V M Masson
Biographic Data
| ID | 1049461 |
|---|---|
| NAME | V M Masson |
| GIVEN NAMES | V M |
| FAMILY NAME | Masson |
| SIGNATURE | MASSON V M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Institute of Archaeology |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 28 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1961 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Altyn Tepe
Dzheytun
The International Merv Project, Preliminary Report on the First Season (1992)
Investigating early agriculture in Central Asia: New research at Jeitun, Turkmenistan
In 1989 ANTIQUITY published a special section of papers on the archaeology of the steppe zone, to notice the special role of that great sweep of land that links the northern fringes of early prehistoric agriculture in Europe and Asia. A new international team has now returned to Jeitun, the key early agricultural site in Turkmenistan, on the edge of the Kara Kum desert
Merv, the "Soul of Kings", in World History
Soviet archaeology in the steppe zone: Introduction
The steppe region, the temperate grassland of the Asian land-mass that runs the thousands of kilometres practically from the coast of the Atlantic to the coast of the Pacific, is one of the great zones of human settlement. It offers archaeology on the large scale, where local adaptations link to a grander picture. Most of the steppe falls in the Soviet Union and is studied by Soviet archaeologists, much of whose work is inaccessible to those many…
Eneolithic stone sculpture in south Turkmenia
This report of a tradition of Copper-Age stone sculpture from the Caucasus introduces a wider discussion of the place of stone sculpture in the artistic traditions of early Asiatic civilizations. It underlines once more the special place of evidence from the Soviet Union, the northern periphery of the regions of early states
The Proto-Bactrian group of civilizations in the Ancient East
The obvious English-language literature on the early civilizations of the Ancient East gives less attention than it might to the northern aspects, towards central Asia. Here, one of the leading researchers in Soviet Central Asia reviews an important new French book on the Iranian plateau and its inter-relations
Man at the Dawn of Civilization
The mound of Altyn-depe, which is situated near the village of Meana to the south of the town of Tedjen in the Turkmen Republic of the Soviet Union, at first gives the impression of an unassailable giant. Spreading over an area of 46 hectares and rising to a height of 22 meters, the site is strewn with fragments of broken pottery and other traces of intensive human activities; its very size forces one to reflect on the limited abilities of the ar…
Seals of a Proto-lndian Type from Altyn-depe
Archeological research of recent years in southern Turkmenistan has led to the discovery of protourban centers existing there at the end of the third and beginning of the second millennia B.C., whose establishment was the logical culmination of the socioeconomic evolution of the local communities of settled agriculturalists from the sixth to the fourth millennia B.C. Two such centers are known: Namazga-depe at Kaakhka and Altyn-depe at Meana, whe…
Urban Centers of Early Class Society
The great attention that the Tashkent school of archeology devotes to the study of ancient cities — their topography and internal structure as reflected in specific traits of urban organization and the individual features of their historical development — is one of its characteristic features. Courses on the historical topography of the large urban centers of Central Asia — Samarkand, Bukhara, Tashkent, and several others — were taught systematic…
Altyn-depe during the Aeneolithic Period
Systematic excavations at Altyn-depe in southern Turkmenistan have already provided us with a graphic picture of the internal structure and cultural form of an early urban settlement of the Bronze Age1. It is now quite clear that this very ancient civilization of our country belonged within that extensive zone of ancient civilizations between Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley. The highly developed culture of the middle and second half of the secon…
Altin-depe and the Bull Cult
On the resumption of excavation in the autumn of 1972, a funerary complex belonging to a community of priests was discovered among a group of religious buildings in the early urban Bronze Age centre of Altin-depe in South Turkmenia. All the material found there dates from the early stages of Namazga V, or, using the accepted chronology, from the end of the third millennium BC (Masson, 1973, 481). It had previously been established that the chief …
Central Asia: Turkmenia before the Achaemenids
The Earliest Farmers of Mesopotamia (On the Problem of Origins)
For a long time, two major discoveries by archeologists in Mesopotamia, one in the south and the other in the north, determined the scope of the materials used in examining the problem of the opening of the Mesopotamian lowland to farming prior to the establishment of the brilliant Sumerian civilization. These were the Hassuna excavations to the west of Al Mawsil (1) and the large stratigraphic dig at Eridu (2) - a city that once stood on the sho…
