Animal burials and their cults in Margiana
Gonur Depe site is situated in South-eastern Turkmenistan in the Kara Kum desert, 85 km to the north of Bairamali city (Fig. 2.1). It was discovered by Prof. Victor Sarianidi in 1972 along with more than 200 sites in the ancient delta of the Murghab river (Sarianidi 1990; 1998; 2001; 2002; 2005; 2008). The site is still being excavated by the expedition of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of Russian Academy of sciences (Moscow, Russia) under the leadership of V. Sarianidi in collaboration with the National Department of Turkmenistan for Protection, Research and Restoration of Historical and Cultural Sites (Ashgabat).
Gonur Depe is a ritual center of the ancient province of Margush (Fig. 2.2). It comprises a palace with a citadel in the center which is surrounded by temples on all four sides: the Temple of Fire in the east, the Complex of Communal Eating in the north and the Temples of Sacrifice in the west and south. The temples are surrounded by a second wall with rectangular towers. Out of that second wall there are basins in front of all four entrances to the complex orientated in the four directions. There are three water pools, including the largest one in the south. On the east bank of the main southern pool is the royal cemetery which is dated to the end of the 3rd millennium BC. This central part, exclusively comprising a sacred site, is surrounded by a third wall. It has no defensive value, because it is only half a metre wide but it separates the sacred precinct from the ordinary world.
Three to four hundred metres to the west of the central part of the complex, on the left bank of ancient Murghab river, is the Great (or Main) cemetery. In front of it, on the right bank of the river, a special ritual complex (P 16) was built. This site has been fully excavated and is a well-presented monument of the Bactria-Margiana archaeological complex (BMAC). More than 60 radiocarbon dates show that Gonur Depe was inhabited between 2300 and 1500 cal BC (Zaytseva et al. 2008).
One of the most interesting features of the site is the 74 real animal burials and places with partial remains of their skeletons (Table 2.1). The most frequent burials are of rams/goats (37 burials with the remains of 58 individuals), and also dogs (33 burials, 57 individuals) (Fig. 2.3). Special tombs for the animals with funeral gifts comprise a little more than half of all the burials (food offerings for the dead are not discussed here).
Different types of animal burials are met at Gonur: burials of animals in the immediate proximity to the tombs of humans or in them (a variant of such burial places is the great number of different animals in the “yards” of the royal tombs); burials having a most likely ritual character – burial places of different animals in special tombs and also the placement of parts of an animal’s carcass in special small cists or pits (Fig. 2.4). The greatest number of sites with animal remains (23 of a total of 74) is found out in the royal cemetery. Here all kinds of animals (one horse, six donkeys, six cows/bulls, 15 dogs, four rams, three pigs and eight camels) were found whereas at others areas of Gonur the overwhelming majority consisted of burials of rams. Six of the seven donkey burials were found in the royal cemetery. Only one, known as the “foal burial”, was found in the Large Gonur cemetery. It must be mentioned that all camel remains were found in the yards near the “houses of the dead” of the royal graves and in the huge pits (ditches) close to the graves that have no yards. Most likely the camels’ corpses were used only to serve the needs of the deceased in the other life.
Of the four locations with pig remains three are from the royal cemetery. Only one (a fragment of the lower jaw) was found together with the bones of a camel and cow in P 10 (tomb 3281) – on the north-west of the complex. As already mentioned, six tombs at the royal cemetery contain the remains of cows and bulls. But two of them have a special interest. One is a large pit-tomb with the entire skeleton of a bull, accompanied by only one ceramic vessel. In the second pit the cow’s carcass was so carefully dismembered that there was no evidence of damage found on any of the bones: even the vertebrae and ribs were accurately separated one from the other. All parts were deposited in a small pit in special order, with the right and left sides of the chest and legs lying one upon another and the skull placed on top.
One more important custom is connected with the royal cemetery. Half of the dog burials (15 from a total of 33) were found there. Some dogs were lying in the yards of their graves (four tombs: one of which comprised a small house-dog covered with a small piece of cloth decorated with small gypsum beads); two were placed in one ditch; seven dogs were deposited in a richly filled ditch with a wagon, seven men, two camels and two donkeys. Most interesting is the seven tombs of dogs that were situated on the east border of the royal cemetery. In one of tombs seven dogs were buried. They were lying one behind another forming a spiral in a small pit without any funeral gifts. These dog tombs are located in three areas (Fig. 2.5) – in front of the groups of royal graves. In two of them (three skeletons in 4077 and two in 4099) only the remains of puppies were found.
