Early Islamic Central Asia

Mamunid dynasty, which left an indelible mark on
the history of Uzbekistan, Ali (999-1008), son of the
Khorezmshah Mamun, was soon after the death of his
father enthroned by the military, who swore allegiance
to him. At the end of 999, the Karakhanids launched
another attack on Bukhara. As a result of the attack,
the Samanid dynasty, which had ruled Mawarannahr
and Khorasan for almost two hundred years, was
overthrown. After this, the state ruled by Ali ibn Mamun
became independent. At that time, its territory
included, in addition to Khorezm, Farawa and Nisa in
Northern Khorasan, and in the north, territories up to
the Mangyshlak Peninsula. For, in the course of research
conducted in recent years, 33 types of coins of Ali
ibn Mamun were discovered, minted in Jurjania, Kath,
Farawa, Nisa and even Bukhara.

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Abstract
A man and canoes at Satka Lake in 1910, between Ufa and Chelyabinsk, Chelyabinsk region, Urals (cover photo). This region has a
special place in Finno-Ugric history for many reasons. Satka River is a tributary to Ufa River, situated near Sintashta
culture, was one of the most eastern territories of Volga Finnic cultures and maybe one of the earliest homes for Bronze
Age innovations. Here mixed the emigrating southern Ugrian tribes with the Permian tribes and formed the future
Mansi folk and language. This region may have been the birthplace for the Ob-Ugrian culture in Western Siberia –
forming the Ust-Polui culture further North. Finally, here may have Mansi and Meshchera folks separated, and the
Meshchera people started a long exodus West crossing the East European plains. Some Meshchera folks headed to
Moskva River region, joined the Volga Finnic people, the others continued their travel ending finally in Hungary as
Magyar folk. Satka Lake may have been the ancient homeland of the expanded aspen dug-out canoe too.

Ifriqiya (roughly Tunisia and eastern Algeria) is believed to have played a significant role in the diffusion of ceramic glazed technologies into other regions of the Western Mediterranean. However, due to limited analysis on North African glazed ceramics, its role in technology transfer remains poorly understood. This paper uses SEM-EDS and petrographic analyses to understand the technology employed in the production of Tunisian ceramics through the study of 30 polychrome glazed ceramics from a medieval settlement at the site of Chimtou (ancient Simitthus), Tunisia, dated to the late ninth-twelfth century. The results show that these are lead-rich glazes with varying contents of alkalis, coloured with copper, iron and manganese oxide and applied over a calcareous body. Opaque glazes were obtained using cassiterite crystals as opacifier or by adding crushed quartz. The use of lead stannate as a colourant and opacifier in one light yellow glaze raises questions about the mechanisms of introduction of tin opacification technology in North Africa. Scrap metal seems to have been used as a source of lead for the glazes; while iron slag was probably used as a source of iron to colour the glaze in one sample, pointing to a cross-craft interaction between glazemaking and metallurgy.

La question de la jouabilité d'un instrument de musique est un cas de plus en plus souvent envisagé dans le monde muséal. Pour pouvoir y répondre au mieux, plusieurs outils ont été développés. Sont présentés ici, sous la forme d'un interview, la grille d'évaluation proposée par Vera de Bruyn-Ouboter, les pratiques de jeu des instruments au Ringve Musikkmuseum à Trondheim (Norvège) et, enfin, les améliorations proposées pour cette grille à la suite de travaux de fin d'étude en Conservation-restauration.

V. Occari - H. Möller - C. Fenwick - P. Quinn - I. C. Freestone - M. Chaouali - P. von Rummel. Abstract: Ifriqiya (roughly Tunisia and eastern Algeria) is believed to have played a significant role in the diffusion of ceramic glazed technologies into other regions of the Western Mediterranean. However, due to limited analysis on North African glazed ceramics, its role in technology transfer remains poorly understood. This paper uses SEM-EDS and petrographic analyses to understand the technology employed in the production of Tunisian ceramics through the study of 30 polychrome glazed ceramics from a medieval settlement at the site of Chimtou (ancient Simitthus), Tunisia, dated to the late ninth-twelfth century. The results show that these are lead-rich glazes with varying contents of alkalis, coloured with copper, iron and manganese oxide and applied over a calcareous body. Opaque glazes were obtained using cassiterite crystals as opacifier or by adding crushed quartz. The use of lead stannate as a colourant and opacifier in one light yellow glaze raises questions about the mechanisms of introduction of tin opacification technology in North Africa. Scrap metal seems to have been used as a source of lead for the glazes; while iron slag was probably used as a source of iron to colour the glaze in one sample, pointing to a cross-craft interaction between glazemaking and metallurgy.

