Floristic division of Soviet Middle Asia

New floristic zoning of Central Asia is demonstrated briefly consuming the original map. Essential features of floras’ composition and similarity, their endemism level, peculiarities of floristic complexes and florocenotypes and furthermore the analysis of taxa included to the flora determine the zoning. Some particularities of large regions of Central Asia are described briefly.

HISTORY OF BRICKWARES OF ZOROASTRIAN RELIGION

History of the brickwares related to Zoroastrian religion is examined in this article. Features, forms and decorations of the artefacts found at archaeological excavations in the different regions of Uzbekistan, are studied in him. The focus is on the history of the Ostodons, which reflects the customs and rituals of historical periods, such as mourning events. The history of the ceramics found in the monuments is analyzed, the processes of restoration and repair are studied, scientific research works are classified and studied.Index Terms:ceramics, artefact, archaeology, monument, Zoroastrian religion, ritual, maintenance, study, Middle Asia, region

Traces of the Dahaean and Sarmatian Cultural Legacy in Ancient Turan and Old Rus

This study examines the migrations of the Dahae and Sarmatians—the two related early nomadic peoples of Middle Asia and Eastern Europe—directed to the south and west of their homeland. Archaeological, written, and folkloric sources make it possible to trace the migrations of the Dahae and Sarmatians over several centuries preceding the spread of Islam in Central Asia and of Christianity in Old Rus. The study focuses on mortuary monuments, temples, and sanctuaries, cross-shaped in plan view, of migrants and their descendants. A detailed analysis of the major southward migration of Dahae from the Lower Syr-Darya in the late 3rd to early 2nd BC is presented. This migration had a considerable effect on ethnic and cultural processes in Middle Asia. The migration aimed at conquering the lands of Alexander the Great’s descendants, who were rapidly losing control over them. Features of Dahaean culture are noticed in town planning, architecture, mortuary rites, armor, etc. over the entire territory they had captured. Southward migration of the descendants of the Dahae—people of the Kaunchi and Otrar cultures—from the Syr-Darya, led by the Huns, was part of the Great Migration. The Kaunchi people headed toward the oases of Samarkand and Kesh, the Otrar people toward the oasis of Bukhara, and those associated with the Dzhetyasar culture toward the Qarshi oasis. It is demonstrated that while the cross-shaped plan view of religious structures turned into the eight-petaled rosette, the fu neral rite did not change, remains of burials and charcoal are observed everywhere. Relics of the ScythoSarmatian legacy are seen in the culture of Old Rus. For instance, remains of the sanctuaries of Perun are walls and ditches arranged in a cruciform or eight-petaled fashion, fi lled with charcoal and bones of sacrifi ced animals, with a statue of the supreme Slavic deity, in the center. Early sanctuaries of Perun in Kiev and Khodosovichi were cruciate in plan view, while later ones on the banks of the Zbruch and the Volkhov rivers had octopetalous plans. Apparently they were infl uenced by the architectural traditions of Dahae and Sarmatians, who took part in the ethnogenetic processes in both Old Rus and Turan.

Taxonomic notes on two endemic geometrine genera from Middle Asia (Lepidoptera: Geometridae, Geometrinae)

The genus Hissarica Viidalepp (Geometridae, Geometrinae) is restored from synonymy with Xenochlorodes Warren. The moths and their male and female genitalia are illustrated and characterized in comparison with those of Hierochthonia Prout and Xenochlorodes. Taxonomic positions of “Hierochthonia” alexandraria Prout and Eucrostes petitaria Christoph are discussed and the new genus Ratsa Viidalepp & Kostjuk gen. nov. is established for them, creating the new combinations Ratsa alexandraria Prout and Ratsa petitaria Christoph.

