#2-arch First Civilizations and their Architectural Phenomenon
Abstract:
There have been around 150 primeval civilizations of differing sizes present in the lower point of Murgab river's ancient delta in Southern Turkmenistan, dating back to the middle and late bronze age, along with several contemporary monuments discovered in southern Uzbekistan's Amur-Darya and northern Afghanistan region. These settlements are credited
[...] Load More for supplying the amazing material to build the new world, marking architectural history's prominence. According to Ancient Mesopotamian history, all of the settlements discovered belonged to the Bactrian-Margiana archaeological complex (BMAK), also known as the Oxis Civilization. These were fragments of the micro-oases or norms. There are strong signs of religious and administrative institutions in a few of them, very different from the neighboring residential buildings. Archaeologists who found and excavated these artifacts identified the sources of influence and the evolution of local building activities. It is key to note that the borrowings from the Mesopotamia, Indus Civilization, and the Syro Anatolian world were tried to uncover in an attempt. The extent to which the BMAK has penetrated ancient and medieval architecture in Iran and Central Asia has been determined. There are, however, more questions than their responses available. The article summarizes the structures examined, allowing readers to see where the key architecture and concepts of planning dominated in the pre-Achaemenid era.
The BMAC's origin is a controversial topic, and we can only speculate as to who were the people of pre-writing culture, where they came from, and what kind of images aided as benchmarks in construction so far. There is a large proportion of poorly presented facts in the historiography of the ancient world's architecture and should be taken into account in terms of functional, technical, and social aspects. However, an attempt has been made to outline the study's summary, which helps to understand the monumental architecture's odds and ends. The uniqueness of the architecture of Bactrian-Margiana reflects an innovative structure that was missing earlier. These are "fortresses" with round or rectangular towers around the boundary walls, at the corners, and a circular plan, that differs from former Eneolithic structures by the detailed structure of geometric shapes and the willingness to pursue symmetry rules. These structures became more popular in the later centuries when other appreciated forms of BMAK material culture were no longer remembered. The ancient fortification canon was replicated only in later architectural eras, from Eastern Hellenism to the 19th century Vernacular.
It is key to note that all of the monuments highlighted in the study clearly demonstrate the roots of monumentality in the architectural design of primary agricultural civilizations that emerged on the outskirts of the ancient Eastern world and had never come across a scale geometrics' like this before. This was facilitated by a significant shift in local communities' social life, which have amassed the necessary material and intellectual capital to carry out astonishing construction projects. Monumentality became a formal property of high-class residence and religious structures reflecting cultural mutation in the course of joining Margiana and Bactria in a comprehensive network of region-to-region contacts.
Around the turn of the III-II millennia BC, the BMAK's representative architecture was notable creativity, and it faded from view, leaving dead temples substituted by fortified palace buildings. When the conditions' unity that determined its presence was disrupted, this civilization perished.
Keywords: Central Asia, the Oxus Civilization, Bronze Age, monumentality, representative architecture.
Date of publication: Fall/Winter 2023 / Deadline: 30 June 2023
Journal title: available for those who has paid.
Region of the journal publication: Europe.
Scientific field: Architecture, Social Sciences.
Indexing of the journal: Scopus (Q2-3).