The Urban Revolution in South Turkmenia
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
The Historical Position of Central Asian Civilization
The investigations of Soviet archeologists have not only thrown new light on the ancient cultures of Bactria, Sogd, Parthia and Khorezm from the 3rd century B.C.E. to the 3rd century C.E., with their urban civilization, developed script, circulation of money and commercial economy, but make it possible to undertake a study of the genesis of all these phenomena, starting with the first steps in the evolution of an economy of a food-producing type.…
The First Farmers in Turkmenia
The early farming culture of Southern Turkmenistan, widely known since the work of R. Pumpelly at Anau, has been systematically studied during the last decade by Soviet archaeologists. Excavation of the major settlement of this culture, Namazga Tepe, has made it possible to propose a new stratigraphy (Namazga periods I-VI). The Namazga III period fills the gap between Anau II and Anau III, and has its closest analogies on Iranian sites such as Si…
The First Farmers in Turkmenia
The early farming culture of Southern Turkmenistan, widely known since the work of R. Pumpelly at Anau, has been systematically studied during the last decade by Soviet archaeologists. Excavation of the major settlement of this culture, Namazga Tepe, has made it possible to propose a new stratigraphy (Namazga periods I-VI). The Namazga III period fills the gap between Anau II and Anau III, and has its closest analogies on Iranian sites such as Si…
The International Merv Project, Preliminary Report on the First Season (1992)
Investigating early agriculture in Central Asia: New research at Jeitun, Turkmenistan
In 1989 ANTIQUITY published a special section of papers on the archaeology of the steppe zone, to notice the special role of that great sweep of land that links the northern fringes of early prehistoric agriculture in Europe and Asia. A new international team has now returned to Jeitun, the key early agricultural site in Turkmenistan, on the edge of the Kara Kum desert
Altyn-depe during the Aeneolithic Period
Systematic excavations at Altyn-depe in southern Turkmenistan have already provided us with a graphic picture of the internal structure and cultural form of an early urban settlement of the Bronze Age1. It is now quite clear that this very ancient civilization of our country belonged within that extensive zone of ancient civilizations between Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley. The highly developed culture of the middle and second half of the secon…
Soviet archaeology in the steppe zone: Introduction
The steppe region, the temperate grassland of the Asian land-mass that runs the thousands of kilometres practically from the coast of the Atlantic to the coast of the Pacific, is one of the great zones of human settlement. It offers archaeology on the large scale, where local adaptations link to a grander picture. Most of the steppe falls in the Soviet Union and is studied by Soviet archaeologists, much of whose work is inaccessible to those many…
Altin-depe and the Bull Cult
On the resumption of excavation in the autumn of 1972, a funerary complex belonging to a community of priests was discovered among a group of religious buildings in the early urban Bronze Age centre of Altin-depe in South Turkmenia. All the material found there dates from the early stages of Namazga V, or, using the accepted chronology, from the end of the third millennium BC (Masson, 1973, 481). It had previously been established that the chief …
The Urban Revolution in South Turkmenia
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
The First Farmers in Turkmenia
The early farming culture of Southern Turkmenistan, widely known since the work of R. Pumpelly at Anau, has been systematically studied during the last decade by Soviet archaeologists. Excavation of the major settlement of this culture, Namazga Tepe, has made it possible to propose a new stratigraphy (Namazga periods I-VI). The Namazga III period fills the gap between Anau II and Anau III, and has its closest analogies on Iranian sites such as Si…
The Historical Position of Central Asian Civilization
The investigations of Soviet archeologists have not only thrown new light on the ancient cultures of Bactria, Sogd, Parthia and Khorezm from the 3rd century B.C.E. to the 3rd century C.E., with their urban civilization, developed script, circulation of money and commercial economy, but make it possible to undertake a study of the genesis of all these phenomena, starting with the first steps in the evolution of an economy of a food-producing type.…
The Urban Revolution in South Turkmenia
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
The Earliest Farmers of Mesopotamia (On the Problem of Origins)
