Middle Asia Takes Center Stage

Author(s): Andrew Lawler

Source: Science, New Series, Vol. 317, No. 5838 (Aug. 3, 2007), pp. 586-590
Published by: American Association for the Advancement of Science
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NEWSFOCUS

Middle Asia Takes

Center Stage
Long dismissed as a backwater, the vast area between Mesopotamia
and the Indus Valley is now revealing a tapestry of wealthy urban
centers that shaped humanity's first concerted attempt at city life

RAVENNA, ITALY?Five hundred years ago, sity of Halle in Germany, "we have to change Tosi, the University of Bologna archaeologist
the cities scattered across the north Italian our view. Mesopotamia is not the only cradle who hosted the gathering.
plain exchanged goods, artists, and ideas yet of mankind?there are many."
clung stubbornly to their own distinctive The old take on Mesopotamia as the At the margins no more
styles and cultures. Their rivalries and trade mother of all civilization has its roots in Globalization is an ancient phenomenon.
swelled into a creative wave that transformed archaeology's obsession with major river val Anatolian obsidian used for making sharp
Europe during the Renaissance and launched leys. Ancient sites in Egypt, southern Iraq, and tools is found widely in the Near East at sites
the world into the modern era. Now many along the Indus were relatively obvious and dating to the 5th millennium B.C.E. By the
archaeologists believe that a similar awaken accessible to Western scientists. The more 4th millennium B.C.E., lapis lazuli mined in
ing took place nearly 5000 years ago, in an remote oases and inland rivers of the Iranian Afghanistan appears in Mesopotamia and
even wider arc to the East spanning thousands plateau, Central Asia, and parts of the Arabian Egypt. And by the 3rd millennium B.C.E., car
of kilometers. New findings suggest that a Peninsula remained mostly terra incognita. nelian beads crafted in the Indus River valley
string of societies, from the Russian steppes The Cold War prolonged that isolation, as did circulated in the Near East, and copper from
to the Arabian Peninsula, together forged the the 1979 revolution in Iran and war in Oman was worked into fine Sumerian jewelry
first human civilizations. Afghanistan. Middle Asia was dismissed by in Mesopotamia.
It is a radical retelling of the traditional many academics as a marginal region of trad Archaeologists long assumed that the
story, which holds that civilization sprouted in ing paths and small settlements that supplied impetus for much of this trade came from
Mesopotamia along the banks of the raw materials or goods to urban sophisticates booming cities that sprang up in the 3rd mil
Euphrates, then on the Nile, and finally on the in the three river systems. lennium B.C.E. in southern Mesopotamia, a
Indus during the 3rd millennium B.C.E., each But excavations in Iran, Turkmenistan, and fertile area devoid of stone, metal, and other
culture largely isolated by harsh terrain and Oman are prompting scholars to rethink how resources. (The Indus and Egypt, by contrast,
immense distances. At a meeting* here last civilization first took a firm hold. "During the are richer in raw materials.) That assumption
month, archaeologists began to assemble a far last 3 centuries of the 3rd millennium B.C.E., was based in part on Sumerian texts and
more complex picture in which dozens of the Iranian plateau was an incredibly dynamic objects such as those in royal graves from
urban centers thrived between Mesopotamia place. A transformation was taking place circa 2500 B.C.E. in the Sumerian city of Ur.
and the Indus, trading commodities and, pos which finally may have led to integration," says The tombs, found in the 1920s, include arti
sibly, adopting each other's technologies, Holly Pittman, an archaeologist at the Univer facts made of gold, silver, copper, lapis, car
sity of Pennsylvania. But why Middle Asia's nelian, and dark stone originating from as far
architectures, and ideas. Advocates admit they
collection of sprawling civilizations suddenly away as the Indus. The diversity and lavish- .
are only beginning to piece together how the
urban boom unfolded across what they call collapsed remains a controversial question. ness of the materials gave credence to the idea jjj
Middle Asia. Nevertheless, argues Sylvia At the Ravenna meeting, a diverse band of that less-developed areas to the east devoted |
Winkelmann, an archaeologist at the Univer archaeologists pledged to work together to much energy to exporting high-status goods. |
unravel Middle Asia's cultural interactions. "Mesopotamia was the great sucking sound," |
* International Association for the Study of Early
Civilizations in the Middle Asian Intercultural "This is an experiment to see if we can provesays archaeologist Carl Lamberg-Karlovsky ?_
Space, 7-8 July. connections and similarities," says Maurizio of Harvard University. u

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 Civilization spreads its
roots. A Russian-led team
excavates a royal tomb at
Gonur, in Turkmenistan,
that included a cart with
wheels stieathed in bronze.

