Social semantics of the epigraphy of tombstones in Golden Horde Khorezm

(according to archaeological finds of the 20th century)

Abstract

In the article, for the first time in the studies of funerary epigraphy in Arabic script, a synthesis of methods from different areas of science was used. This approach made it possible to combine the results of the analysis of the texts of tombstones (or their fragments) with the features of their firing and other circumstances of their manufacture: for example, with the specifics of the paleography of inscriptions (including pseudo-epitaphs). These data are compared with the types of tombstones as carriers or "accumulators" of information about the deceased, customers, and as objects of the cult of saints. The article for the first time proposes a new classification of the tombstones of Khorezm from the heyday of the Golden Horde (early 13^th – mid 14^th century), based on social stratification, changes in the religious ideology of society, as well as in the context of the technological features of these artifacts, which are rightfully ranked among the most numerous archaeological finds. An integrated approach also allowed us to consider burial structures as indicators of new forms of the cult of saints and ancestors in the conditions of active Islamization of the Golden Horde, bearing in mind that the tombstones and their texts were created in a social environment, in certain historical conditions. We proceeded from the fact that tombstones are a product (tradition) of society that creates them in different variations and types, made them part of its cult practices, following certain traditions (including religious ones), put its own meanings into these practices. The research results and conclusions are placed in the context of the anthropology of archaeological finds in the broadest sense of the term and appeal to the social and religious contexts of the culture of tombstone decoration, including inscriptions.