Vegetation Diversity of Screes and Taluses of The Pamir and South-Western Tian Shan in Middle Asia

This paper presents the results of phytosociological research on scree vegetation of the Pamir and south-western Tian Shan. We collected 222 phytosociological relevés during field studies conducted in 2015–2019, applying the Braun-Blanquet approach. We identified 21 plant communities on mobile and stabilized screes of colluvial cones, aprons and fans, inhabiting mainly the montane and alpine belts in several ranges (e.g. Peter the First, Alichur, Shugnan, Shachdarian, Darvaz, Rushan, Vanch, Fergana, Kyrgyz and Terskey ranges). As a result we provide the first comprehensive hierarchical syntaxonomic synopsis of scree communities at montane and alpine elevations in the eastern Middle Asia. The collected vegetation relevés represent the majority of the variation among the phytocoenoses of gravel, pebble, cobble and rock block slides and screes in the montane and alpine belts. As a result of field studies and Twinspan analyses, nine associations were identified on screes of the Pamir and western Tian Shan. All these communities were assigned to the Sileno brahuicae-Lactucetalia orientalis Nowak et al. 2021. Additionally, within the nitrophilous compact gravel screes one subassociation of Corydalidetum kashgaricae trigonelletosum gontscharovii was distinguished. In the most arid zone two additional plant associations and one subassociation were identified in gravelly semi-deserts zone. The main factors determining the species composition of the studied associations are scree mobility, rock particle size, elevation above sea level and slope inclination. Our research revealed considerable diversity of scree habitats of montane and alpine belts what might be astonishing regarding harsh environment of this mountainous territory. However, a great number of lineages that evolved here and particularly rich species pool of this habitat in Middle Asia facilitate remarkable diversity among vegetation of taluses and screes. The distinctiveness of species composition is additionally enhanced by high degree of endemism of chasmophytic habitats in the eastern part of Middle Asia. Despite recent developments, the prominent chasmophytic vegetation of Middle Asia still needs thorough studies focused on its relationship to semi-desert, tall-forb and petrophytic communities of high mountains of the Pamir, Hindu-Kush, Kunlun and Central Tian Shan.

Colonial discourse in the novel of Chinghiz Aitmatov “White ship” expressed through dichotomy

This article explores a novel of Chinghiz Aitmatov mostly famous under the title «White ship» regarding the semantic layers encoded in a dichotomy inherent in the mentality of Middle Asia ethnic groups. Texts created in Soviet times by representatives of Turkic culture on the border of a nomadic and sedentary lifestyle still need proper interpretation in terms of colonial discourse and a strategy for encoding meanings in the era of ideological censorship. The novel of Chinghiz Aitmatov has been analyzed in the article with use of literary psychoanalysis and intertextuality, the semantic layers of the work are considered in the aspect of ontological dichotomy. This paper traces how the author realizes his plan by contrasting mythological thinking and the colonial repressive system. The article reveals the function of the motive of fatherlessness and orphan hood, common in the works of Soviet authors and explores the role of the cruel state-superego-father, which destroy cultural identity and the spiritual origin of ethnos, replacing them with unification and facelessness. The mixture of subject and object, live and dead, past and future in the story form dichotomies of different levels and order, breaking the vacuum of the present: an orphaned boy without name, his grandfather as if from the mythological past, the white ship and a fairy tale without end.

A Review of Sculpins (COTTOIDEI) of Middle Asia with a Revalidation of the Species Cottus jaxartensis and Description of a New Species Cottus nudus sp. nova

Abstract— Based on the investigations of the representatives of the genus Cottus from Middle Asia, the species status of C. spinulosus is supported, and its diagnostic characters are specified. The validity of С.jaxartensis is resumed and a degree of its distinction from C. gobio is evaluated. A comparative analysis of morphological characters of the C. nasalis holotype and С.jaxartensis specimens of the same body size shows identity of these species, and, thus, C.nasalis has been included in the synonymy of C.jaxartensis. A new species C. nudus sp. nova is described. The representatives of this species differ from other Asian species of the genus in the following characters: absence of bony spickles nd dermal tubercles on the skin of the head and trunk; elongated upper jaw terminated near the vertical through posterior margin of orbit; presence of teeth on palatine bones; short sensory canal on the trunk with 23 pores; monochrome light coloration of the fins; and widened distal ends of neural and/or hemal spines in seven caudal centra. A key for the identification of three Middle Asian species (C. spinulosus, C. jaxartensis, and C.nudus sp. nova) is given.