Fig. 2.1: Position of Gonur-Depe on the Turkmenistan map.
The remains of animals found in different areas of Gonur Depe show that the ancient Margush people had several breeds of dogs. One of them, whose burials were the most numerous (tombs 2872, 3200, 3280, 3600, 3813, 3900, 3905, 3915), resembled a Great Dane, Mastiff or Central Asian Shepherd Dog which is related to the modern Turkmen Alabai. The second, much smaller in terms of the number of known burials, is a breed that is close to a Beagle (Turkmen pots) (tombs 3280, 4075). The third one is a small “domestic dog”, which was found in the courtyard of royal tomb 3210. In the graves found on the eastern edge of the royal cemetery there were dogs that do not belong to those listed above, i.e. they constitute yet another breed (R. Sataev made all definitions).
The role of the dog as the one who conducts the deceased in the afterlife is reflected in the ritual burial of sacrificial dogs for peoples living far from Central Asia – Xianbi and Uhuan (Viktorova 1974, 264) and possibly the Hunnu (Danilov 1983). The literature concerning the cultural place of the dog is enormous and, of course, requires systematisation and analysis. The relationship of the dog to the Margush population reflected in the Gonur burials remains to be understood.
The second territory after the royal cemetery in terms of the number of animal burials is P 16 (the distinct area on the south-west of the complex, outside of its surrounding wall): of the total find locations of animals only 16% (12 of 74) were uncovered in this area. It’s not by chance that the ritual burial of animals was found in this area (Sarianidi and Dubova 2008) as it is situated on the right bank of the ancient course of the Murgab, just in front of the main (or large) Gonur necropolis. The great majority of animal tombs there (9 of 12) belong to sheep. Dogs are present in three tombs, donkey and cow in one each.
Fig. 2.2: General scheme of Gonur-Depe, 2011.
Of formal ritual burials three tombs contained rams and one contained a donkey. All three rams were lying on the right side, their heads facing to the north. There were many (more than 20) ceramic vessels. The central ram has no head, which was severed from the neck by a sharp tool. A bronze plate was put in the lumbar part of the vertebrae so deep that it shows that the animal was first immobilised and then beheaded. All three ram have a miniature column, knives, bronze vessels and various pins as their funeral gifts. The rams to the right and to the left from the central burial have sets of small stone artifacts – balls, pyramids and cones, probably employed in some ritual. The donkey’s tomb was built perpendicular to the other three. The animal lies on the right side. Its head is turned back to the tail. A bronze cylinder vessel was put between the head and the wall of the tomb. Near the hind legs of the donkey lay three small lambs (less than one month). This unique burial was constructed before the walls at that part of the complex. All four tombs have roofs which were made with reed and willow mats and then plastered with a thick layer of clay. After the pit was filled with earth the walls of the premises were built up and the clay floor was made. Just in front of each of the three ram burials near the north wall of the new room, remembrance pits which included 2–3 ceramic vessels and large fragments of the cattle bones were made. The tops of the pits were carefully plastered over on the same level with the floor of room.
Fig. 2.3: Frequency of the animal burials and different species at Gonur Depe.
Tombs where rams are the main burials are met in different areas of Gonur Depe except the large and royal cemeteries. Different species were buried in different types of tombs. Thus, two of the three donkeys and 12 of the 19 rams were buried in cists. Five rams were treated like aristocrats and provided with chamber tombs and only one was buried in a shaft tomb. Eleven of the 16 dogs were placed in ground pits, but their walls were carefully plastered. Four dogs were found in pits with burnt walls. It must be noted that only 47 burnt pits of the 196 from the large Gonur cemetery contain any remains. All human remains from such burnt pits show that the people were seriously ill during their life.
