Ministry of Higher and Secondary Special Education of the Republic of Uzbekistan Denau Entrepreneurship Pedagogical Institute

Ministry of Higher and Secondary Special Education of the Republic of Uzbekistan

Denau Entrepreneurship Pedagogical Institute




1st year student of "Accounting and Auditing"

ABDULLAYEV MIRKOMIL Prepared in English
INDEPENDENT WORK


Theme: Uzbekistan is the land of ancient culture

The most ancient works of art found in Uzbekistan date back to the Mesolithic period, when a primeval painter drew a hunting scene in ruddle on the rocks of Zarautsai. He pictured animals and hunters in triangle-shaped cloaks schematically, in traditions of primitive realism. Apart from stone implements, the Late Stone Age is richly represented by everyday objects including hand-made pottery ornamented by nail imprints already at that early stage of culture.

The Bronze Age, embracing the 2nd and beginning of the 1st millennium BC, was marked in southern regions of the present-day Uzbekistan by the formation of a developed building technique, emergent methods of mass and monumental architecture, and progressing bronze-smelting and pottery-making.

A considerable number of artifacts belonging to farming tribes of the Bronze Age were unearthed and studied in the South of Uzbekistan. The greatest amount of research data has been obtained on the settlements of the 17th - 10th centuries BC: Sapallitepa and Djarkutan. Their archeological complexes provided enough material for studying the establishment and development of a proto-city civilization of an ancient Oriental type, which had ethno cultural contacts with tribes both in farming South and the livestock-breeding North.

At the end of the 2nd and the beginning of the 1st millennium BC Central Asia, including what is now Uzbekistan, was the site of major historical events. One the one hand, it was marked by an intensive progress made by steppe land tribes in livestock-breeding, and on the other - by the formation of seats of irrigated farming culture in small oases. At the time, there are formed and developed a number of historical and cultural regions, such as Bactria, Sogdiana, and Khorezm, followed by the formation of Bactrian, Sogdian and Khorezmian ethnos.

The first three centuries of the 1st millennium BC were marked by the appearance of iron implements and weapons (The Early Iron Age) and Sogdiana (that was how Greeks called Bacrtia and Sogda). When Macedonians reached Trans-Oxiana, i.e. regions located to the north of the Oxus river, now called the Amudarya, they confined their activities to building outposts and placing garrisons there. Hellenistic culture began to spread in this part of the world only after Alexander the Great had died and the Seleucids, who succeeded him, had been separated. By the middle of the 3rd century BC, local rulers, who emphasized their dissent from the Phil Hellenes, established themselves in Central Asia: Greco-Bactrian in Bactria and Arshakid - on the territory of the present-day South Turkmenistan. The involvement of Central Asian southern regions in broad international contacts introduced them to the summits of the Hellenic culture, shedding some of its light onto the neighboring northern regions - Sogdiana, Shash, Fergana and Khorezm.

Central Asian Antiquity (4th century BC - 4th century AD) is represented now by an exclusively rich variety of the works of art. Archeological excavations on the territory of contemporary Uzbekistan have discovered a number of big cities of that time: Dalverzin, Termez and Djandavlyattepa in Bactria, Afrasiab and Erkurgan in Sogdiana, Djanbaskala, Ayazkala and Toprakkala in Khorezm, as well as scores of smaller fortified settlements and hundreds of villages.

Among those mentioned were the names of the regions that were situated on the territory of the present-day Uzbekistan: Bakhdi (Bactria) - in the middle and upper Amudarya, Suguda (Sogdiana) - between the Kashkadarya, the Zerafshan and the Syrdarya rivers, and Hwarazmia (Khorezm) - in the lower Amudarya. In the the 6th century BC Bactria and Sogdiana were conquered by the Iranian dynasty of the Akheminids, and became their satrapies. This speeded up the process of initial urbanization in these regions which had begun earlier. Ancient Bactrian settlements Kiziltepa, Khoresmian settlements Kalalygyr and Kuzeligyr were urban formations, with characteristic fortress walls and moats, citadels, palaces and evidently, temples.