Ifriqiya (roughly Tunisia and eastern Algeria) is believed to have played a significant role in the diffusion of ceramic glazed technologies into other regions of the Western Mediterranean. However, due to limited analysis on North African glazed ceramics, its role in technology transfer remains poorly understood. This paper uses SEM-EDS and petrographic analyses to understand the technology employed in the production of Tunisian ceramics through the study of 30 polychrome glazed ceramics from a medieval settlement at the site of Chimtou (ancient Simitthus), Tunisia, dated to the late ninth-twelfth century. The results show that these are lead-rich glazes with varying contents of alkalis, coloured with copper, iron and manganese oxide and applied over a calcareous body. Opaque glazes were obtained using cassiterite crystals as opacifier or by adding crushed quartz. The use of lead stannate as a colourant and opacifier in one light yellow glaze raises questions about the mechanisms of introduction of tin opacification technology in North Africa. Scrap metal seems to have been used as a source of lead for the glazes; while iron slag was probably used as a source of iron to colour the glaze in one sample, pointing to a cross-craft interaction between glazemaking and metallurgy.

Nous allons consacrer ces quelques lignes à un cordophone disparu et trop peu étudié. Alors que son existence, comme sa large diffusion dans l'Europe chrétienne des XII éme et XIII éme siècles est abondamment documentée dans l'iconographie, paradoxalement son appellation médiévale est demeurée une énigme. C'est donc par une périphrase qui évoque la forme très particulière de sa caisse de résonance que l'on a pris l'habitude de désigner cet instrument à archet : "vièle en huit" en français, "achtformfidel" en allemand ou "fidula en ocho" en espagnol... Les anglophones, se référant à la tenue "da gamba" de cette vièle ont préféré le terme : "medieval viol". Dans une première partie organologique, nous décrirons cet instrument et sa technique de jeu par comparaisons avec la vièle médiévale, puis nous tenterons de préciser sa fonction musicale avant de soumettre au lecteur les éléments qui arguent en faveur de l'emploi médiéval du terme gigue (giga en latin, espagnol, italien, et occitan, geige en allemand, gige en allemand dialectal...) pour désigner notre instrument.

The urban center of Paykend was an exchange node just off the main corridor of the Silk Road in the Bukhara Oasis on the edge of the hyperarid Kyzyl-Kum Desert. The city was occupied from the end of 4 century B.C.E. to the mid-12 century C.E.; our study focuses on the Qarakhanid period (C.E. 999-1211), the last imperial phase of urban occupation at Paykend before its abandonment. In this study, we present the results of an analysis of archaeobotanical remains recovered from a multifunction rabat, which appears to have comprised a domicile, military structure, center of commerce, and/or a caravanserai, a roadside inn for travelers. We shed light on how people adapted a productive economy to the local ecological constraints. By adding these data to the limited Qarakhanid archaeobotany from across Central Asia, we provide the first glimpses into cultivation, commerce, and consumption at a Silk Road trading town along the King's Road, the central artery of ancient Eurasia.

Book review / Vladimir Nastich, 2019. Islamic Inscriptions in Ferghana and Zhetysu: Arabic-written monuments of the 11th–17th centuries from
Kyrgyzstan (in Russian), by . Publishing House of Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, Saint Petersburg, 2019. 434pp.
ISBN-13: 9785806426100.