Some words need to be said about the discovery of horse remains. It has become clear now that we can talk only about one whole horse burial at Gonur: this was a young animal, leaning against the east wall of the courtyard of royal tomb 3200 and fixed against the side of a four-wheel cart. Only one tooth preserved from it which R. Sataev identified as belonging to a horse (Sataev 2008a 2008b). Other horse remains shown in Table 2.1 are represented only by fragments. The largest of them is the poorly preserved skull and humerus of an animal (tomb 3766) in P 9 (room 149), which was accompanied by a dog skull and a fragmented sheep skull. At P 13 (room 31) a horse forelimb was found (tomb 3479) and in the group of animals around cist 2900 was a lower jaw. The distal joint of the humerus of a horse was excavated in the ash-carbonaceous layer of the “hill of ashes” in South Gonur (place 3473) while a single tooth was recovered in the north-western corner of the encircling wall (place 3405).
In addition to these data there has been great interest regarding a number of separate horse teeth, found in the upper layer of the fill at P 16. These comprise two shaft tombs. In both cases, the horse teeth were clearly not randomly placed 10–15 cm higher than the funerary offerings deposited in the shaft. In tomb 3795 one horse tooth was found, and in 3798 – two of them. No further fragments of horse bones were found.
So we have every reason to disagree with the statement of K. Moore (Moore 1993, 167–168), and, more cautiously R. Meadow (1993, 73; see also Parpola and Janhunen 2010, 425–426) about the absence of the horse remains at Gonur. It can be said with confidence that there was a domestic horse in Margiana. Now we can only await the publication of the description of the remains by the specialists.
So all the above information reasonably indicates that in addition to ancient agriculture cattle breeding played an important role in the daily life of the Margush population. Since there are special burials of sheep, dogs, and donkeys which have rich funerary offerings (sometimes much richer than those present in the surrounding human graves) and there is evidence of the presence of human sacrifice of lambs (tomb 3310) there is every reason to believe that such ceremonies were neither isolated or random but on the contrary they were typical rituals of local tribes. The presence of the symbols of high military and apparently administrative authority (scepters, miniature columns) in the tombs of sheep and goats may indicate what a large role they played in Margiana.
Table 2.1: Full skeletons of animals and their fragments in the Gonur Depe tombs.
Fig. 2.4: Some examples of the animal burials at Gonur Depe.
Fig. 2.5: General scheme of Royal Gonur necropolis. The groups of dogs’ tombs are marked by stars.
The numerical ratio of burials of different animal species at Gonur suggests that sheep and dogs took the most prominent place in this ancient population. It’s significant however that the largest number of burials of sheep were made in chamber tombs and in the cists, and the dogs in pits (only one is in a cist). Moreover, all dog burials at the large Gonur cemetery were made in burned pits. That shows that these animals occupied different places in the ideology of the Margush population. Perhaps some part of the sheep burials can be interpreted as “vicarious”. It is also possible that the animals were buried, to carry away disease from human being (the disease was “passed” to the sacrificed animal) or protect him from a curse (Danilov 1982). But it seems that there is no single explanation of the diversity of sheep tombs. The fact that among the excavated rich burials (with a large number of bronzes artifacts, including scepter-“harpoons”, “game boards”, fine products) the burials of three rams (male, female and lamb) (tombs 3224, 3230) contradicts such a conclusion. A special relationship with sheep is also seen in the decapitated animals (“lamb burial” No. 18; tomb 3622) with rich funeral offerings. There are also several cases where the heads of sheep were buried separately or together with fragments of the skeletons of other animals (e.g. in tomb 3766 at P 9 the badly damaged skull of a sheep was placed with horses and dogs; in tomb 3282 at P 10 there are two highly fragmented sheep skulls. In tomb 3614 at P 13 sheep limbs were accompanied with the jaw of a cow. In heavily destroyed tomb 3829 at P 16 where the primary burial was of a dog, there are fragments of cow limbs and sheep horn-cores.
If we add to the above the information about the placement of the animal burials through Gonur Depe, it seems possible to speak about the fact that the 2nd millennium BC inhabitants of Margush country had complicated ideas and rituals associated with sheep, horses, camels, dogs, or deities embodied by them which we cannot interpret now, but they had their own picture of the world and the afterlife.
It is important to mention that the first material confirming the existence of the Margush country was uncovered less than half a century ago. Therefore, nowadays we are only at the beginning of our understanding of the religion and the world of the Margush people. But the results of excavation confirms that different animals and the parts of their body played an important role in rituals.
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