Excavation at Džarkutan (Uzbekistan): a settlement of the early Iron Age in southern Central Asia
Résumé
This article summarizes the result of the work led by the joint French-Uzbek team at the Early Iron Age settlement of Dzharkutan in southern Uzbekistan between 2009 and 2013. We describe the planning and the architecture of the settlement, the funerary structures discovered inside the inhabited area, the material culture, and the subsistence economy of this period, thus taking stock of the way to occupy the domestic space during a period which is still poorly known in Central Asia. We also present a refined chronology, based on the stratigraphy that allowed us identifying two stages inside the Early Iron Age occupation, and shedding a new light on the transition between the end of the Oxus Civilisation and the formation of the Handmade painted ware cultures.