Early History of the Formation of the Ancient Delta of the Syr Darya and its settlement (according to archaeological data till the 1st millennium AD)

The article discusses the history of settled agricultural cultures in the Eastern Aral Sea Region, which should be studied considering the hydrographic factor due to their close connection to the functioning of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya delta channels. In the ancient delta of the Syr Darya, four systems of channels are distinguished: the Inkar Darya, Zhana Darya, Kuvan Darya and Prakuvan Darya systems. It has been proven that the southern Inkar Darya system and the northernmost Prakuvan Darya system already functioned in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. In the Early Iron Age, the Saka tribes inhabited the ancient Syr Darya delta. In the second half of the 1st millennium BC. the regime of flooding of the southern delta channels changed. Some sections of the watercourse in the middle reaches of the Inkar Darya died off, primarily in its southern channel, by the middle of the 1st millennium BC. At the same time, a more straightened latitudinal channel of the Zhana Darya was formed. In the southern part of the delta, on the latitudinal channels of the Zhana Darya and the oxbow lakes of the Inkar Darya, favorable conditions were created for the formation of a settled agricultural and pastoral culture, with economy based on transhumance and irrigation farming. Such was the Chirik Rabat archaeological culture, which, according to researchers, was formed on the basis of the Saka culture. At the same time, it was formed under the influence of the ancient agricultural cultures of Central Asia.