The South Turkmenistan Complex Archaeological Expedition (STACE), also called the South Turkmenistan Archaeological Inter-disciplinary Expedition of the Academy of Sciences of the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic (YuTAKE) was endorsed by the Turkmenistan Academy of Sciences. It was initially organized by the orientalist Mikhail Evgenievich Masson in 1946. The expedition had several excavations or "Brigades", based on sites and periods, and were spread over many years.
The Chalcolithic settlements of southern Turkmenistan, according to Masson, date to the late 5th millennium – early 3rd millennium BC, as assessed by carbon dating and paleomagnetic studies of the findings from the excavations carried out by STACE in the Altyndepe and Tekkendepe. The foothills of the Kopetdag mountains have revealed the earliest village cultures of Central Asia in the areas of Namazga-Tepe (more than 50 ha) and Altyndepe (26 ha), Ulug Depe (20 ha), Kara Depe (15 ha), and Geok-Syur (12 ha). In 1952, Boris Kuftin, established the basic Chalcolithics to Late Bronze Age sequence based on the excavations carried out at Namazga-Tepe (termed Namazga (NMG) I-VI).
However, the Chalcolithic period ended about 2700 BC due to natural factors of ecology, with the Geok-Syur oasis becoming desertified. This resulted in the migration of people to the ancient delta of the Tedzhen River. This also led to the Early Bronze Age Settlements at Khapuz-depe.
Geography
The geographical location of the explorations in southern Turkmenistan were not marked with precision. The Merv Oasis is one of the regions explored by Soviet archeologists of the YuTAKE; Antiochia is the primary site in this oasis. Namazgtepe ('tepe' means "hill") is 100–120 kilometers from Ashkhabad in Turkmenistan at the border with Iran, southeast of the Caspian Sea. Excavations at this site have provided a chronological approach for Central Asia. Namazga-Tepewas the largest settlement found in the Kopetdag foothills, a range of hills extending up to the border with Iran.
Participants
O. K. Berdiev
I. N. Khlopin
Boris Kuftin
Gorislava Nikolaevna Lisit︠s︡yna
Mikhail Evgenievich Masson
Vadim Mikhailovich Masson
G. E. Markov
Alexey Okladnikov
Viktor Sarianidi
History
The Merv Oasis had been extensively explored in 1904 by an American team; however, the reports published were of a preliminary nature. During the period 1940–50, the Asian Republics started establishing archaeological institutions in their respective countries. Among them, the South Turkmenistan Complex Archaeological Expedition was established in 1946 by Masson under the aegis of the Turkmenistan Academy of Sciences to carry out explorations at several locations. These explorations included: 1947-1952: exploration by Alexey Okladnikov of mesolithic sites 1940s and 1950s: Eneolithic and Bronze Age excavations by Boris Kuftin 1955-62: excavations by V.M. Masson, I.N. Khlopin, and Viktor Sarianidi of neolithic sites at many locations, including Jietun at the Geoksur Oasis Since 1965: Bronze Age excavations by Masson covering, among others, the site at Altyndepe Excavations by G. N. Lisitsyna to investigate the prehistoric economies and irrigation systems. 1977-92: explorations by Khlopin in the Sumbar Valley
Since 1992, excavations have been carried out by a joint project titled “Turkmen-British-Merv Project”. This has yielded historical data on fortifications and a residential complex of the Hellenistic, Parthina and Sassanian period.
Excavations
The V Brigade uncovered peculiarities in metal composition during the Palaeo-Metallic epoch at the Allyn-Depe settlement.
The VII Brigade, carried out by Kuftin, was of the Namazgadepe explorations, which revealed six phases, sequentially deposited, and referred to as Namazga I to VI. It established the Chalcolithic (Eneolithic) to the late Bronze Age period. Between 1951 and 1961, the VII Brigade explored the Bronze Age site of Altyndepe (which had been discovered earlier by A.A. Semenov in 1929), Iron Age Yaz I complex in Margiana (old delta of the Morghab River, 11 sites at the ancient delta of the Geoksyur oasis, and Bronze Age piedmont sites in the Sumbar Valley with a noteworthy discovery of the Early Bronze Age cemetery of Parkhai II.