From the History of the Study of the Early Medieval Rural Areas and Pottery of Ustrushona

M. Pardaev UzR FA MAM Samarkand Institute of Archaeology G. Mominova Djizakh state pedagogical university Annotation: This article describes the creation of new rural areas and pottery vessels in Central Asia in the V-VIII centuries mainly as a result of migration, rapid population growth, overcrowding and expansion of the territory of cities. _________________________________________________________________________________ From the 2nd to 3rd centuries AD, the migration of nomadic herding peoples along the Syrdarya to the south, to the northern borders of the Kushan kingdom, began to threaten the stability of the country. Also, according to the analysis of written and archeological sources, in the III-IV centuries of the new era, the mass migration of the peoples of the “Great Desert” began, and as a result, new population groups entered the large territorial units of Central Asia. According to the Chinese source, the Chronicle of the Jin dynasty (265-419 years), during this period, Kang moved his central residence from the Syr Darya coast to the south to Sughd (Masson, 1986, p.19). The time of events such as the “Great migration”, the change of the Kang’s residence to the south, was the time when the Khyani (later the Kidaris and Ephthalites) appeared on the stage of history, that is, in the middle of the 4th century, it happened almost at the same time as the arrival of peoples belonging to Turkic tribes from the north-east, Ettisuv and Eastern Turkestan regions to Central Asia. Has been Since these times, the historical and cultural oases of Central Asia, where the sedentary farming culture has been the priority for many centuries, fall under the sphere of political, economic, and CENTRAL ASIAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HISTORY (ISSN: 2660-6836) | Volume: 4 Issue: 3 | March-2023 40 E-mail address: editor@centralasianstudies.org (ISSN: 2660-6836). Hosting by Central Asian Studies. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2023 Author (s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ material-cultural influence of newly arrived residents, nomadic herders. In fact, the early Middle Ages are recorded in history as a period of sharp and important changes in the political, social, economic, spiritual-educational, ethno-cultural life of the peoples of Central Asia. According to A.Muhammadjonov, “during these periods, with the population crowding in cities, the development of handicrafts, the expansion of internal and external trade, the need for agricultural products also increased, and the areas of agricultural areas around the cities were expanding more and more. As a result, the influence of villages as a solid source of raw materials in the economic life of the country increases, and on the one hand, the attitude towards the land, in particular, to the agricultural fields, especially the ownership stakes, begins to change slowly” (Muhammadjonov, 2004, p. 8-9). In Central Asia in the 5th-8th centuries, mainly as a result of migration, the sharp increase in the population, along with the overcrowding of the urban population and the expansion of the territory, also caused the creation of new rural areas. These processes are also reflected in the written sources of the later period. In particular, according to the medieval historian-geographer al-Istahri, during this period, four thousand villages were built in the basin of three of the 12 royal streams that supplied the Bukhara oasis with running water. According to An-Narshahi, there were 700 forts and fortresses built by merchants around the city of Bukhara. According to Al-Muqaddasi, 12,000 villages functioned around Mizdahkhan, one of the small cities of Khorezm (Tolstov, 1948, p. 150), while 16,000 fortresses were built in Chaganiyan (Belenitsky, Bentovich, Bolshakov, 1973, p. 180). . And finally, in this regard, Yaqubi provides information about the existing 400 fortresses in the country of Ustrushona (Bartold, 1963, p. 225). We are sure that the above figures are given by the authors with some exaggeration. But archeological explorations show the presence of a large number of rural areas around Mizdahkhan, Bukhara, and Ustrushona, as noted by medieval authors, is “the country of fortresses” (Yakubov, 1988, p. 25). Written sources do not contain any information about the topography of rural areas, that is, their construction project, architectural solutions, dimensions, the number of buildings (rooms) in them, and other characteristics. Therefore, the role of archaeological excavations in clarifying these issues is of particular importance. In this regard, the study of early medieval cities and rural areas in the Khorezm oasis of the Central Asian region was relatively successfully carried out. Later, N. Negmatov, O’. Polatov, A. Ber, who continued research on these scientific issuesDimurodov, M.Pardaev, J.G’furov, etc., a number of castles and fortifications studied in the eastern part of Ustrushona, in the Shahriston basin and in the Jizzakh oasis belonging to northwestern Ustrushona are divided into five categories according to their architectural design and construction methods: The 1st category consists of castles built on the basis of a complex construction plan based on special conditions, consisting of magnificent halls, bedrooms, special prayer houses, utility rooms (warehouses) and corridors. Such forts are usually surrounded by powerful defensive walls, the central buildings are decorated with wall paintings, wood with carved patterns is widely used in the construction (Chilhujra). In this category of rural areas, a large landowner, a zamindar, and a family of village sarkors lived; The 2nd category includes the castles built on the top of the hill, taking into account all the features of the micro-relief, based on the “comb-corridor system”, without excessive luxury and decorations (Tirmizaktepa, Almantepa I). In our opinion, such early medieval rural areas functioned as strongholds of chokars who were members of military “druzhina” belonging to large landowners; CENTRAL ASIAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HISTORY (ISSN: 2660-6836) | Volume: 4 Issue: 3 | March-2023 41 E-mail address: editor@centralasianstudies.org (ISSN: 2660-6836).. Hosting by Central Asian Studies. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2023 Author (s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Category 3 includes castles consisting of a wide courtyard surrounded by defensive walls and a central two-story building built in the middle of it. The lower floor of the two-story central building is residential. In most cases, the construction plan of these rural spaces was realized by the axis corridor passing through the center and dividing the architectural complex into two, and adjacent rooms; Category 4 includes rural spaces surrounded by defensive walls, built in the fields of agricultural crops with extensive use of a composite construction plan (circular corridor, arrow corridor, comb-shaped corridor), widely used open porch construction method, with a seasonal character in a certain sense (Almantepa II) ). Kadivars, seasonal laborers and laborers regularly engaged in agricultural work lived there; The 5th category includes rural areas with a total area of about 0.5 hectares, with two levels (levels) in appearance, central buildings located in the middle of the monument, in most cases on flat ground, near a certain city, built as part of its defense systems. Although the construction plan of these rural areas consisted of composite architectural methods, the main goal was to increase the number of dwellings for permanent living. The buildings are one-story, and the number of living rooms is a priority. Although such rural areas belonged to a large zamindar, he mostly lived in a nearby town. According to the terminology of ceramic-archaeology, it is pottery vessels made of clay and baked in fire, and it is the most frequently noted mass material find in the course of excavations. In some cases, it is difficult to find the most alternative material-cultural objects, such as fragments of pottery, when determining the periodical date of certain monuments and complexes. Therefore, the study of ceramic vessels divided into types and categories and, as a result, determining the periodicity criteria, creating technological indicators of pottery vessels belonging to certain socio-economic periods is one of the most important methodological tasks of archeology research. Among a group of specialists who were engaged in the early medieval history and archeology of Central Asia, in this period, the urban life, the lifestyle of the rural areas and the handicrafts embodied in it in the lands between the Amudarya and Syrdarya were at a much lower level, that is, in a state of crisis, compared to the previous period. , the scientific idea was formed. Proponents of this scientific idea point to the state of pottery craftsmanship in V-VIII centuries and the quality level of manufactured products as its main proof. By the way, in the scientific literature devoted to the researches, history and scientific analysis of pottery products of the early Middle Ages, it is noted that the quality of pottery of this period is much lower than the products of the last antique century. We agree with these thoughts. As happened in the neighboring regions of Sughd, Bactria-Toharistan, Choch, Ilaq, and Ferghana, quality changes took place in some cases even stronger than those in the early medieval pottery of Ustrushona. According to our observations, although the size and assortment of pottery vessels has increased somewhat in the existing cities and villages in the northern and northwestern regions of Ustrushona, in particular, in the Lower Sangzor basin of the Jizzakh oasis, manualThe popularity of glazed pottery has greatly increased. This had a direct negative impact on the quality of ceramic products. According to I. Bentovich, who conducted research on this controversial issue in Panjikent, it is not at all correct to associate only one type of production with pottery and to show this factor as the main proof of the crisis of the early medieval crafts and the depression in urban life that is integrally connected with it. Because, due to the high demand for some types of pottery vessels, which are products of mass demand of the population, their quality level may decrease. This does not mean a complete crisis of the CENTRAL ASIAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HISTORY (ISSN: 2660-6836) | Volume: 4 Issue: 3 | March-2023 42 E-mail address: editor@centralasianstudies.org (ISSN: 2660-6836). Hosting by Central Asian Studies. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2023 Author (s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ancient and traditional pottery craft (Belenitsky, Bentovich, Bolshakov, 1973, p. 48). In our opinion, the emergence of such a situation in pottery was caused not only by changes in urban life, but also by a number of other factors, in particular, the renewal of socio-economic relations in society, the strengthening of private (feudal) ownership, the activation of the interaction of ethnic groups due to migration, and the settlement of the nomadic herding population. . For example, cattle herders who began to live a sedentary lifestyle in rural areas built around central cities, in their previous nomadic lifestyles, mostly used pottery made by the women of their people. This situation continued for some time even after the transition to a sedentary life. Or we can see the same effect in the economic and cultural relations established between the settled peasant population and the herding nomads. As a result of these circumstances, the above-mentioned negative quality changes occurred in early medieval pottery. This was a form of economic and cultural processes characteristic of early medieval society. Regardless of the quality of pottery in the early middle Ages, pottery was undoubtedly a popular field in Ustrushona crafts, as in all historical and cultural regions of Central Asia. Well-smelted, raw clay and kiln-fired products are called pottery and are recognized as the most frequently recorded household items and material finds during archaeological excavations. In most cases, there are no alternative finds (numismatic materials, metal, stone objects) other than pottery to determine the chronology of specific monuments and cultural complexes that are being excavated. In Ustrushona, the region under study, pottery craft with local roots was formed in ancient times and  developed over centuries. However, it should be noted that although the main features and periodical dates of Ustrushona pottery products, in particular, pottery found during archaeological excavations, were first of all discussed in scientific reports and a number of scientific articles, in special chapters of monographs, the technology of making these vessels, cooking processes, paint (angob )’s characteristics, in a word, there were no special studies on the history of the country’s pottery craft and production. The first findings and research in this regard belong to V.F. Haydukevich, who conducted archaeological research in Munchogtepa in the area of the construction of the Farhod Canal in the 1940s. Among the cultural layers belonging to the lowest construction period of Munchagtepa, the remains of pottery were recorded, and the lower part of the hearth of this structure dating back to the 1st-2nd centuries AD has been preserved. Pottery craft did not stop developing in Ustrushona in the later periods, especially in the early Middle Ages. The centers of pottery craft related to these periods were discovered and studied in the monuments of Galatepa (Kalininabad), Soi-Gorkhona (Shahristan), Sari Kubur (Oratepa) and Kaliyatepa located in the central part of Ustrushona (Samoylik, 1973, p. 165-166; 1978, p. 203-207 1986, p. 404-412, Pardaev, 1995, p. 14). Chronologically, these early medieval khumdons operated in the 5th-9th centuries, especially Galatepa khumdon in the 5th-6th centuries, Sari-Kubur in the 7th-8th centuries, Soi-Gorkhana khumdon in the 8th-9th centuries. In these monuments, special pottery centers were established, which can be seen from the special baskets used to throw away khumdons and useless “brak” products. As in the neighboring country of Sughd, we can see pottery centers operating in Ustrushona specializing in only a few types of pottery. For example, Soi-Gorkhona potters paid more attention to the production of containers for processing milk products (kuvi, guppi), storage (dates), portable ovens and ceramic tableware for the domestic market (Samoylik, 1986, pp. 404-412). CENTRAL ASIAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HISTORY (ISSN: 2660-6836) | Volume: 4 Issue: 3 | March-2023 43 E-mail address: editor@centralasianstudies.org (ISSN: 2660-6836).. Hosting by Central Asian Studies. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2023 Author (s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ In the early middle Ages, some of the rural areas densely built up around the central cities probably produced pottery. However, during this period, the majority of the population was supplied with handicraft products, including pottery, produced in the central cities. During the archeological excavations carried out in the 60s-70s of the last century in the rural areas of Central Ustrushona, such as Ortakurgan, Tirmizaktepa, Chilhujra, a complex of pottery vessels from the early Middle Ages was obtained and detailed research was conducted on these findings. List of used literature: 1. Массон В.М. Кочевнические компоненты кушанского археологического комплекса // Проблемы античной культуры. –Москва, 1986. 2. Муҳаммаджонов А.Р. Ўзбекистон тарихи (IV асрдан XVI аср бошларигача). Тошкент, 2004. 3. Толстов С.П. По следам древнехорезмской цивилизации. Москва, 1948. 4. Беленицкий А.М., Бентович И.Б., Большаков О.Г. Средневековый город Средней Азии. – Ленинград, 1973 5. Бартольд В.В. Туркестан в эпоху монгольского нашествия. Соч. I. Мoсква. 1963. 6. Якубов.Ю. Раннесредневековые сельские поселения горного Согда. Душанбе, 1988. 7. Гайдукевич.В.Ф. Керамическая обжигательная печь Мунчактепе. //КСИИМК. Вып.XXVIII. –Москва-Ленинград, 1949. 8. Негматов. Н.Н. Уструшана в древности и ранне средневековья. – Сталинабад, 1957. 9. Пардаев М.Х. Северо западная Устушана в эпоху раннего средневековье (по материалам нижнего течения р Сангзар) АКД. Ташкент, 1995 г 10. Самойлик П.Г. Обжигательные печи Ура-Тюбе и Шахристана. // ТД сессии, посвященной итогам полевых археологических иисследований в 1972г. –Ташкент, 1973. 11. Пардаев М.Х, Ғофуров Ж. Уструшонанинг илк ўрта аср қишлоқ маконлари. (ѐзма ва археологик манбалар асосида). Тошкент 2016 й