The Oxus Civilisation Graveyard of Adji Kui in Margiana: A General Overview about Funerary Practices and Cultural Interactions

The graveyard of Adji Kui, located between the fortified villages of Adji Kui 1 and Adji Kui 9 in Margiana (southern Turkmenistan), consisted in about 850 burials which have been excavated from 2001 to 2010 by an Italian and Turkmen team of archaeologists lead by G. Rossi Osmida and B. Udeumuradov. Numerous burials have been looted in the past, aswell as many have been either partially or ruinously damaged by agricultural works carried out in the sixties and seventies of the 20th century. Despite this, about 30% of the excavated graves allowed to find funerary contexts in fairly good or perfect conditions of conservation, characterised by well preserved funerary structures (pit, catacomb and pseudocatacomb, cist and mausoleum in mud bricks), skeletons lying in their original position on the right side facing South- West and inventories composed of several artefacts, some of which of great peculiarity and richness. From a chronological point of view, all findings are dated to the Middle and Late Bronze Age, between the late 3rd and the mid-2nd millennium BC, and culturally belonging to the Oxus Civilisation or BMAC (Bactro-Margian Archaeological Complex). These graves have been neither studied nor presented in a scientific publication. The systematisation and analysis of all data collected during the past excavations is almost finished and the future publication of a comprehensive book dedicated entirely to the Adji Kui graveyard will be announced in July right during the International Virtual Conference on Archaeology organised by the University of Sistan and Baluchestan. The work clearly witnesses the deep cultural links existing between Adji Kui and Gonur-depe, the most important site in Bronze Age Margiana, and the other sites of the Oxus Civilisation attested in southern Turkmenistan,Uzbekistan and northern Afghanistan, as well across the Indo-Iranian plateau and the Eurasian steppe.

Keywords:

Turkmenistan , Oxus Civilization , Graveyard , Plundered graves , Mausolea