ИСТОРИКО-АРХЕОЛОГИЧЕСКИЙ ПАМЯТНИК САРАЗМ - ПАМЯТНИК ВСЕМИРНОГО НАСЛЕДИЯ ЮНЕСКО

Abstract

The article is devoted to one of the most ancient historical and archaeological monuments of Central Asia - the Sarazm settlement, which is located on the bank of the Zeravshan river in the Penjikent district of the Sughd region of the Republic of Tajikistan. The author reports that the Sarazm settlement was first discovered in 1976 by A.I. Isakov and since then it has been the subject to close interest of Tajik, Russian, French archaeologists. Within the course of their work, such important characteristics of Sarazm as the initial size of the settlement, its chronology, the evolution of the economy of the Sarazmians, and others were established. In particular, there are four periods in the Sarazmian history: 3500–3200 BC, 3200–2900 BC, 2900–2700 BC and 2700–2000 BC. The high days of the settlement came in the period of the Late Paleolithic and Early Bronze Age. The Sarazm population was engaged in agriculture and livestock breeding, the crafts of the Sarazmians were at a high level, as evidenced by the finding of well-preserved buildings (palatial , religious, residential), tools and jewelry. The author also emphasizes that the Sarazm settlement was one of the main metallurgical centers of the region, which used its own raw materials (due to the rich resource potential of the mountains in the upper reaches of the Zeravshan River) and had steady contacts with the ancient population of Iran, Baluchistan, Afghanistan, India and others. The uniqueness of the historical and archaeological site of Sarazm and its significance for world history and culture were confirmed in 2010, when Sarazm was included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.