Nouvelles sépultures sur le territoire de la «nécropole royale» de Gonur Dépé

This article presents the recent (2009) discovery of an unplundered burial at the site of Gonur Depe in Turkmenistan (burial n° 3900) dated 2400-2200 BC, the ancient period of the "Royal Necropolis" of the site. The funerary chamber is decorated with mosaic murals. The material discovered includes pottery and bronze vessels, including a complete large cauldron, as well as stone implements such as a long stone staff. The most remarkable find is a four-wheeled wooden cart drawn by two camels; the wheels are attached with copper or bronze bands. Seven human skeletons and two big dogs have been recovered. The authors comment on the symbolic and funerary ritual in connection with Zoroastrianism. Another rich neighboring burial (n° 3880) also belongs to the category of the "Royal Tombs". Skeletons of dogs and camels, along with humans and a variety of architectural decoration and funerary goods, are recorded. The "international" relations of the material of these burials with Indian and Mesopotamian civilizations are observed on the basis of the shapes (bronzes) and iconography (mountain symbol); the picture of a fight between dragons and snakes deserves a special commentary.Cet article présente la découverte récente (2009) d’une sépulture non pillée sur le site de Gonur Dépé au Turkménistan (tombe no 3900). Datée 2400-2200 avant J.-C., cette tombe se rattache à la période ancienne de la « Nécropole royale » du site. Les parois de la chambre funéraire sont ornées de mosaïques décoratives. Le mobilier mis au jour comporte des récipients en céramique et en bronze, parmi lesquels un grand chaudron, ainsi que des objets en pierre et, notamment, un grand bâton. La découverte la plus remarquable est un char en bois à quatre roues tiré par deux chameaux, dont les roues sont assorties de jantes en cuivre ou en bronze. Sept squelettes humains et les restes de deux gros chiens ont été découverts. Les auteurs commentent le rituel funéraire et symbolique en relation avec le zoroastrisme. Une autre tombe riche voisine (no 3880) appartient également à la catégorie des « tombes royales ». Des squelettes de chiens et de chameaux étaient associés aux inhumations et divers objets funéraires et éléments de décor architectural ont été mis au jour. Les relations « internationales » dont témoigne le mobilier de ces tombes avec les civilisations indienne et mésopotamienne sont commentées sur la base des formes de bronze et de l’iconographie (symbole de la montagne) ; l’image d’un combat entre dragons et serpents fait l’objet d’un commentaire particulier.Sarianidi Viktor Ivanovič, Dubova Nadezhda A., Vallée-Raevsky Julie. Nouvelles sépultures sur le territoire de la «nécropole royale» de Gonur Dépé. In: Arts asiatiques, tome 65, 2010. pp. 5-26

Türkmenistan, Gonur Depe, Tunç Çağı Nekropol mozaikleri

Unique mosaic composition of the end of the third millenium BC from the “Royal Necropolis” of Gonur Depe is describing. Some walls of the underground “hypogea” and so-called “ostensories” as well small originally wooden boxes found in them were decorated by fgurative mosaics. These mosaics combine two techniques – painting and inlays (tesserae), which were made from the specially prepared minerals. They also presented the earliest example of using the technique of cutting the edges of the tesserae. Analogies of the images between Gonur Depe and Mari palace in Syria are underlined.Gonur Depe’deki “Kraliyet Nekropolisi”nde bulunan ve MÖ 3. binyıla tarihlenen özgün mozaikler tanıtılacaktır. Yer altındaki “hipoje” veya “ostensory” olarak adlandırılan mekânların bazı duvarları ve bunların içinde bulunan küçük ahşap kutular fgüratif mozaiklerle süslenmişlerdir. Bu mozaiklerin yapımında boyama ve özel hazırlanmış minerallerden oluşan kakma (tessera) tekniği olmak üzere iki teknik kullanılmıştır. Aynı zamanda tesserae kenarlarının kesilmesi tekniğinin en erken örnekleri de bu mozaiklerde görülmektedir. Gonur Depe mozaikleri ile Suriye’deki Mari saray mozaikleri arasındaki fgür benzerlikleri vurgulanacaktır

Vers un ailleurs prometteur…

Les migrations sont-elles une réponse universelle à une situation de crise ? Poser cette question ouvre sans doute le plus vaste débat sur l’histoire du mouvement des hommes. Cet ouvrage illustre bien la diversité et la multiplicité de cette incroyable richesse qu'est le mouvement des hommes et des peuples sur notre planète. Tout changement est un déséquilibre et, réciproquement, ce sont les déséquilibres qui permettent le changement. Est-il possible d’anticiper, dès lors, sur le futur ? Peut-on imaginer ce que sera demain la grande mouvance des peuples ? Engendrera-t-elle autant de peurs que d’innovations ? Comme le prévisage Albert Jacquard, les migrations de masse sont des catastrophes. Ainsi, “préparer demain”, nécessite des changements fondamentaux dans nos “visions du monde” politiques, économiques et sociales tout autant que dans notre mode d’exploitation des ressources naturelles.HERMANN-MICHEL HAGMANN Secrétaire général Laboratoire de démographie économique et sociale Université de Genève JEAN-LUC MAURER Directeur Institut universitaire d'études du développement Genèv

The formation of human populations in South and Central Asia

By sequencing 523 ancient humans, we show that the primary source of ancestry in modern South Asians is a prehistoric genetic gradient between people related to early hunter-gatherers of Iran and Southeast Asia. After the Indus Valley Civilization's decline, its people mixed with individuals in the southeast to form one of the two main ancestral populations of South Asia, whose direct descendants live in southern India. Simultaneously, they mixed with descendants of Steppe pastoralists who, starting around 4000 years ago, spread via Central Asia to form the other main ancestral population. The Steppe ancestry in South Asia has the same profile as that in Bronze Age Eastern Europe, tracking a movement of people that affected both regions and that likely spread the distinctive features shared between Indo-Iranian and Balto-Slavic languages.N.P. carried out this work while a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. P.M. was supported by a Burroughs Wellcome Fund CASI award. N.N. is supported by a NIGMS (GM007753) fellowship. T.C. and A.D. were supported by the Russian Science Foundation (project 14-50-00036). T.M.S. was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grant 18-09-00779) “Anthropological and archaeological aspects of ethnogenesis of the population of the southern part of Western and Central Siberia in the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age.” D.P., S.S., and D.L. were supported by European Research Council ERC-2011-AdG 295733 grant (Langelin). O.M. was supported by a grant from the Ministry of Education and Sciences of the Russian Federation No. 33.1907, 2017/Π4 “Traditional and innovational models of a development of ancient Volga population”. A.E. was supported by a grant from the Ministry of Education and Sciences of the Russian Federation No. 33.5494, 2017/BP “Borderlands of cultural worlds (Southern Urals from Antiquity to Early Modern period).” Radiocarbon dating work supported by the NSF Archaeometry program BCS-1460369 to D.Ken. and B.J.C. and by the NSF Archaeology program BCS-1725067 to D.Ken. K.Th. was supported by NCP fund (MLP0117) of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Government of India, New Delhi. N.Bo., A.N., and M.Z. were supported by the Max Planck Society. D.Re. is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and his ancient DNA laboratory work was supported by National Science Foundation HOMINID grant BCS-1032255, by National Institutes of Health grant GM100233, by an Allen Discovery Center grant, and by grant 61220 from the John Templeton Foundation