Cywa, Katarzyna

Repositori d'Objectes Digitals per a l'Ensenyament la Recerca i la Cultura

Archaeological charcoal: natural or human impact on the vegetation  Use of wood in the ancient cult of fire temple at Mele Hairam (south-western Turkmenistan), based on preliminary charcoal analysis    Katarzyna Cywa1  1 W. Szafer Institute of Botany Polish Academy of Sciences, Lubicz 46, PL 31 - 512 Kraków, Poland; k.cywa@botany.pl   Summary: The analysis of charcoals from an ancient temple dedicated to the cult of fire, discovered in the south-western Turkmenistan (the Mele Hairam site), was conducted. The following taxa of trees and shrubs were identified: Fagus orientalis, Populus sp., Tamarix sp., Ulmus sp., Chenopodiaceae type I and type II, Pomoideae cf. Crataegus/Cydonia type, as well as cf. Pistacia sp., cf. Punica granatum, cf. Tamarix sp. and undeterminate anatomical type III. Tamarix sp. was the most numerous and frequent taxon at the site, followed by taxa from the Chenopodiaceae family and Populus sp. These are common trees and shrubs growing also nowadays in Turkmenistan. The wood used in the fireplaces at the Male Hairam site was probably not imported, but originated from the nearest surroundings of the temple.  Key words: charcoal analysis, wood anatomy, Zoroastrian temple, archaeological Mele Hairam site, south-western Turkmenistan  INTRODUCTION  The archeological Mele Hairam site is situated in the area of the Serakhs Oasis, in south-western Turkmenistan. At this site the Zoroastrian temple dedicated to the cult of fire was discovered. The temple was occupied during the Sasanian times, ca. 2rd – 7th century AD. (Kaim, 2002; Website: The Polish Archaeological Mission in Iran and Central Asia, online: 2011). The Mele Hairam site is located on the Turanian Lowland, on borderland of two kinds of deserts: sandy and clayey ones. Near the Mele Hairam site there are two permanent rivers, Tadzen and Murghab. On the Turanian Lowland occur saline soils, swamps and halophytes connected with them. Also saline ground-waters are found there. Steppe and desert plants cover the Turanian Lowland with the predominance of grasses and some shrubs.  The taxonomic identification of charcoals from the Mele Hairam site aimed at answering the question about what kinds of woods were used to keep up a fire in the temple as well as from where they originated (from the nearest surrounding area, or imported especially for this purpose).  DATA AND RESULTS  Sixteen soil samples coming from different chambers of the temple and from the altar were analyzed. Charred wood material was found in twelve samples only.  Among the charcoal fragments the following taxa were distinguished, Fagus orientalis, Populus sp., Tamarix sp., Ulmus sp., Chenopodiaceae type I and type II, Pomoideae cf. Crataegus/Cydonia type. Approximately determined were cf. Pistacia sp., cf. Punica granatum, cf. Tamarix as well as indeterminate anatomical type III.  In the sample originating from the altar four taxa were determined, Tamarix sp., Chenopodiaceae type II, Pomoideae cf. Crataegus/Cydonia type and Ulmus sp.  At the site, Tamarix sp. shows the greatest abundance of fragments (36.8% of the total sum of fragments) (Fig. 1). The less numerous taxa are: Populus sp. (23.6%), anatomical type III (14.8%), Chenopodiaceae type I (8.3%), cf. Tamarix sp. (4.8%), Pomoideae cf. Crataegus/Cydonia type (2.6%), and cf. Punica granatum (0.9%). The other taxa constitute together 1.5% of all fragments. 6.7% of the total sum of charcoal fragments remained undetermined because of excessive charring (undeterminable). Tamarix sp. is also the most frequent taxon at the site. In comparison with the other taxa also Populus sp., Chenopodiaceae type I and Pomoideae cf. Crataegus/Cydonia type appear quite often.  DISCUSSION  In the present-day Turkmenistan the most common plants are those growing in extreme types of habitats, such as xerophytes and halophytes. The most popular are species of Calligonum from the Polygonaceae, Haloxylon ammodendron, H. persicum and different species of Salsola, Aellenia, Anabasis, Arthrocnemum, Halogeton from the Chenopodiaceae family, Artemisia from the Asteraceae family as well as Tamarix from Tamaricaceae (Ovezliev et al., 1997).   