During the antique period, preference in monumental arts shifted from murals to sculpture. It is presented by marvelous specimens found on the lands of North Tokharistan and Khorezm.

Central Asian sculptors used clay, plaster and sometimes stone, but they preferred plastic clay, which local mountain foothills were rich in. Modeling was done in several layers, beginning with a clay-coated wooden or reed frame, and ending with a carefully done upper layer which was painted.

The antique period in the history of Uzbekistan is characterized by flourishing small-form arts: glyptic (gems intaglios and seals), coins, small terra-cotta sculpture and other handicrafts. Gems with engraved designs are wonderful creations of the antique art of Uzbekistan.

In the ancient society, gems were used as personal seals by high ranking persons in their correspondence or official papers. Meanwhile, gems are not only specimens of the glyptic art; they are source of data on mythology and religion, as they carry images of deities and divine symbols.

The antique epoch has left specimens of the art of medal-making with a striking power of realism and a high level of artistic execution. The Greco-Bactrian coins represent a vast gallery of portraits, sometimes subtly psychological, and sometimes rather rough, but always individual. Craftsmen endeavored not only convey the king's faces true to life, but also to express their qualities as human beings and politicians.

One of the richly represented crafts characteristic mostly of antique cities, was the terracotta sculpture. Its technology was similar to that of pottery, but at the same time, terracotta reflected the most characteristic features the plastic art in different historic-cultural regions. The author of the model could be both a sculptor and a potter. The further stages in producing and processing clay statuettes repeated the same operations as in pottery production.

The most numerous categories of items found during archeological excavations on settlement sites and burial mounds, in ceramics. In framing oases, ceramics of the antique period, made on potter's wheel, is noted for its high quality, diversity and refined shapes.

A major place in the antique art was given to bone articles. Specimens showing a high level of bone carving, were represented either by figurines of people, animals and fruit, or engravings on various subjects on polished bone.

The 4th century marks the end of the antique period, but its rich cultural legacy was the fertile soil on which fine arts of subsequent period developed. In the Early Middle Ages craftsmen often turned to antique themes as to an endless source of creative experience and inspiration.

The early Middle Ages were marked by the downfall of large antique states: the Kushan Empire and the Kangul state, as well as mass incursions of nomads, such as Khidarites, Khionites and Ephtalites, into their territories. The Euphtalite state formed in Central Asia in the 4th-5th centuries AD, very large and strong, successfully rebuffed pressure from the Sassanid Persia at first. But in the 6th century it clashed with a powerful nomadic state in the North - the Turkic Khanate, which established control over Central Asia for a period of time. However, it was weakened by internal strife in the 7th century.

The country's feudalization that was taking place at that time, resulted in the formation of a number of semi-independent principalities, large and small, ruled by local dynasties, often subordinated to the Turkic Khanate only formally. Transit trade routes formed earlier, such as the Great Silk Road, began to change, branch off toward the North, into the zones of contact with nomads. The development of trade necessitated large coin emissions. The Central Asian market was flooded with coins of mint from Tocharistan, Sogdiana, Ustrushana, Chach, as well as Sassanide Iran, Byzanite, Turkic and Chinese coins.

Like in the preceding antique period, monumental art in that epoch was characterized by the blending of architectural decor with wall-painting and sculpture. Wall painting was widely spread as interior decoration. Interiors of secular buildings of the 6th-8th centuries were decorated with wood, stucco and rarely, clay-carving. The surviving wood-carved specimens testify to the high level of development of this art, which worked out its own canons, both in portraying living begins and in ornaments.

The Early Middle Ages witnessed the nascent triumph of stucco-carving. Its earliest specimens show a departure from antique traditions and the emergence of an entirely new style.