New excavations flatly contradict that pic more than 400 impressions made by some finds show that the vessels were widely used
ture. The most dramatic evidence comes from 200 different seals between 2480 and locally?and may have had strong personal or
the Halil River in southeastern Iran. After 2280 B.C.E. Impressed on wet clay, the seals religious meaning, because so many of them
extensive looting of ancient cemeteries in an typically marked ownership of boxes or were apparently buried with their owners. And
area south of the modern city of Jiroft in 2001, baskets that may have held trading goods, says some were exported over vast distances. In
a team led by Yousef Madjidzadeh began Pittman, who has worked at the site. Roughly Mesopotamia, they were considered so valu
excavating two nearby mounds (Science, one in 10 is from Mesopotamia and two are able that even plain chlorite vessels were
1 November 2003, p. 973). Over from the Indus, but the rest are likely reserved solely for kings and temples.
five seasons, the Iranian team of local origin, she says. Although ransacked, the cemeteries provide
uncovered the remains of a The team also found remains of a glimpse into the wealth of the ancient inhabi
city that may have rivaled carved vessels made of dark tants. Madjidzadeh found one large tomb cut
contemporary Ur in its extent stone?steatite or chlorite? into limestone that appeared untouched since it
and wealth?a stunning dis in the citadel and in the was robbed in antiquity. A stairway leads down
covery in an area long con cemetery. Such vessels to a chamber containing eight burial areas; scat
sidered a backwater. "If not have long turned up in tered throughout were 600 carnelian beads and
for the discovery of Jiroft, we western Asia: in Ur's royal other precious materials. Nearby, from the
would not have been able to graves, around the Persian dumps left by looters, archaeologist Massimo
bring together" the concept Gulf, and on the Iranian plateau. Vidale, a visiting professor at the University of
of multiple societies contribut Their origin was a mystery and they Bologna, extracted 1200 small lapis and
ing to early civilization, says Tosi. were given the vague moniker of turquoise beads, pieces of 40 or more chlorite
The ancient city in the intercultural style," although a vessels, and 40 to 50 copper vessels?at least
mid- to late-3rd millennium late-1960s excavation led by one with ornate embossing.
B.C.E. covered more than Lamberg-Karlovksy at nearby The looting also provided one boon: a peek
2 square kilometers, domi Tepe Yahya found a modest at Jiroft's heretofore-unknown origins. The
nated by a large citadel sized factory. robbers' holes threw up older pottery remains,
flanked by a massive stepped In the wake of the and Vidale unearthed ceramics extending the
platform to the north. A room cemetery looting, large settlement's past as far back as 4000 B.C.E.
excavated last year in the numbers of such vessels, "This has huge significance," says Lamberg
citadel includes a 2-meter often incised with unique Karlovsky, because it shows that Jiroft's exis
high brick human torso, ochre mythological designs, flooded tence is not just a fleeting response to
paint still clinging to the the international art market. Mesopotamian markets but a long-lived cul
surface. The sculpture, says Coming into view. This seal Many archaeologists ques ture. Not all experts agree. Archaeologist Oscar
Madjidzadeh, is the largest impression found near Jiroft reveals tioned their provenance Muscarella of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
of its kind from that era. a unique iconography of a hitherto because no examples were in New York City, for one, doubts that the site
The team also has recovered unknown culture. found in situ. Madjidzadeh's predates the 3rd millennium B.C.E. He also

