Andarkhan Burial Ground - the first monument of the Akhtam culture in southwestern Fergana.
Monuments from the 1st millennium BC in the Fergana region are rare. These are small burial grounds, consisting of 5-10 mounds with stone embankments. In the Tashravat area, we have investigated two burial grounds, where heavily damaged human skeletons were discovered. The burials were made at an ancient horizon. Among the stones in the embankment, small fragments of clay vessels of the Andronovo type were found. In one of the mounds, next to the skeleton, there was a small bronze stem knife with a convex back. These finds allow us to date both burial grounds to the Bronze Age.
On the left bank of the Khodja-Bakyrgan River, three kilometers from the village of Anadarhan, there was a small burial ground that included mounds with stone embankments. The burials were made at an ancient horizon. Stone enclosures were noted around the skeletons. Vessels were found with the buried - small pots, bowls, and a jug. The burials also contained a bronze ear pendant, an iron bracelet, an iron stem knife, and a quadrangular iron awl (Brykina, 1963). Here, the complex of finds allows us to date this burial ground to the 6th-4th centuries BC and attribute it to the monuments of the Akhtam culture, well known in southern and southeastern Fergana (Gorbunova, 1951, 1962, 1969).
The Andarkhan Burial Ground is the first and so far the only monument of the Akhtam culture in southwestern Fergana.
The small number of mounds in the burial ground and the absence of synchronous monuments in the area, especially settlements, suggest that the burial ground belonged to a small group of people, most likely nomadic herders who roamed here.
By the beginning of the 1st millennium AD, the picture here will change dramatically. The number of monuments (both settlements and burial grounds) will significantly increase. Agricultural populations are mastering the narrow intermountain valleys and vast depressions.
Settlements are quite densely located along the main water arteries of the region (Isfana-say, Khodja-Bakyrgan, Laylak, Isfara-say). In some cases, settlements are concentrated in places richest in groundwater sources (Karabulak, Batken depression).
The most densely populated areas in the first half of the 1st millennium AD turned out to be the valleys directly adjacent to the mountainous Fergana. These are the valleys of the Khodja-Bakyrgan and Isfara rivers.
In the Isfara depression, the western part was the most developed, where large settlements were located in close proximity to each other (the complex in the area of the village of Karabulak, settlements on the right bank of Isfana-say - Samat (Shaldy-Baldy), Kurghanch.
The geographical environment had a significant impact on the topography of the settlements. The dependence of the topography on the relief of the terrain was particularly evident in mountainous areas, where settlements occupy the least suitable areas for cultivation, and their outlines are subordinated to the terrain. Since ancient times, a characteristic type of settlement here has been individual fortified houses, estates, and unfortified villages. This peculiarity has persisted even in the period of developed medieval times, when there were no large cities with well-developed fortification systems. Settlements generally occupy narrow coastal strips on high floodplain terraces. Only in four cases (Karkidon oasis, Karabulak, Turatash, Tashravat) do they lie in extensive low-lying basins.
In the first centuries AD, the topography of agricultural oases is formed in the foothill areas, where several large settlements emerge as centers of microregions. A system of collective defense was created.
Protective belts were constructed to enclose individual microregions. Such belts are noted in the Kanibadam area (Negmatov, 1968) and west of the Karabulak settlement (Brykina, 1974).
Arrivals from the lowland Fergana
