The late Bronze Age settlement of Saridjar (Tajikistan)

• Applicant: Dr. Mike Teufer
• Subject Area: Prehistory and World Archaeology ; Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
• Term: from 2015 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 272157148

The projects scientific approach is best subsumed under the heading of settlement archaeology. One of the major results of the preceding DFG-funded project was the discovery of a Late Bronze Age settlement near Saridjar in the Jach Su valley of south-western Tajikistan. This discovery is of major importance, since the entire region was previously thought to be unsettled by post-Neolithic sedentists. The settlement shall be examined in detail archaeologically over the course of four field campaigns of two months each.Previous research has shown that the settlement of Saridjar dates from the 17th to 15th/14th centuries B.C. The end of occupation therefore falls in the transitional period from the Late Bronze to the Early Iron Age, one of the decisive watersheds in Central Asian cultural history. Up to now, the transition between the two stages is not understood at all, since the archaeological remains of the two periods differ in the most fundamental respects. It is the more interesting, that transitional elements can be seen in the Saridjar material, suggesting that we are facing a very rapid change of material culture which can be documented now for the first time in an archaeologically intact setting. In addition to the settlement remains, the nearby necropolis will enable us to extend our research to physical anthropology and burial customs.The aim of the project is to gain fundamental insight into the transformation processes at work around the mid-second millennium BC by exploring selected living and manufacturing areas as well as funerary remains. To monitor in detail changes to the economic sphere, a spectre of scientific analyses will be used, including the study of animal bones, botanical remains including phytoliths, faecal spherulites as well as compositional studies on pottery and metal finds. Analyses of human bones will provide data on nutrition and health, and possibly on the range of activities carried out at the settlement. Isotopes may specifically inform us on residential patterns within this period of change.The project will be carried out within the framework of a German-Tajik-Russian cooperation.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Russia, Tajikistan
• Cooperation Partners: Privatdozentin Dr. Tatjana G. Filimonova; Dr. Natalija M. Vinogradova