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NEWSFOCUS

complains that the excavation team has been Persian Gulf, Serge Cleuziou of CNRS in A Mesopotamian seal and an Indus seal
too quick to make assertions and too slow to Paris is piecing together a long, culturally found at Gonur, along with a smattering of
publish scholarly reports. complex history. Indus and Iranian goods, hint at the trade net
Muscarella does acknowledge the impor Oman in the 3rd millennium B.C.E. work's breadth?as does an Oxus-style comb
tance of the site. And many colleagues suspect became an important source of copper for both in Oman. That network was enabled at least in
that the culture's influence extended up the Sumer and Susa, the great Elamite capital on part by the latest in transportation technology.
400-kilometer-long Halil Valley, linking com the edge of Mesopotamia, bringing the gulf Sarianidi recently excavated a cart with four
munities in religion and politics. But assem settlements substantial wealth. Ceramics bronze-covered wheels and a number of ani
bling the shards of evidence into a persuasive found in Oman demonstrate that the region mal skeletons in an elaborate grave, although
picture will take time. "In Mesopotamia, they was closely connected to the coastal economy the tomb's dating is unclear. But at nearby
have had 150 years to dig," says Madjidzadeh, of Iran and, in turn, to Jiroft and the Iranian Altyn-Depe, archaeologist Liubov Kircho of
who plans to publish on the finds this fall. "I've plateau. That connection almost certainly the Russian Academy of Sciences says her
only had five." extended beyond the Strait of Hormuz; Indus team has found models of carts dating to at
specialists now suspect that at least some of least the middle 3rd millennium B.C.E.: cen
To the four corners their copper originated in Oman?a sign of a turies earlier than archaeologists once
Other sites in eastern Iran confirm that this healthy overseas trading network. And Indus thought such carts were invented. The carts
parched region was anything but marginal. At and Mesopotamian goods found in ancient were pulled by bullocks and domesticated
Shahr-i Sokhta, for example, archaeologists ports along the gulf's western coast point to camels, she says, an innovation that would
have uncovered what was a bustling metropo trade via the Arabian Sea, says Cleuziou. have made long-distance trade easier. The hot
lis between 2550 and 2400 B.C.E., as large as That trade extended all the way to Central new transportation technology may well have
150 hectares and with at least 380 smaller sites Asia, where archaeologists have found spread across Middle Asia, she says.
in the surrounding region. The central site, Omani pots. At this northern end of the trade
network thrived the Bactria Margiana Connecting the dots
northeast of Jiroft, is in a landlocked but fertile
basin fed by the Helmand River. Artifacts from Archaeological Complex, or Oxus civiliza The scatter of high-priced trade goods,
that era include lapis from Afghanistan, shells tion, consisting of large planned urban cen seals, and pottery has revealed the exis
from the Pakistan coast, vessels imported from ters set amid well-watered oases and basins. tence of networks linking Middle Asia's
the Indus, and game boards in the style of those Russian archaeologist Viktor Sarianidi, work urban centers with each other and with
found in Ur. Long-distance trade appears to ing at sites such as Gonur in Turkmenistan, Mesopotamia and the Indus. Elucidating
extend back to at least 3000 B.C.E. has evidence of a culture at the end of the whether they embraced common ideas as
The flow of goods was not just east to 3rd millennium B.C.E. capable of long-distance well?in architecture, technology, politics,
west. Archaeologists see a strong north-south trade and fine craftsmanship and having a and religion?is the central challenge for
link as well. Along the southern coast of the unique artistic style and mythological system. the archaeologists who met in Ravenna.

