Sie lesen aktuell unserer Archiv. Die aktuelle Webseite befindet sich unter: iep-berlin.de
You are currently reading our archive. The current webseite is located at: iep-berlin.de/en/

SEnECA Blog Post: “Margiana” — A Journey into Prehistoric Turkmenistan

“At first, I did not know where Turkme­nistan was located and had to look it up.” Herlinde Koelble’s reaction to an inquiry to photo­graph excava­tions in Gonur Depe is quite illus­trative. As Turkme­nistan was proverbial for periphery in Soviet times, the country is still by far the least known and most myste­rious of the five independent Central Asian countries. It is not uncommon to know someone who visited Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan or Uzbekistan, but few know someone who travelled through Turkme­nistan. As she loves adven­tures, the renowned German photo­grapher agreed at once to document the excava­tions and findings at the Bronze Age city of Gonur Depe (“grey hill”) in the histo­rical landscape Margiana in Eastern Turkmenistan.

Not only interest in prehis­to­rical cultures, but also curiosity and longing for adventure are probable reasons for the success of the exhibition “Margiana. A Bronze Age Kingdom in Turkme­nistan”. It is the first exhibition in a Western country that covers the “Bactria-Margiana Archaeo­lo­gical Complex” (BMAC) as the ancient culture is called. The term “Oxus civili­sation” is also frequently used, however, it has a broader meaning with regard to the timeframe and the geogra­phical scope (Teufer 2018: 80–81). The exhibition displays prehis­toric artefacts and Koelble’s photos of the objects, the excavation site and modern Turkme­nistan, which she took during her expedition to the country. Being on display at the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museum in Mannheim until 16 June 2019, the exhibition raises awareness of the little-known and politi­cally isolated country.

When the idea for this exhibition was first presented to the Turkmen government and then to president Sapar­murat Niyazov in 2004, he allegedly gave green light. However, after his death in 2006, his successor Gurbanguly Berdy­muk­ham­medov seemed rather occupied with conso­li­dating his power and installing the cult around his person so that the project advanced only slowly. There were also concerns on the Turkmen side that the exhibits could be damaged or even stolen while displayed in Germany or that the Germans could keep the original artefacts while returning only copies to Turkme­nistan. Eventually, Berdy­muk­ham­medov agreed that the presen­tation of Turkmen cultural treasures (of a highly developed culture) would be a good idea and would serve the prestige of the country abroad as well as enhance cultural exchange.

Disco­vered by Viktor Iwano­witsch Sarianidi in 1972, excava­tions at Gonur Depe started more than 40 years ago (Wemhoff/Nawroth/Weiss/Wieczorek 2018a: 12). The at least 28 hectares large city of Gonur Depe included a palace, forti­fi­ca­tions, irrigation systems and cemeteries with richly decorated graves. The objects found in the city are witness of the outstanding craft­manship of the BMAC and its long-distance trade relations (Luneau 2018) along what should later be known as the Silk Road. The region seems to have been a melting pot with frequent migration as the analysis of skeletons revealed a considerable hetero­geneity of the inhabi­tants of Gonur Depe with regard to their physical anthro­po­lo­gical charac­te­ristics (Dubova 2018: 112). However, not being of interest for Soviet archaeo­lo­gists, the knowledge about the BMAC is still very limited. E.g. it is unclear how such a sophisti­cated culture – much more advanced than societies in Europe at that time – developed, flourished at Gonur Depe from 2,800 until 1,800/1,500 B.C. and then vanished.

The limited knowledge about the prehis­toric society is reflected in the “Margiana” exhibition, which currently tours in Germany. The presented variety of techno­lo­gi­cally advanced consumer goods and delicate objets d’art testifies to an outstanding craft­manship. However, the exhibition struggles to put the accumu­lated objects into a broader context. The purpose of some findings is still unclear (Wemhoff/Nawroth/Weiss/Wieczorek 2018b: 12), degrading them to objects whose timeless beauty can be admired, but not understood. Despite some insights, the exhibition also lacks a broader under­standing how the people at Gonur Depe lived together. Displaying different categories of findings, the exhibition spotlights separated aspects of their life. However, it fails to bring these aspects into a coherent under­standing of the BMAC.
Of course, such criticism from a social science perspective is somewhat unfair as it is not the curator’s fault that research on BMAC will have to continue for some decades until another exhibition can provide the broader under­standing of the Bronze Age culture by putting the objects into context. At least the Turkmen government seems to have an interest in supporting research. BMAC has moved from the periphery of Soviet archaeo­lo­gical interest to a higher position on the Turkmen (national) agenda of histo­rical research. The pioneering work of the decade-long planning of the “Margiana” exhibition was also an exercise of mutual trust-building with Turkmen autho­rities on which future cultural joint ventures can – hopefully – build.

As the findings themselves are the centre­piece and strength of the “Margiana” exhibition, it was an excellent choice to have Herlinde Koelble on board for documenting them in the exhibition and the catalogue. While her pictures of the excavation site and its surroun­dings are solid craftwork, she shows real mastery when photo­gra­phing the objects. Especially the figurines seem alive in here photos (Wemhoff/Nawroth/Weiss/Wieczorek 2018b: 140). She is first and foremost a portrait photo­grapher as can be seen in her seminal work “Spuren der Macht” (Koelble 2010). Her close-ups of some objects reveal the artistry of the Bronze Age craftsmen in a way which would otherwise remain invisible for the visitors in the showrooms.

The “Margiana” exhibition is not only ground­breaking in combining archaeo­lo­gical findings and modern photo­graphy, but also in bringing isolated Turkme­nistan closer to Germany and Europe. A task which the upcoming SEnECA Photo Exhibition on Central Asia at Bozar in Brussels on 4–5 April 2019 will continue.

SEnECA Blog Contri­bution by Julian Plottka and Yvonne Braun, IEP