. At the right, diggers shovel loosened earth from the pits to expose the ancient mud-brick walls. Zoom Gonur Tepe - A Visit to Bronze Age Turkmenistan click on any image to enlarge Zoom Bronze belt stud, 2200-1800 BC, Northern Afghanistan Bronze Age, depicting a winged female figure poised between two griffins. Only in the last quarter century, has the culture of Bronze Age Central Asia become widely known in the West. Since 1972, the work of excavation and analysis of this contemporary of the Mesopotamian and Indus Valley civilizations has in large part been accomplished by the Margianan Archeological Expedition, directed today by the Russian archeologist Victor Sarianidi. Dr. Sarianidi's recent work has focused on the Late Bronze Age sites, dating to the first half of the second millennium BC, located in the ancient delta of the Murgab River, in the southeastern part of present day Turkmenistan. Gonur Tepe was the largest of dozens of scattered Bronze Age sites established here in the early second millennium. Gonur appears to have served as an administrative and religious center for the region, and as a hub for long distance trade. Its sophisticated, monumental architecture, and elegant material remains in art and ornament indicate the high culture achieved before a variety of factors led to the movement of its peoples further south and east. A recent trip to the site brought Kate and Jane Fitz Gibbon first to Ashkabad, capital of Turkmenistan, then five hours northeast by paved road to Mary, and finally, across the open desert in an antique Russian military vehicle | |
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