йил 16 сентябрь Тошкент -Самарканд -2021 UO'S: 654.848 КБК: 84.5. (5Узб) М 35 "АБУ РАЙҲОН БЕРУНИЙ МЕРОСИ ВА ҲОЗИРГИ ЗАМОН ЦИВИЛИЗАЦИЯСИ". Буюк аллома Абу Райҳон Беруний туғилган кунининг 1048 йиллигига бағишланган илмий семинарнинг тўплами. «НАСЛЕДИЕ АБУ РАЙХАНА БЕРУНИ И СОВРЕМЕННАЯ ЦИВИЛИЗАЦИЯ». Сборник научных статей семинара, посвященного 1048-летию со дня рождения великого ученого Абу Райхана Беруни. "HERITAGE OF ABU RAYKHAN BERUNI AND MODERN CIVILIZATION". Collection of scientific articles of the seminar dedicated to the 1048th anniversary of the birth of the great scientist Abu Raikhan Beruni. -Тошкент-Самарқанд: «Fan ziyosi» нашр. 2021. 184 б. Ушбу китоб буюк аллома Абу Райҳон Беруний туғилган кунининг 1048 йиллигига бағишланган "Абу Райҳон Беруний мероси ва ҳозирги замон цивилизацияси" мавзуидаги илмий семинарнинг тўпламидир. Беруний мероси ва замонавий цивилизация ривожланишининг халқаро, миллий, лингвистик, филологик, маданий, тарихий, цивилизацион, маънавий, фалсафий муаммолари таҳлил қилинади. Шарқ ва Ғарбнинг ривожланишида Беруний мероси ўрни ва Ренессанс муаммолари таҳлил қилинади. Беруний мероси ва замонавий цивилизация муаммоларига қизиққан олимлар ва кенг жамоатчилик учун.

In this paper, we focus on the industrial production of porcelain in the Bordeaux area (France) in the 19th century. Our main objective is to assess the evolution of production technology of the same manufactory over a period of more than 40 years. A multi-analytical approach was used to investigate glazes and bodies of thirty-four sherds of biscuit and porcelain found in an archaeological context. The microstructural, chemical, and mineralogical characterization was performed using a combination of scanning electron microscopy, coupled with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), particles induced X-ray and gamma emission (PIXE-PIGE), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Results obtained on the characterization of the ceramic production technologies and on the chemical modification over time contributes to investigate this industrial production, which is not well documented by the written archives. The examination of the biscuits, rare artifacts, showed that the porcelain bodies were pro...

The Vigor of black banners arose to a revolution in Khurasan, the Umayyad's Eastern province to become a gravity of revolutionary epicenter of the Abbasid family which subsequently became an influential factor in the fall of the Umayyad throne in the region. Abu Muslim is the unique personality to be recognized as an earliest Abbaside revolutionary and architect of Abbasid destiny to rule the Muslim world for centuries. He was the man of diverse traits and multifarious personality to encircle different philosophical and school of thought about the Khurasani regarding his origin, and political rise and fall. The role of Abu Muslim in the rise of an Abbasid Empire has been deeply appreciated by the Historians whereas it is also becoming a surprising turn in the fall of the Abu Muslim which faces the diverse logics to meet the fact. Despite of Abbasid enthroning owing to Abu Muslim's military victories and political skills, the downfall of the Khurasani under the hands of Abbasid in (754 A.D) also became the part of the existing study.

A fossil identified as Belemnitella mucronata was discovered in
excavations conducted by Y. Hirschfeld in Tiberias. The fossil originated from Upper Cretaceous chalk formations in northwestern Europe and was found inscribed with a name in Kufic Arabic script. This study analyzes the fossil, its inscription, and the stratigraphic context in which it was found, dating its deposition to the ninth or early tenth century CE. The study further assesses the possible uses of the object, as well as its significance in illuminating trade networks between the Early Islamic Levant and Viking northern Europe.

In this paper, we focus on the industrial production of porcelain in the Bordeaux area (France) in the 19th century. Our main objective is to assess the evolution of production technology of the same manufactory over a period of more than 40 years. A multi-analytical approach was used to investigate glazes and bodies of thirty-four sherds of biscuit and porcelain found in an archaeological context. The microstructural, chemical, and mineralogical characterization was performed using a combination of scanning electron microscopy, coupled with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), particles induced X-ray and gamma emission (PIXE-PIGE), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Results obtained on the characterization of the ceramic production technologies and on the chemical modification over time contributes to investigate this industrial production, which is not well documented by the written archives. The examination of the biscuits, rare artifacts, showed that the porcelain bodies were pro...