The discovery of an ancient script is a

momentous find. But the circumstances sur
rounding the excavation have raised doubts
about the tablets' authenticity. "Everyone is con
vinced they are fake, but no one dares say it,"
whispered one archaeologist after the presenta
tion. Such criticism galls Madjidzadeh and his
supporters, who say that although one tablet was
found by a villager, the other two are from a
carefully excavated trench. "People are skeptical
Tabula rasa? Archaeologists because these are so different. It is hard to accept
unearthed this brick tablet a
something so completely new," says Massimo
half-kilometer from Jiroft's
Vidale, a University of Bologna archaeologist
main excavation site; a farmer
who was present during the excavation.
found another (right).
The first writing?cuneiform?evolved over
millennia in Mesopotamia and coalesced into a
coherent system by 3200 B.C.E. in the southern Iraqi city of Uruk. Not long
Ancient Writing or Modern Fakery? after, another script appeared on the western edge of Mesopotamia.
RAVENNA, ITALY?They look like a child's exercise in geometry. But Dubbed proto-Elamite, after the kingdom of Elam that later flourished
the images Yousef Madjidzadeh projected onto a screen last month in a beside Mesopotamia, the system resembles cuneiform, although its origin
sweltering lecture hall elicited gasps from archaeologists. The symbols and meaning are a puzzle. Centuries later, toward the end of the 3rd mil- S
on three baked mud tablets display a hitherto unknown writing system lennium B.C.E., another set of symbols arose on the Iranian plateau: linear 3
and likely are part of a larger archive, claimed Madjidzadeh, chief of Elamite. Only a handful of examples exist, mainly from the Elam capital of |
excavations near Jiroft in southeastern Iran. He believes that these Susa and mainly in the form of stone carvings paired with cuneiform. Some f
inscriptions were made between 2200 and 2100 B.C.E. and could hold scholars doubt it is a coherent script; they believe it is an attempt by 5
Elamite kings to appear as modern as their Mesopotamian neighbors. S
the key to understanding a sophisticated urban culture in Middle Asia.

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 Massive ceremonial platforms could be
one clue to a shared culture. Such structures
sprang up across the region?from
Mesopotamia, where they are called ziggu
rats, to Afghanistan?in the middle and late
3rd millennium B.C.E. Jiroft has what
Madjidzadeh says is a two-stepped
platform, and a smaller version
recently has been found in Shah
dad, a site near the modern city of
Kerman, Iran. Even the central
structure at the major Indus city of
Mohenjo-Daro, long thought to be
the remains of a later Buddhist Desert pantry. On the Oman peninsula, the Hili site, excavated by Serge
stupa, may be a platform like those Cleuziou (inset), has a sophisticated architecture with what may be cellars
built to the west, says Giovanni for storing trade goods bound for distant lands.
Verardi of the University of Naples.
One unanswered question is whether tablets related to linear Elamite, a later script Echoes of this powerful iconography
writing played an important role in Middle (see sidebar, p. 588). appear slightly later in areas as far west as
Asia. A script called proto-Elamite appeared Seals and seal impressions may provide Mesopotamia, where narrow waists on seals
circa 3000 B.C.E., and some 1500 tablets the deepest insights into the exchange of reli became all the rage, and as far north as Turk
were found long ago at Susa. Scholars gious, mythological, and political ideas. menistan, where a snake goddess shows up
assumed that the script originated there, in Those found at Jiroft, for example, offer an on Oxus seals. "There is some sort of cultural
the shadow of cuneiform. But in recent intimate view into the belief system of the integration from the Oxus to the Iranian
decades, proto-Elamite tablets have area in the mid-3rd millennium B.C.E., plateau to the Persian Gulf," says Pittman.
been unearthed across the Iranian plateau. depicting figures such as winged goddesses "There are profound similarities." At the
Madjidzadeh, who found a tablet in Ozbaki, with snakes sprouting from their shoulders same time, she says, "each region has its own
a site west of Tehran, calls the script "proto and rulers with narrow waists wearing bird identity, its own material culture." By the end
Iranian" or "proto-plateau" to eliminate the like headgear. Pittman, a specialist in seal of the 3rd millennium B.C.E., cuneiform
traditional focus on the western end of the analysis, says the specimens offer "a whole texts hint at growing wealth and power to the
plateau. And he is betting that next season in new visual vocabulary" and demonstrate "a east; Sumerian rulers began to ally them
Jiroft he will uncover an archive full of robust and independent culture." selves with these kingdoms, cementing

