Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 53 (2) 2025   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2025.53.2.099-107

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The Relationship Between Archaic Construction Methods in Pottery and Architecture in Central Asia

N.Y. Petrova^{1, 2}, N.A. Dubova³, and S.Z. Rakhimzhanova²

¹Institute of Archaeology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Dm. Ulyanova 19, Moscow, 117292, Russia

²Margulan Institute of Archaeology, Pr. Dostyk 44, Almaty, 050000, Kazakhstan

³Miklukho-Maklai Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninsky pr. 32a, Moscow, 119334, Russia

This study explores the connection between archaic construction methods in pottery in Central Asian, mostly that of tandoors (tonurs), and present-day building technologies associated with the use of unbaked clay (“pakhsa”, “kuloh”, “adobe bricks”). Ethnographic fieldwork was done in several areas of Central Asia, including the Sughd Region of Tajikistan, the Turkestan Region of Kazakhstan, the Fergana and Samarkand regions of Uzbekistan, and the Batkent Region of Kyrgyzstan. Traditions of constructing tandoors were examined; materials relating to various building technologies using clay were collected and systematized. Two main methods of pakhsa construction were identified—lining up undried clay lumps in layers, or backfilling clay into a mold (“packed techniques”). The first was developed in construction technology using kuloh—dried lumps of clay joined with mortar. The technique of building tandoors from two layers of slabs, with subsequent transformation into a band, and coils connected pairwise during drying, resembles that of pakhsa construction by placing clay lumps in several rows across the width of the wall in strips (“kurses”) laid along the entire length of it. This confirms the common origin of the most archaic construction methods in pottery and construction from clay in architecture.

Keywords: Tandoors, ceramics construction methods, slabs, coils, construction from clay, pakhsa, kuloh