In: Türk, Attila (szerk.) „Hadak útján”.A népvándorláskor fiatal kutatóinak XXIX.konferenciája. Budapest, 2019. november 15–16.
Budapest, Magyarország : PPKE BTK Régészettudományi Intézet, Martin Opitz Kiadó, Bölcsészettudományi Kutatóközpont Magyar Őstörténeti Kutatócsoport, 2022. 421-441.

FIFTY SHADES OF POST-SĀSĀNIAN
Miklós Sárközy
The present paper aims at throwing light at the origin, development and different meanings of the term called „post-Sāsānian”. Invented by German art historians and archaeologists hundred years ago, the term
„post-Sāsānian” soon evolved and began to appear in various papers since the 1960’s. By this time this term has been widely accepted and enjoys popularity in different scientific works of Iranian studies. It appears
that we can detect three main categories where this term can be used. First, the decades following 628, the year when Ḫusraw II the last real Sāsānian king was murdered. The second subperiod was until the end of
the Umayyads (750 CE) where Sasanian society still played a pivotal role in the local administrations of the early caliphate. The post-Sāsānian term can be also applied for the history of northern Iran, the provinces
of Ṭabaristān, Daylamān and Gīlān, where significant groups of the former Sāsānian aristocracy established post-Sāsānian states continuing Sāsānian culture and traditions well into the 9th century. The case of
Central Asia and the post-750 Iranian lands (except those of Northern Iran) are more complex and cannot be called post-Sāsānian due to later developments and other influences.

Animal furs have been used in various manners through human history. Early humans cut crude shawls for warmth, and with the development of tools such as needles, closer-fitting clothing such as fur pants became possible. As time went on, products such as wool and cotton were used for clothing and, with fur alternatives, furs were reserved for the ultra-wealthy in some cultures. The image of fur as a luxury item has remained ever since, but simultaneously fur has become more accessible to the general public. Meanwhile, animal rights movements have successfully dampened interest in fur in some countries and communities. In the modern day, there is great variety in the ways in which countries in the Global North view fur. Case studies on the United States and Finland provide two different views on the history and progression of fur industries. Economic analysis of fur consumption and spending helps illuminate patterns in income and the demand for fur in these two countries in order to determine whether recent data on furs sales are in keeping with the concept of economic luxury.

The present study abounds in contrasts when compared with the previous study of the coins from the 1968 excavations.' Most of the previous coins were identified through the inconvenience of photographs; the present identifications were made by handling the actual coins2 Whereas no two coins were alike in the 1968 finds, the present finds abound in duplicates and are more than four times as many in number. This is partly due to a hoard of 66 silver pieces found in Area C. L

Old stratigraphic archaeology methods foresee a model where all the layers are sealed and easily recognisable, provided that they are correctly excavated. The presumed integrity of the physical sequence might instead hide gaps that remain unnoticed. Such gaps are the result of negative interventions, which generally did not leave evident traces, but whose existence can be reconstructed ex post. Such gaps, or 'negative interfaces', are of paramount importance for the reconstruction of the cultural sequence. The article illustrates these problematics through two cases from the direct fieldwork experience of the author, in two completely different contexts, at the sanctuary of Saidu Sharif I and at the urban site of Barikot, both in Swat.

Samanid silver production in Central Asia was a driving force for the development of long-distance trading networks that stretched from Samarqand to as far as Scandinavia where dirhams are continually being found in hoards and Viking-age settlements today. The analysis of silver coins found at Hedeby is part of a study to look at the changing sources of silver in southern Scandinavia in the 10th and 11th centuries, and Samanid dirhams from Central Asia and Afghanistan make up a sizable proportion of the coin finds. The analysis of these coins not only forms a basis for studying the reuse of this silver in northern Europe in the Viking Age, but can give us valuable information about the inner workings of Samanid silver production at its height in the 9th and 10th centuries. To provide a comparison to the two major mints of Samanid silver dirhams, Samarqand and al-Shāsh, slag samples from two medieval silver production sites were collected and analyzed. In addition, ore samples from Lashkerek, one of the largest known medieval silver mine in Central Asia, and several deposits in the Nuratau Mountains near Samarqand were collected for analysis. The results show that polymetallic ore was smelted to produce copper, lead, and silver in the Īlāq region of Uzbekistan and that the smelting slags closely resemble the dirhams of al-Shāsh in lead isotope ratios. The coins of Samarqand seem to not be made from local silver resources but are possibly a mixture of silver from silver producing regions in the Shāsh Īlāq, the Pamir Mountains, and Afghanistan. This study utilizes optical and scanning electron microscopy, XRF, XRD, and mass spectrometry to shed light on the technology of silver production and the origins of Samanid silver. This appendix is the full and up-dated version of an abstract published in the conference proceedings for Archäometrie und Denkmalpflege 2013 (Merkel et al. 2013).

