ABSTRACT
Archaeological studies of Neolithic and Chalcolithic sites in southwestern Central Asia have shown that South Turkmenistan, and possibly northeastern Khorasan, was one of the ancient farming cradles of this area, an improvised northern outpost of the ancient East. Its development during the late stage of the Middle Chalcolithic, Late Chalcolithic, and Early Bronze Age (ca. 3300–2350 BC) led to the formation of the large proto-urban centers of the Middle Bronze Age. Historically, the fast development of the Murghab delta in the last centuries of the 3rd millennium (Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex, BMAC) matches the dramatic intensification of interregional contacts. It is basically conditioned both by the high technical, technological, and cultural development of South Turkmenistan, and by the involvement of new groups of population. Gonur Depe in the late 3rd/early 2nd millennium was not only an administrative and religious center, but also a production and trade center, just like Ancient Merv later on.
