“MONUMENTS OF THE PAST GENERATION”

Beruni’s book allowed scientists of the Uzbek-Australian expedition to assume that their founded images are an ancient Khorezm calendar.

Uzbekistan Today closely has followed the work of the International Joint Uzbek-Australian archeological expedition for several years. It consists of scientists at the Karakalpak Research Institute of Human Sciences, University of Sydney, and experts from Europe and the United States. In 2015, it was noted that scientists saw pictures of humanoids up to seven meters in one of the castles found in Tashkyrman oasis. They supposed that it is the image of Zoroastrian gods at that time. Further study of the monument promoted the new hypotheses.

“Our experts still believe that the fresco with multicolored figures, as found earlier, but dressed in outfits, are deities of Zoroastrian pantheon”, Makset Karlybaev, director of the Research Institute of the Human Sciences told. “They were devoted to the days and months of the Zoroastrian calendar, in short, every day and all the months beard the names of specific deities. If the conjecture is correct, we are dealing with ancient Khorezm astronomical calendar”.

This calendar as Sogdian was based on the Zoroastrian, but differed in many ways from it. Ancient Khorezm was based on the tropical year, linked with the movement of the sun visible one year and totaled 365 days. A year consisted of 12 months of 30 days each. Five additional days were usually at the end of the year. And, as it was mentioned, all the days and months beard the names of different gods. Beruni’s book “Monuments of the past generations” wrote them in detail.

“This hypothesis explains the extremely increased size of the figures, which as the gods were to demonstrate their superiority over others”, Makset Karlybaev explains. “All deities in the ancient East were portrayed larger than ordinary people, so they looked terrible and omnipotent to their background. We also know that practice to name days and months of their most popular gods of the Vedic pantheon was also common among Khorezmians’ ancestors of the Aryan tribes.

It is remarkable that the ancient Khorezm solar calendar was in use even after the spread of Islam and, therefore, the introduction of the lunar calendar.

The researches are continuing. Scientists believe that further study of the frescoes from Ahshankala will be a lot of information about the development of civilization in the ancient Khorezm.

UZBEKISTAN TODAY