For a long time, two major discoveries by archeologists in Mesopotamia, one in the south and the other in the north, determined the scope of the materials used in examining the problem of the opening of the Mesopotamian lowland to farming prior to the establishment of the brilliant Sumerian civilization. These were the Hassuna excavations to the west of Al Mawsil (1) and the large stratigraphic dig at Eridu (2) - a city that once stood on the sho…
Central Asia: Turkmenia before the Achaemenids
Altin-depe and the Bull Cult
On the resumption of excavation in the autumn of 1972, a funerary complex belonging to a community of priests was discovered among a group of religious buildings in the early urban Bronze Age centre of Altin-depe in South Turkmenia. All the material found there dates from the early stages of Namazga V, or, using the accepted chronology, from the end of the third millennium BC (Masson, 1973, 481). It had previously been established that the chief …
Man at the Dawn of Civilization
The mound of Altyn-depe, which is situated near the village of Meana to the south of the town of Tedjen in the Turkmen Republic of the Soviet Union, at first gives the impression of an unassailable giant. Spreading over an area of 46 hectares and rising to a height of 22 meters, the site is strewn with fragments of broken pottery and other traces of intensive human activities; its very size forces one to reflect on the limited abilities of the ar…
Seals of a Proto-lndian Type from Altyn-depe
Archeological research of recent years in southern Turkmenistan has led to the discovery of protourban centers existing there at the end of the third and beginning of the second millennia B.C., whose establishment was the logical culmination of the socioeconomic evolution of the local communities of settled agriculturalists from the sixth to the fourth millennia B.C. Two such centers are known: Namazga-depe at Kaakhka and Altyn-depe at Meana, whe…
Urban Centers of Early Class Society
The great attention that the Tashkent school of archeology devotes to the study of ancient cities — their topography and internal structure as reflected in specific traits of urban organization and the individual features of their historical development — is one of its characteristic features. Courses on the historical topography of the large urban centers of Central Asia — Samarkand, Bukhara, Tashkent, and several others — were taught systematic…
Altyn-depe during the Aeneolithic Period
Systematic excavations at Altyn-depe in southern Turkmenistan have already provided us with a graphic picture of the internal structure and cultural form of an early urban settlement of the Bronze Age1. It is now quite clear that this very ancient civilization of our country belonged within that extensive zone of ancient civilizations between Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley. The highly developed culture of the middle and second half of the secon…
The Proto-Bactrian group of civilizations in the Ancient East
The obvious English-language literature on the early civilizations of the Ancient East gives less attention than it might to the northern aspects, towards central Asia. Here, one of the leading researchers in Soviet Central Asia reviews an important new French book on the Iranian plateau and its inter-relations
Soviet archaeology in the steppe zone: Introduction
The steppe region, the temperate grassland of the Asian land-mass that runs the thousands of kilometres practically from the coast of the Atlantic to the coast of the Pacific, is one of the great zones of human settlement. It offers archaeology on the large scale, where local adaptations link to a grander picture. Most of the steppe falls in the Soviet Union and is studied by Soviet archaeologists, much of whose work is inaccessible to those many…
Eneolithic stone sculpture in south Turkmenia
This report of a tradition of Copper-Age stone sculpture from the Caucasus introduces a wider discussion of the place of stone sculpture in the artistic traditions of early Asiatic civilizations. It underlines once more the special place of evidence from the Soviet Union, the northern periphery of the regions of early states
Merv, the "Soul of Kings", in World History
The International Merv Project, Preliminary Report on the First Season (1992)
Investigating early agriculture in Central Asia: New research at Jeitun, Turkmenistan
In 1989 ANTIQUITY published a special section of papers on the archaeology of the steppe zone, to notice the special role of that great sweep of land that links the northern fringes of early prehistoric agriculture in Europe and Asia. A new international team has now returned to Jeitun, the key early agricultural site in Turkmenistan, on the edge of the Kara Kum desert
Altyn Tepe
Dzheytun
History (15 works) · Archaeology (14 works) · Ancient history (13 works) · Eurasian Exchange Networks (13 works) · Geography (11 works) · Ancient Near East History (7 works) · Art (7 works) · History (6 works) · Civilization (5 works) · Linguistics and Cultural Studies (5 works)