Altyn-depe during the Aeneolithic Period

Systematic excavations at Altyn-depe in southern Turkmenistan have already provided us with a graphic picture of the internal structure and cultural form of an early urban settlement of the Bronze Age. ¹ It is now quite clear that this very ancient civilization of our country belonged within that extensive zone of ancient civilizations between Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley. The highly developed culture of the middle and second half of the second millennium B.C. that has been found within the past few years along the middle course of the Amu Darya ² was related to Altyn-depe by a whole series of genetic links. Naturally the problems of the genesis of this early urban culture and the forms and features of its earlier sources are especially important for relating it to the later Bactrian cultures. Most recently this problem has gone beyond the territorial limits of Central Asian archeology. The discovery of a significant number of painted ceramics that are identical to the south Turkmenian Namazga III forms in the earliest levels at Shahr-i Sokhta in Seistan naturally led to the hypothesis that the formation of a settled agricultural way of life in Seistan occurred as the result of the dispersion of south Turkmenian communities. ³ Not long ago the question was raised in a publication concerning the presence on the Iranian plateau at the end of the fourth and beginning of the third millennium B.C. of two primary interaction spheres — a Mesopotamian- or Jemdet-Nasr-related sphere and a south Turkmenian sphere. ⁴ All this work made especially relevant the study of the early stratigraphy at Altyn-depe, which was done in 1970, 1971, and 1974 along with continuing excavations of the upper levels of the site. ⁵ By 1960 preliminary soundings at the site established the presence of a Late Aeneolithic culture with painted ceramics of the Geoksyur type. ⁶ Now it is possible to present a sufficiently complete stratigraphic column of this major site and, to a great extent, paint the picture of its development during the Aeneolithic period.