A Central Asian Village at the Dawn of Civilization ― Excavations at Anau, Turkmenistan

Hiebert (anthropology, U. of Pennsylvania) and his colleagues assess relative and absolute archaeological chronologies for a site in Turkmenistan that reveals clues about early village development from 4500 to 2900 BC. The study attempts to place the site into the larger context of transformations to urbanism on the frontier of the ancient Near East. A second, equally important objective is to present a full account of the basic archaeology of the site. Annotation (c) Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Fredrik T. Hiebert is Assistant Professor in Archaeology and Assistant Curator of Near Eastern Archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Kakamurad Kurbansakhatov is Director of the Southern Turkmenistan Multidisciplinary Archaeological Expedition.