Manufacturing technology of stone miniature columns from the Bronze Age site Gonur Depe (southern Turkmenistan)

Natalia Nikolaevna Skakun; Vera Vladimirovna Terekhina

doi:10.2218/jls.4490

Natalia Nikolaevna Skakun Institute for the History of Material Culture RAS
Vera Vladimirovna Terekhina Institute for the History of Material Culture, RAS

Keywords: Turkmenistan; Bronze Age; stone processing production; stone miniature columns; technical, morphological and use-wear analysis

Abstract

Archaeological cultures of the Bronze Age, despite the widespread use of metal, also used stone raw materials for the manufacture of tools, household, and sacred items. A lot of stone products had a complicated shape and meticulous finishing, but the technology of their manufacture is still not always clear. This fully applies to the materials of the Bronze Age of southern Turkmenistan where long-term settlements of the proto-urban type are being studied. These include Gonur Depe (2500-1500 BCE) - the administrative and religious centre of ancient Margiana (Sarianidi 2005). Among its materials are stone miniature columns of “unknown” purpose in the shape of a chess rook, which are usually found in sacral complexes. This paper deals with the technology of producing these objects (half of the collection of intact items was investigated) and is part of a collective work on a comprehensive study of large stone cult objects from Gonur Depe. The raw materials for studied miniature columns were gypsum, limestone, marbled limestone, marbled onyx, onyx, talcochlorite, and polymictic breccia. For the first time the authors made an attempt to consider the issues of miniature columns manufacturing technology. Thanks to the use-wear study of their surfaces, it became possible to reveal numerous technological traces invisible to the naked eye. The data obtained made it possible to characterize all stages of the miniature columns manufacturing technology, which indicates a high level of development of the stone-processing industry in the settlements of the Bronze Age of Turkmenistan.

Author Biographies

Natalia Nikolaevna Skakun, Institute for the History of Material Culture RAS

Institute for the History of Material Culture, RAS
191186 Palace emb.
18, St. Petersburg
Russia

Vera Vladimirovna Terekhina, Institute for the History of Material Culture, RAS

Institute for the History of Material Culture, RAS
191186 Palace emb.
18, St. Petersburg
Russia

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.2218/jls.4490