Babish-mola — the Capital City of Antiquity in the Lower Reaches of the Syr Darya: Stratigraphy, Periodization, Chronology

Abstract

The article publishes the results of several years of excavations at the Babish-Mola settlement, on the territory of the ancient delta of the Syr Darya, where the agricultural Chirikrabat archaeological culture was widespread in the second half of the I millennium BC. During the three seasons of field research, the premises and a section of the bypass corridor in the north-western part of the building of the palace and temple complex — the “Big House” on the citadel of the settlement were partially opened. As a result of the work carried out on stratigraphic data, it was possible to identify three relatively different periods in the life of this site: the early one — the construction and short-term functioning of the building as a palace and two periods of habitation when the site was abandoned by the first inhabitants and fallen into disrepair. In the course of the research, a few, but quite expressive archaeological complexes were discovered, mainly fragments of ceramics, on the basis of which the lifetime of the site can be tentatively dated within the 4 th—2 nd centuries BC.