ABSTRACT
The great attention that the Tashkent school of archeology devotes to the study of ancient cities — their topography and internal structure as reflected in specific traits of urban organization and the individual features of their historical development — is one of its characteristic features. Courses on the historical topography of the large urban centers of Central Asia — Samarkand, Bukhara, Tashkent, and several others — were taught systematically by M. E. Masson in the Department of Archeology, Tashkent State University. Specific methods for the study of Central Asian cities were devised with the aim of the maximum utilization of preserved information for the purposes of historical reconstruction. One of the most important features of this school was the creative approach to the study of the microrelief of large sites, not just through the formal establishment of a horizontal topographic plan but also through a study of the specific archeological remains that reflected, in particular, elements of the city organism, such as walls, streets, squares, large buildings, and the like, that existed beneath the surface. According to this approach observations even on the nature of the soil itself, which nourished different types of vegetation, offered considerable assistance. On the basis of such methods a general plan for the study of the abandoned cities was established by M. E. Masson which reflected the structure of the largest urban settlements in southern Turkmenistan. The utilization of this method seemed the most effective approach for studying urban centers, particularly those of great antiquity.