Given the dearth of linear Elamite inscriptions, the Jiroft finds are ings. Earlier this year, Madjidzadeh shared photos of the tablets with
attracting scrutiny. In early 2005, Madjidzadeh's team found a brick Jacob Dahl, a specialist in ancient texts at Berlin's Free University. "I
in the gateway of the main Jiroft mound. Dated to between 2480 and was shocked," Dahl recalls. "No specialist in the world would consider
2280 B.C.E., the brick is inscribed with signs that may be related to these to be anything but absolute fakes." The only script the geometric
linear Elamite, Madjidzadeh says. Later that field season, a worker designs resemble, he argues, is a modern phonetic system for Eskimo.
showed the dig director a tablet with odd sym However, Dahl is intrigued by the inscriptions
bols that he said came from a hole he dug a on the back of the tablets, which he says could
half-kilometer from the mound. indeed be linear Elamite. He maintains that it is
Returning last year, Madjidzadeh had a possible that the tablets are fake on one side,
student dig a trench at the spot. The team genuine on the other. Mesopotamia, he notes, is
promptly recovered a second tablet. The next rife with objects that combine real inscriptions
day, Madjidzadeh came to oversee the work; he with those of counterfeiters.
uncovered the third tablet. The three tablets Such assertions "are completely crazy," says
S appear to show a progression. One has eight University of Pennsylvania archaeologist Holly
Q simple geometric signs, another has 15 slightly Pittman, who has worked with Madjidzadeh at
| more complex signs, and the third has 59 signs Jiroft. She notes that when fine artifacts from
* of an even more complex nature, all inscribed the 3rd millennium B.C.E. began to trickle out
? in wet clay. On the back of each, apparently of Afghanistan decades ago, scholars were simi
g scratched into the mud brick after it was dry, are larly dismissive because the material did not con
? inscriptions that may be related to linear Elamite. Madjidzadeh believes form to existing theories.
o he has stumbled on an archive, and that a librarian-scribe made the marks Madjidzadeh plans to publish soon a scholarly article laying out the
g on the back of each tablet. He believes the tablets reveal linear Elamite's details. But the controversy is likely to roil the field until he returns to
2 evolution from simple geometrical system to final complex form. Jiroft in November and expands the trench. Then the critics will eat
t That analysis doesn't wash with some specialists. One archaeologist crow, predicts Pittman. "They will be shown to be fools when he pulls out
s at the meeting suggested that the tablets could be exercises from a 1000 tablets," she predicts. Such extraordinary evidence may be vital to
u scribal school. Others doubt the authenticity of the geometrical mark back the extraordinary claims. -A.L.

