Unveiling Bronze Age Murghab: Small-scale community responses, agricultural practices and water management during environmental transitions in Turkmenistan

This study investigates the role of various communities in the alluvial fan of the Murghab River during the Middle and Late Bronze Age (2400–1500 BCE), focusing on how environmental and hydrological characteristics influenced settlement patterns and agricultural practices. While previous research has examined the ancient Murghab alluvial fan on a broad scale, this study aims to disentangle local-scale forms of agricultural and water management responses to climate variability. As the region became increasingly arid during the 2nd millennium BCE, communities exhibited varied responses across different micro-ecozones. Modern ethnographic comparisons suggest that environmental changes can have different impacts on groups within the same landscape based on their strategies and social characteristics (e.g., small versus larger groups). This dynamic also seems to be mirrored in the human-water relationship and site distribution in the Murghab region during the Bronze Age. With a holistic approach that includes remote sensing reconstruction of the hydrological system, archaeological surveys, geoarchaeological investigation, and OSL analysis of the ancient fluvial system, we explore the responses of local communities during the landscape and social transformations of the 2nd millennium BCE. By focusing on two small-scale areas (Togolok and Ojakly), we discover that urban areas such as Togolok exhibited clustering around selected water channels, which facilitated good water management while increasing crop production and population wealth. In contrast, rural areas adopted decentralized, small-scale cultivation and an increased pastoralism to cope with aridity and hydrological instability. Ultimately, this study provides novel insights into the importance of small-scale investigations of local economic and social organizations. These findings contribute to disentangling broader narratives of economic and social resilience in the Murghab region during the Bronze Age.