A chronicle of excavations, with overall brief description of three finished areas and bibliography. Maybe, a bit more than usual brief report, costed some headache.
Хроника раскопок 2008 - 2018, общее краткое описание трех завершенных объектов, библиография. Нечто, возможно, большее чем просто краткий отчет, пришлось голову поломать.

The article presents research on the population density of the Eurasian beaver in the large, medium and small rivers of the Republic of Mordovia. The population density of the beaver in the large rivers of the region varies from 0.45 to 0.62 colonies per km (average 0.52). The population density in medium rivers ranges from 0.36 to 0.48 colonies per km (average 0.4). In small rivers, population density ranges from 0.2 to 0.94 colonies per km (average 0.46). The total number of beavers in the region is about 17,000 individuals as at 2016.

This is presentation of the part 2 of the open public lecture "The Samanids - First Local Islamic Dynasty in Central Asia" given at 25 October 2019 in the Historical Channel of the Uzbekistan TV. This part is devoted to the question of the religion of pre-Islamic ancestors of the Samanids.

This article introduces a mural painting (11th ad) discovered in the Hulbuk palace (Tajikistan). The painted scene is unique for a number of reasons. Two female musicians are represented, one plays on a chang (angular harp), the second on a rubāb (lute with a neck), using the first known representation of an asymmetrical bow. Organological and ethnological data allow us to present the context and describe in detail the painting and the two instruments (timbres, how to hold them,
playing techniques). We also publish a Persian graffiti and propose an interpretation of the scene, supported by textual evidence, regarding female slave singers or ḳiyān, frequent in Abbasid Iraq and Tang and Song China. It questions the status and the musicians’ ethnic origin, suggesting that pre-Islamic habits were preserved in the princely courts of mediaeval Central Asia. Taken together, these data give new insight into the history of musical instruments and Mediaeval Central Asian culture.

Keywords:
mural painting; ethnomusicology; organology; rubāb; bow; chang; graffiti; elite; courtesan; Tajikistan.

It has been generally accepted that the beginnings of tin-based opacification of ceramic glazes is associated with the white glazed wares excavated in Iraq and western Iran and dated to the ninth century AD (so-called 'Samarra-type' pottery). This paper focuses on an earlier stage in the technological development of tin-opacified glazes, that is, the yellow and white glazed wares produced from the eighth century AD in Egypt and the Levant. In addition, the compositional data was extended for the subsequent spread of tin-opacified glazes into Mesopotamia in the ninth century and Northern Iran and Central Asia in the tenth century. Using SEM-EDS and SR-Micro-XRD, the chemical composition and microstructure of eighty-five samples of opaque yellow and white glazed wares from Egypt (Fustat), the Levant (Madaba, Aqaba, Al-Mina and Raqqa), Mesopotamia (Samarra, Kish, Basra and Susa), Northern Iran (Takht-i Suleiman), and Central Asia (Nishapur, Merv and Samarqand) were investigated. These data confirmed that the yellow and white glazes were opacified by lead-tin-oxide (PbSnO 3) and tin oxide (SnO 2) particles respectively. Replication experiments were then conducted to imitate typical compositions of the analysed opaque yellow and opaque white glazes. Overall, the results posited the beginning of tin-based opacification of glazes in the eighth century in Egypt and the Levant, and provided explanations as to how the production of opaque yellow and white glazes in the Levant and Mesopotamia might have been technologically linked.

The present article re-edits three early Islamic inscriptions that exhibit an orthographic feature believed to represent the glottal stop (hamz). Overall, this orthographic device (referred to as ‘proto-hamza’) is employed four times in the three inscriptions, bringing the number of its known attestations to a grand total of nine. The article concludes by making some broad observations on the multifarious nature of the early Arabic writing tradition(s).