Topoi 21 (2017) p. 11-49 THE ZOROASTRIAN FUNERARY BUILDING OF ANGKA MALAYA
Introduction
This paper presents the results of the 2016 field campaign of the Angka-kala Archaeological Expedition (AGKE) 1 at Angka Malaya (“ Small Angka”), 2
a particular site of which the original function is here assumed to have been of funerary nature. The ruins of Angka Malaya (27 km north of the modern city of Turktul – N 41° 45’ 34”; E 61° 09’ 17”) stand close by the larger stronghold of Angka-kala 3 in today’s Republic of Karakalpakstan (northern Uzbekistan), a territory once part of the antique Iranian polity of Ancient Chorasmia (Fig. 1 and
2). The authors of this paper discovered the site during a 2014 survey undertaken
1. The Angka-kala Archaeological Expedition (AGKE) is an Uzbek-French joint project that has received financial support from the French State in the frame of the “ Investments for the Future” Programme IdEx Bordeaux, reference ANR-10-IDEX-03-02 and by the Research Institute of the Humanities, Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan, Karakalpak branch, Nukus. The directors of the AGKE, authors of this paper, wish to thank G. Khozhaniyazov for his collaboration and advice to the project. 2. Angka Malaya seemed to have been ignored by the Soviet archaeological and ethnographical “ Khorezm Expedition” (KhAEE). The site was thus named in 2016 for its proximity to Angka-kala : “ the castle of the angka” being the angka/‘ anḳā’ a mythological giant bird of the Arab folklore similar to a phoenix, associated with the Iranian sīmurgh and very likely a species of heron (for further details, see Pellat
2012 ; de Blois 2012). See also Tolstov 1948b, p. 21, on the local legend that gave its name to Angka-kala. 3. Tolstov 1948a, p. 113-114, fig. 49-50 ; 1948b, p. 31-32, fig. 5 ; Nerazik 1976, p. 14-15 ; Khozhaniyazov 1986 ; 2005, p. 66, 234 with fig. 68.
