Sarazm

Sarazm (Tajik: Саразм) is a town and also a jamoat in the city of Panjakent in Sughd Region, north-western Tajikistan. It dates back to the 4th millennium BC, with C14 dates ranging from 3900 to 2100 BC, and was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The jamoat is part of and has a total population of 27,877 (2015). It consists of 21 villages, including Chimqal'a (the seat), Abdusamad, Bostondeh, Kamar, Kamar-Tash and Sohibnazar.

The archaeological site of the ancient city of Sarazm is near Sohibnazar, a village on the left bank of the river Zeravshan, near the border with Uzbekistan. The culture of Sarazm precedes the arrival of the Andronovo steppe culture in South Central Asia in the 2nd millennium BC.

Archeology

Located 15 kilometers west of the city of Panjakent, the site occupies an area of about 1.5 km in length and 400 to 900m in width. At the peak of the occupation, the site would have covered an area of up to 90 hectares, 35 of which are unobstructed.

The site is of great interest for archaeologists as it constitutes the first proto-historical agricultural society in this region of Central Asia. Moreover, it is the most north-eastern of those proto-historical agricultural permanent settlements. Sarazm was the first city in Central Asia to maintain economic relations with a network of settlements covering a vast territory from the Turkmenistan steppes and the Aral sea (in the northwest) to the Iranian Plateau and the Indus (in the south and southeast).

Discovery and excavations

Following surface discoveries unearthed due to agricultural activity, the first excavation of the site started in 1977 and was conducted by Abdullah Isakov of the Academy of Science of Tajikistan. During that first excavation, eight soundings in the different locations were conducted and three areas were excavated. In 1987, seven areas were excavated and twenty soundings had been conducted.

International cooperation

The site was researched through multiple partnership between the Tajik SSR and international partners. Most notably, a fruitful collaboration between French and Tajik researchers flourished starting in 1984 with a first scientific mission. In 1985, a cooperation agreement was signed between the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) and the Tajik Academy of Science for three years, a partnership that would be renewed until 1998, when the French mission changed towards supporting the preservation of the site. Most archeometric analysis were conducted by the CNRS in France. The French mission was supervised by R. Besenval, R. Lyonnet (ceramology) and F. Cesbron (mineralogy).

In 1985, two American professors, P.L. Kohl (Wellesley College) and C.C. Lamberg-Karlovsky (Harvard) took part in an expedition organised as a joint USSR and US archeological exchange program.

Stratigraphy dates

The site is composed of four distinct layers of occupation separated by long period of abandonment. This classification was established during the first excavations. There are about 1.5 to 2 meters of deposits in total for about a millennium of occupation and not all four layers are found in every location, suggesting the settlement moved over the centuries. The different layers are numbered Sarazm I, II, III, IV, with Sarazm I being the most ancient layer.

Dating of the layers is uncertain, although most agree on the first half of the 4th millennium BC as the beginning of the occupation. Dates have been established initially through radiocarbon dating.

Here are the date results as recalibrated in 1985 by the American-USSR mission, using the results from the Leningrad laboratory.

The excavation VII, which was conducted by the French mission also produced some radiocarbon dating of this site.

Timelines were also confirmed through the cultural artefacts belonging to others cultures who had already been investigated. For instance the presence of Turkmen clay shards from the Namazga II and III period and Togau ceramics from Baluchistan can attest of occupation from the first half of the fourth millennium to the second half of the third millennium BC.

Economy

Following the first excavation, Isakov said that "It has been clearly established that the inhabitants of Sarazm were occupied not only with agriculture and herding but also with metallurgical production". A large metal repertoire has been unearthed from the II, III and IV layers: daggers, awls, chisels, axes and decorative pieces were among the discoveries. There is ample evidence that the metal was actually worked in Sarazm using techniques similar to those used in Mesopotamia, the Iranian Plateau and the Indus Valley.

Some have said that around 3000 BC, it was the largest exporting metallurgical center of Central Asia.

The ceramics discovered at Sarazm indicate contacts extending to the Iranian Plateau, Northern Baluchistan and Turkmenistan. For example, pottery from the Bronze Age north-eastern Iranian culture, from Seistan and Baluchistan have been found.

The agriculture was also facilitated by the construction of irrigation facilities that allowed the inhabitants to use the water from the Zerafshan river and capture the water from the mountains as well. Wheat (free-threshing hexaploid) and barley (both naked and hulled) were discovered at the site, while evidence for broomcorn millet and pulses were not found. The naked barley found at Sarazm is similar in morphology to the barley found in sites in Pakistan such as Mehrgarh and Nausharo, and also similar to the barley found in the earliest sites in China where barley was first found. The inhabitants were also involved in herding of mainly cattle, sheep and goat. The herding was oriented towards the maximisation of the secondary products (milk, wool, leather).