Вестник археологии, антропологии и этнографии (Mar 2016)
Period of Yaz-II: stages and chronology
Abstract
The archaeological site of Yaz depe was excavated over 50 years ago by V.M. Masson, and has been a reference point for the Iron Age — Yaz-I, Yaz-II and Yaz-III — in Central Asia since then. At that time it was dated to the middle of the 2nd to the beginning of the 1st Millennium BC In the early 1970s monuments of this period were discovered near the modern settlement of Bandykhan, southern Uzbekistan. Work there was renewed by a joint Uzbek-German team, starting in 2005, which gave new results for understanding the pottery evolution of the Yaz-I to III periods and allowed a subdivision of the Yaz-II period into phases A and B. Radiocarbon analyses of samples from stratigraphic context also give these periods absolute ages 10th–8th Century BC for Yaz-IIA and 7th–6th Century for Yaz-IIB. These new materials and dates are published here. In the concluding remarks the general historical context is presented, with a discussion of the Frada revolt which was crushed by the Achaemenid Empire, as is known from ancient texts. We also remark the Kavi kingdom and its connections to Zoroastrian chronology and tradition, which falls into this period. In our opinion the Yaz-II distribution coincides with the Iranian World — the «Arjan-Vaichakh», whose northern border is given by the Hissar mountain range with their well-known enemies — the legendary Turan.
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