Formation, Territorial Distribution, and Cultural-Historical Significance of Incised-Decorated Ceramics in the Fergana Valley

X.  Pozilova

doi:10.51699/cajssh.v7i4.1392

Authors

X. Pozilova 2nd-year doctoral student, Institute of Anthropology, Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.51699/cajssh.v7i4.1392

Keywords:

Fergana Valley, incised decoration, ceramics, slip, Davan culture, Kugay–Karabulak culture, typology, pottery, ornament, chronology, cultural contacts

Abstract

The article presents a comprehensive examination of incised-decorated ceramic vessels known from archaeological complexes of the ancient and early medieval periods of the Fergana Valley. The main focus of the study is placed on the manufacturing technology of this ceramics, vessel forms, ornamental composition, territorial distribution, stratigraphic position and chronological dynamics. A comparison of the available archaeological data has established that incised-decorated ceramics were not distributed equally across the different irrigation districts of the Fergana Valley, while separate typological variants developed in certain centres. Small jars, jar-shaped vessels, pitchers, bowls, goblets and other forms, most often made on the potter’s wheel and covered with red, black or brown slip, constitute the principal groups. The ornaments include triangles, zigzags, parallel and wavy lines, as well as stylized representations of trees, birds, horses and other images. In some assemblages, the proportion of incised-decorated objects is around 7–15 percent, while in Kuyuk I, Khangiz and several other complexes it reaches 18–26 percent. These indicators demonstrate that incised decoration was an important, although variable, phenomenon in the Fergana pottery tradition, changing according to territory and period.

References

B. Abdulgazieva, “New monuments of the early medieval period in Eastern Fergana,” IMKU, no. 21, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 1987, pp. 66–.

B. Abdulgazieva, “Excavations at the Kurgantepe settlement,” IMKU, no. 20, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 1985, p. 64.

B. Abdulgazieva, “Investigation of the Sultanabad settlement,” in Central Asia: Archaeology, History, Culture: Proc. Int. Conf. Dedicated to the 50th Anniversary of G. V. Shishkina’s Scientific Activity, Moscow, Russia, 2000, pp. 12–17.

R. Z. Avzalov, “Excavations at the Kala-i Kakhkakha I settlement in 1980,” ART, no. 21, Stalinabad, Tajikistan, 1981.

B. Amanbaeva, A. Gritsina, V. Nabokov, and D. Abdulloev, “Archaeological works at the Ak-Buura settlement in 1997–1998,” in Osh-3000 and the Cultural Heritage of the Peoples of Kyrgyzstan, vol. 4: Osh and Fergana: Archaeology, Modern Period, Cultural Genesis, and Ethnogenesis, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan: Muras, 2000, pp. 78–83.

G. A. Brykina, Southwestern Fergana in the First Half of the First Millennium A.D. Moscow, Russia, 1982.

P. P. Gavryushenko, E. Z. Zaurova, P. N. Kozhemyako, and I. K. Kozhamberdiev, “Archaeological investigations of the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the Kirghiz SSR,” AO: Archaeological Discoveries of 1966, Moscow, Russia, 1967, pp. 337–342.

N. G. Gorbunova, “Ceramics of the Fergana settlements of the first centuries A.D.,” TGE, vol. 20, 1979, pp. 114–146.

N. G. Gorbunova, “The culture of Fergana in the Early Iron Age,” ASGE, no. 5, 1962, pp. 91–122.

N. G. Gorbunova and V. I. Kozenkova, “Sym-Tepe—A settlement in Fergana,” ASGE, no. 16, 1974, pp. 95–104.

N. G. Gorbunova, “On the dating of complexes with Shurabashat ceramics in Eastern Fergana,” ASGE, no. 18, 1977, pp. 52–56.

N. G. Gorbunova, “Some features of the formation of ancient cultures of Fergana,” ASGE, no. 25, 1984, pp. 99–107.

N. G. Gorbunova and T. G. Obolduyeva, “The Aral-Tepe settlement,” ASGE, no. 29, 1988, pp. 82–96.

N. G. Gorbunova, “The Khangiz II burial ground in Fergana,” ASGE, no. 31, 1991, pp. 107–120.

N. G. Gorbunova, “Funerary stone structures of southwestern Fergana,” ASGE, no. 33, 1998, pp. 90–109.

N. G. Gorbunova and B. Z. Hamburg, “Archaeological works of the Fergana Regional Museum of Local Lore in 1953–1954: A brief report,” IMKU, no. 1, 1959, pp. 5–21.

N. G. Gorbunova, “The Kugai-Karabulak culture of Fergana,” Sovetskaya Arkheologiya, no. 3, 1983, pp. 23–46.

N. G. Gorbunova, “The Khangiz I burial ground in Fergana,” Sovetskaya Arkheologiya, no. 1, 1990, pp. 178–198.

N. G. Gorbunova, The Culture of Ancient Ferghana (6th Century B.C.–6th Century A.D.), BAR International Series, no. 281. Oxford, U.K.: British Archaeological Reports, 1986, p. 248, pl. LXXXV.

Ya. G. Gulyamov, “Report on the work of the third detachment of the archaeological expedition at the construction site of the Great Fergana Canal named after I. V. Stalin,” TIIA, no. 4, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 1951, pp. 87–122.

V. D. Zhukov, “Report on the work of the second detachment of the archaeological expedition at the construction site of the Great Fergana Canal named after I. V. Stalin,” TIIA, no. 4, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 1951, pp. 41–86.

Yu. A. Zadneprovsky, Archaeological Monuments of the Southern Districts of Osh Region (Mid-1st Millennium B.C.–Mid-1st Millennium A.D.). Frunze, Kyrgyz SSR, 1960.

Yu. A. Zadneprovsky, “Reconnaissance and excavations of the Southern Kyrgyz detachment of the Kyrgyz Archaeological-Ethnographic Complex Expedition of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR,” ART, no. 2, Stalinabad, Tajikistan, 1954.

Yu. A. Zadneprovsky, “Fergana,” in The Earliest States of the Caucasus and Central Asia, Archaeology of the USSR. Moscow, Russia: Nauka, 1985.

M. Kh. Isamiddinov, B. Matbabaev, and T. Kuchkarov, “Preliminary study of the ceramics of the Kül-Tepe settlement of Northern Fergana,” IMKU, no. 18, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, pp. 91–101.

M. Kh. Isamiddinov, Materials for the Corpus of Archaeological Monuments of Namangan Region. Samarkand, Uzbekistan: Archive of the Institute of Archaeology, 1982, Fond 8, Inventory 1, File 91.

E. B. Kadirov, “Ancient burials of Fergana as a historical source,” Abstract of Ph.D. dissertation, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 1975, p. 10.

V. I. Kozenkova, “Gayrat-Tepe,” Sovetskaya Arkheologiya, no. 3, Moscow, Russia, 1964, pp. 231–234.

B. A. Latynin, “Works in the area of the projected hydroelectric power station on the Naryn River in Fergana,” Izvestiya GAIMK, no. 110, pp. 120–158.

B. A. Litvinsky and E. A. Davidovich, “Preliminary report on the excavation of burial mounds in Vorukh (Isfara District) in 1954,” ART, no. 2, Stalinabad, Tajikistan, 1954.