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NEWSFOCUS

Cracking Open the

Iranian Door
"Let's do something!" exclaims Hassan Fazeli
Nashali, the new chief of the Archaeology
Research Center in Tehran. What he has in mind
is transforming Iran's sputtering archaeological
enterprise into a world-class effort, an ambi
tious goal in a country rich in unexplored
ancient sites but mired in complex politics.
Fazeli-Nashali, 45, is undaunted. At the
Ravenna meeting (see main text), he laid out a
bold plan for engaging more foreign scientists
and honing the skills of Iranian academics. Visionary. Hassan Fazeli-Nashali wants outsiders to help
If Fazeli-Nashali is brash, he can afford to be, overhaul Iran's troubled archaeological community.
thanks to his sterling credentials in an Islamic
regime. "I lost my leg, so they trust me," he says, thumping the prosthetic
he received after being wounded during the Iran-Iraq war 2 decades ago.
"I'm a soldier of the revolution, but I've never been in politics," he adds.
"And my brother is a mullah and my father was a mullah. We're a religious
family, so there are no points against me." He has also won respect in his
field. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Bradford, U.K., specializing
in social and craft complexity in prehistoric Iran, and served most recently
as head of the archaeology department at the University of Tehran, the
country's top institution of higher education.
Colleagues are delighted with Fazeli-Nashali's open attitude and
pledge to ensure access for foreign researchers, including Americans.
"This is a most dramatic and welcome initiative, and extraordinarily
encouraging," says archaeologist Carl Lamberg-Karlovsky of Harvard Uni
versity, who, like other Americans in recent years, has found it nearly
impossible to win approval for lengthy stays. Europeans, Japanese, and
Australians generally encounter less trouble, although several have had to
postpone or cancel dig seasons because of visa delays.
Iran's parliament has a vocal faction that wants to halt work with for
eign archaeologists, and Fazeli-Nashali acknowledges that some Iranian
academics oppose cooperation out of fears that foreigners will control top
sites. Many colleagues doubt that Fazeli-Nashali can overcome the rival
ries and xenophobia. "I don't think his position is all that solid," says a
Western archaeologist with long ties to Iran. "But I hope he sticks around."
Below are excerpts from a conversation with Fazeli-Nashali. -A.L.
On his new position:
This job is hard for everybody. I plan to stay
3 years only. But I worry that international work
will dry up when I leave.
On the dam crisis:
There are more than 100 [dams] under con
struction, and huge archaeological sites are
going underwater. At just one site?in
Pasagardae?we had 10 teams working for
15 seasons over 3 years until the water began
to rise 3 months ago. So we face a big prob
lem. My government will ask [foreign] archae
ologists who want to come to Iran to pay for
their international flight while we cover labor,
subsistence, and transport costs.
On domestic excavations:
We need to open the gates for a new generation and reorient our
research away from museum collecting and toward understanding social
and economic transformation. The big problems in Iran are publishing
scientific papers and excavating sites in a timely manner. We are paying
lots of money for excavations, but we are not producing the publications
to justify that money.
On international cooperation:
My main objective is to forge a link between Iranian and foreign universi
ties. At the University of Tehran, we began a Tehran plain project in 2003
with cooperation among Leicester, Bradford, and Durham universities. We
also have a project to examine the process of urbanization in the Zagros
Mountains, which involves the universities of Reading, London, Tehran,
and Hamadan. These kinds of projects help address the asymmetry
between foreign and Iranian teams.
On politics:
Our country stands to benefit from cooperation, so I want to encourage
people to come to Iran. Archaeology has been used frequently for other
agendas?think of Mussolini or Hitler. And this is not the age for archae
ology to be political.

agreements with diplomatic marriages. western Iran and Mesopotamia 1000 years the novelty" behind the Middle Asian discus
Unlike the Italian Renaissance, the tech later, sites such as Jiroft, Shahdad, Gonur, and sion, pointing out that most of the finds?with
nology and ideas engendered by these Middle Shahr-i Sokhta never recovered. the exception of Jiroft?are not new. And some
Asian societies ultimately did not bear fruit. Although their influence waned, Middle key players?such as Jean-Fran?ois Jarrige,
From Mesopotamia to the Indus, people aban Asia's long-lost settlements are now forc director of the Guimet Museum in Paris?
doned cities, long-distance trade ground to a ing many archaeologists to ditch the vener missed the Ravenna meeting.
halt, and civilization wilted. The Iranian able Mesopotamia-centric approach, But backed by established scholars such as
plateau was particularly hard hit: Virtually no which Lamberg-Karlovsky declares Tosi, Lamberg-Karlovsky, and Cleuziou, a
2nd millennium B.C.E. settlements have been "utterly demolished." new generation is staking its academic future
found there. Not everyone is ready to jump aboard that on understanding Middle Asian cultures. The
The crisis seems to have swept from west to bandwagon, however, until more evidence ancient mud-brick cities may never draw the
east. By 1800 B.C.E., even the Indus metropo emerges about how the Middle Asian cultures crowds that today clog Florence or Venice, m
lises emptied. Most archaeologists believe that interacted. "You clearly have multiple centers," But scholars predict that a Middle Asian ?
a drastic climatic shift?there is evidence of says archaeologist McGuire Gibson of the Uni Renaissance will sweep archaeology. "Watch," g
prolonged drought in many areas?fueled the versity of Chicago in Illinois, who has dug in Winkelmann says. "We can expect an ava- i
collapse, although experts differ over the roles Iraq. "But Mesopotamia is still the dynamo." lanche of new research to change our view of <
of disrupted trade or social instability in the Philip Kohl, an archaeologist at Wellesley Col mankind's first attempt at civilization." i_
spreading calamity. Whereas cities revived in lege in Massachusetts, says he is "skeptical of -ANDREW LAWLER 5

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