Archaeology findings on Zoroastrian/Aryan sites in Turkmenistan
Some recent (+2009) archaeology findings on Zoroastrian/Aryan sites in Turkmenistan
On a recent BBC documentary series “The Story of India,” on Documentary channel here in NZ, Michael Wood, the host, in the course of his narrative, took his ‘story’ of the possible origins of the Aryans, or their migration from, to the region in Turkmenistan now known as Gonur Tepe, a few miles from the Turkmenistan city of Merv.
There, in the midst of very extensive excavations, that show the remains of a large city, he interviewed archaeologist Viktor Sarainidi, who, when asked to say a few words about this site and their link to Aryans, waved his hands around, and very emphatically stressed, that all around, in this excavated city, and in many other sites in this region of Margush, were signs of vast settlements by Zoroastrians from the late 3rd millennium B.C. to the 2nd millennium.
He said the excavations have found the remains of three fire temple complexes in Gonur Tepe itself, and several rooms where hoama, or Soma, was brewed. He seemed to stress, these sites are more predominantly Zoroastrian, as the accompanying people, the Vedic Aryans have no history of setting up Fire alters. The latter used fire for their sacred rituals and then ‘extinguished’ it, whereas only Zoroastrians would set up alters in the open, or within a temple.
Subsequently, I have found several links, confirming Sarianidi believes these are Zoroastrain sites before Iranians settled in western Iran, which might be of interest to our members:
This also brings to mind some reading I have done earlier that led me to finding the Yaz culture in the Central Asian steppes. Excavations there found no traces of burials, and conclusions were made this might be exclusively a Zoroastrian region, because they practiced exposure to the sun, our dokhmaneshi (but without dokhmas?)
Link 5 – Yaz culture briefly described in wikipedia
Courtesy : Geve Narielwalla