Plants from the Chenopodiaceae family are particularly common on the Turanian Lowland (Ovezliev et al., 1997). Wood of different species of Chenopodiaceae is quite similar in broad outline. The determination was limited therefore only to family level and two anatomical types. The distinguished categories of Chenopodiaceae type I and type II wood might represent two different genera.  The determination of Fagus orientalis is an interesting phenomenon. Beech is not a characteristic SAGVNTVM EXTRA - 11 151Archaeological charcoal: natural or human impact on the vegetation  genus for the oasis vegetation, and presently is unknown from Turkmenistan. Fagus orientalis is the only beech species occurring nowadays in that part of Asia, but is known from Asia Minor, Caucasus, Northern Iran (Krüssmann, 1977; Russell et al., 2004) and Pakistan (Safdari et al., 2008).  The determination cf. Punica granatum was based on the similarity to pomegranate wood. However in the analyzed material the absence of crystals typical for that taxon was noted. The charcoal fragments determined as cf. Pistacia sp. show wood structure similar to this genus. In the determined material only homogenous rays were observed, which is not a typical feature of Pistacia wood (Fahn et al., 1986).  The group of charcoals with wood anatomy similar to Tamarix sp. was determined as cf. Tamarix sp. This taxon has homogenous rays as well as numerous tyloses in vessels, which are not described in tamarisk wood (Fahn et al., op. cit.; Neumann et al., 2001).   Among the investigated charcoals a group of undetermined fragments with similar anatomical features was recognized. They could not be determined on the basis of the available reference materials and were described as anatomical type III.   CONCLUSIONS  The majority of the taxa recognized at the archaeological Mele Hairam site are characteristic for the present-day vegetation of the Turanian Lowland. The most numerous and frequent taxa were Tamarix sp., Populus sp. as well as taxa from the Chenopodiaceae family. These plants belong to the common trees and shrubs nowadays found in the area of Turkmenistan. To keep up fire in fireplaces in the temple, during the Sasanian times, trees and shrubs potentially easily accessible, originating from the nearest surrounding area of the site, were used.  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS  I would like to sincerely thank Professor Katharina Neumann for her kind help in the determination of charcoals from the Mele Hairam site and for offering me the chance of seeing the slides from the reference wood collection of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main. I cordially thank Professor Barbara Kaim (Institute of Archaeology, Warsaw University) for lending me the material for investigations.  REFERENCES  FAHN, A., WERKER, E., BAAS, P., 1986. Wood Anatomy and Identification of Trees and Shrubs from Israel and Adjacent Regions. The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Jerusalem. KAIM, B., 2002. Un temple du feu Sassanide découvert á Mele Hairam (Turkménistan méridional). Studia Iranica, vol. 31, 215-230. KRÜSSMANN, G., 1977. Handbuch der Laubgehölze, 2. Aufl., Bd. II. Paul Parey Verlag, Berlin und Hamburg. NEUMANN, K., SCHOCH, W., DÉTIENNE, P., SCHWEINGRUBER, F., H., 2001. Woods of the Sahara and the Sahel. Verlag Paul Haupt, Bern, Stuttgart, Wien. OVEZLIEV, A., ȅ., DOBRIN, L., G., KALIENOV, G., C., KURBANOV, O., R., 1997. Fitomelioratsiya pustyn’ Turkmenistana. “Ylym”, Ashkhabat. RUSSELL, T., CUTLER, C., WALTERS, M., 2004. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Trees of the World. Anness Publishing Limited, U. K. SAFDARI, V., AHMED, M., PALMER J., BAIG, M., B., 2008. Identification of Iranian commercial wood with hand lens. Pakistan Journal of Botany 40 (5), 1851-1864. WEBSITE. The Polish Archaeological Mission in Iran and Central Asia [online];  http://www.archeo.uw.edu.pl/iran/engindex.html [10.02.2011].    FIGURE 1. Frequency and percentage part of charcoal fragments of individual taxa from Mele Hairam.  SAGVNTVM EXTRA - 11 152

Use of wood in the ancient cult of fire temple at Mele Hairam (south-western Turkmenistan), based on preliminary charcoal analysis

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Repositori d'Objectes Digitals per a l'Ensenyament la Recerca i la Cultura