Togolok is an archaeological site in the
Murghab Delta,
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the sout ...
, located about 10–15 km south of
Gonur
Gonur Depe ( tk, Goňur depe) is an archaeological site, dated from 2400 to 1600 BCE,Frenez, Dennys, (2018)"Manufacturing and trade of Asian elephant ivory in Bronze Age Middle Asia: Evidence from Gonur Depe (Margiana, Turkmenistan)"in Archaeolog ...
(or about 40 km north of
Mary, Turkmenistan
Mary (), formerly named Merv, Meru and Alexandria Margiana, is a city on an oasis in the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan, located on the Murgab River. It is the capital city of Mary Region. In 2010, Mary had a population of 126,000, up from 92,000 ...
). Togolok 21 is an
Indo-Iranian temple and fortress dated to the first half of the 2nd millennium BC, belonging to the late phase of the
Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex
The Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex (short BMAC) or Oxus Civilization, recently dated to c. 2250–1700 BC,Lyonnet, Bertille, and Nadezhda A. Dubova, (2020b)"Questioning the Oxus Civilization or Bactria- Margiana Archaeological Cultu ...
(BMAC). Togolok 1 area has also been excavated.
According to the ''
Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture
An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles ...
'' (page 495), the Togolok temple contained rooms where traces of
ephedra Ephedra may refer to:
* Ephedra (medicine), a medicinal preparation from the plant ''Ephedra sinica''
* ''Ephedra'' (plant), genus of gymnosperm shrubs
See also
* Ephedrine
Ephedrine is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is of ...
and
hemp were found along with implements for the preparation of a hallucinogenic beverage (later known as ''
soma
Soma may refer to:
Businesses and brands
* SOMA (architects), a New York–based firm of architects
* Soma (company), a company that designs eco-friendly water filtration systems
* SOMA Fabrications, a builder of bicycle frames and other bicycle ...
'' in India and as ''
haoma
''Haoma'' (; Avestan: 𐬵𐬀𐬊𐬨𐬀) is a divine plant in Zoroastrianism and in later Persian culture and mythology. ''Haoma'' has its origins in Indo-Iranian religion and is the cognate of Vedic ''soma''.
Etymology
Both Avestan ''haoma'' ...
'' in Iran).
Togolok Depe
The name 'Togolok' is also applied to another much older site in Turkmenistan known as 'Togolok Depe'. This settlement started in the
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...
during the
Jeitun
Jeitun (Djeitun) is an archaeological site of the Neolithic period in southern Turkmenistan, about 30 kilometers north of Ashgabat in the Kopet-Dag mountain range. The settlement was occupied from about 7200 to 4500 BC possibly with short interr ...
period around 7000 BC.
[David R. Harris]
Origins of Agriculture in Western Central Asia: An Environmental-Archaeological Study.
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011. p61 It is located in the
Kopet-Dag
The Köpet Dag, Kopet Dagh, or Koppeh Dagh ( tk, Köpetdag; fa, کپهداغ), also known as the Turkmen-Khorasan Mountain Range, is a mountain range on the border between Turkmenistan and Iran that extends about along the border southeast o ...
foothills near the ancient Jeitun settlement. The site has been excavated and published in 1964 in Russian.
References
*
Viktor Sarianidi
Viktor Ivanovich Sarianidi or Victor Sarigiannides (russian: Ви́ктор Ива́нович Сариани́ди; el, Βίκτωρ Σαρηγιαννίδης; September 23, 1929 – December 22, 2013) was a Soviet archaeologist. He discovered ...
, ''Le complexe cultuel de Togolok 21 en Margiane", ''Arts Asiatiques'' 41 (1986), 5–21.
*Viktor Sarianidi, "Togolok 21, an Indo-Iranian Temple in the Karakum", ''Bulletin of the Asia Institute'' 4 (1990), 159–165.
*Victor Sarianidi
Margiana and Soma-Haoma ''Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies'' (EJVS) 9.1c (5 May 2003).
*Fredrik Talmage Hiebert, ''Origins of the Bronze Age Oasis Civilization in Central Asia'', American School of Prehistoric Research Bulletins 42 (2004).
*M. Cattani et al.
The Murghab Delta in Central Asia 1990-2001: GIS from a Research Resource to a Reasoning Tool for the Study of Settlement Change in Long-Term Fluctuationsin: M. Doerr (ed.), ''The Digital Heritage of Archaeology'' (2002).
Archaeological sites in Turkmenistan
Former populated places in Turkmenistan
Mary Region
Murghab basin
Indo-Iranian archaeological sites
{{Central Asian history