American Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Sciences ISSN (E): 2832-8019 Volume 11, | April, 2023 P a g e | 20 www.americanjournal.org TWO FRAGMENTS OF A BOWL WITH THE IMAGE OF FEATHERS OF THE KHOREZMSHAKH PERIOD FROM THE SETTLEMENT OF MIZDAKHKAN Saipov Sadulla T. Karakalpak State University, Nukus, Republic of Uzbekistan sadullasaipov@mail.ru A B S T R A C T K E Y W O R D S The article deals with the issues related to the image of watering bowls with a zoomorphic motive, an autopsy of the last year's archaeological season from the "Southern Settlement" in the ancient settlement of Mizdahkan. Their morphological, ornamental features are analyzed and plot motives are interpreted. The area of distribution of such a product is given and compared with analogues in close and distant regions Khorezmshah period, Mizdakhkan, irrigation bowl, morphology, ornamentation, chronology, magpie, duck, interpretation. INTRODUCTION During the last year's archaeological season, one of the teams of students of the Faculty of History of KSU conducted excavations in the "Southern Settlement" settlement of Mizdakhkan, which is located on the territory of the Khodjeyli district in the Republic of Karakalpakstan. During the works, economic and industrial facilities connected with the time of Khorezmshah were discovered. The architectural remains found and the many artifacts from this period bear witness to this. Among them, two fragments of a watering bowl with the image of a bird, which are discussed in our article, are of great interest. During the cleaning of the first parade ground of the lower horizon, a hemispherical bowl on a disc-shaped tray, broken into several fragments, was raised, in which a magpie with a dark brown-black painting is depicted on the bottom surface. The bowl has an opaque colorless glaze inside and out of the tray. Dv-26 cm, height 8 cm, dd-8 cm, ts-0. 5-0. 6 cm (Fig. 1). In the inner part, under the rim, there are two rather wide stripes, which between them have drawn small circles with the same interval. Under it there are thin stripes and the last of them are connected with another image, reminiscent of the collection of stems of fertile plants, cherry or vine. Under the side of the bowl there is a wide strip, inside, behind it is a wavy line of a brown hue. White engobe inside and outside until the pallet. Covered with colorless glaze. Underglaze painting on engobe in black and terracotta. In the center, on the surface of the pallet, a magpie is depicted in the “before flight” position, above the opening wing, the sign is painted with the figure of a symbolic “heart”. Inside and outside of the corolla there are wide and narrow stripes. Inside, under the band are stylized images of the stems of a branch of the cherry or vine. mailto:sadullasaipov@mail.ru American Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Sciences Volume 11, April, 2023 P a g e | 21 www.americanjournal.org There is an open space from the middle of the body to the pallet. Although the vessel has traces of a sepoi on the surface of the bottom, it is apparently an imported product, since similar images are very rare in other parts of the South Aral Sea region. According to ethnographic data, the very motif of the image of the magpie carries a symbolic meaning, where it is stated that the magpie is a harbinger of "sweeps", the news of a loved one to their families. Other informants report it as a symbol of the precious stone amulet. Similar bowls are very rare in the South Aral medieval settlements, but according to the manufacturing technology they are very close to the Afrasiab products dating back to the 10th centuries [10, 98. Fig. 105]. Red-clay, glazed pottery under glaze painting with engobes was found in the layers of the 10th century at the site of Afrasiab, [25, 286], as well as in the territory of Maverannahr for the same time [3, 22], in the ceramics of Southern Turkmenistan [4, 115]. In Transcaucasia, glazed pottery with engobe is also known in the ninth and tenth centuries. Fig. 1. Hemispherical bowl from Mizdahkan X-XI centuries. As for the symbolic vine, researcher N.F. Lisova considers it to be an ancient floral pattern on which a conditionally artistic figurative pattern was built, rich in exceptionally multi-valued shades of symbolic interpretation. The magical ritual interpretation of the vine theme in the visual arts in the Middle East is as old as the crop of this plant. American Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Sciences Volume 11, April, 2023 P a g e | 22 www.americanjournal.org Although it is not common in the medieval South Aral Sea, the plot of the magpie itself is known in ethnography as symbolizing the news, in this case “transmits the message to his beloved”. Other sources mention that the image of a magpie is considered an intelligent, cunning and resourceful bird. In different nations, they are interpreted in different ways, such as in Chinese mythology, the magpie was a symbol of happiness and luck. For the Chinese, the magpie predicts happiness, and they call this bird the lucky magpie. For the Manchu minority in China, magpies are even sacred birds. Koreans consider magpies to be a symbol of good luck and bearers of good news. The famous Korean images of the tiger and magpie are an important part of Korean culture. In Mongolia, magpies help people determine the weather and consider magpies to be very intelligent. The Germans believe that the number of magpies you see is critical in determining the meaning behind them. One bird is unlucky, two birds are a symbol of marriage, and three birds are a symbol of a successful journey. In Scandinavia, forty are considered evil and a symbol of black magic, and in France, they are considered protectors of the people. In Britain, magpies play a significant part in cultural folklore. For the British, magpies are peddlers of bad luck and misfortune. They believe that removing one's hat when a magpie flies overhead will help protect oneself from misfortune [29]. The second watering bowl with the image of a duck in a “free flight” pose was found on the second parade ground from the upper horizon of the “Southern Settlement” of the Mizdakhkan settlement. A fragment of a kashin bowl is presented with white and blue painting, without relief modeling of the ornament, a scalloped rim slightly bent outward, a hemispherical body, on an annular bottom. Dv-20, height-8, dd-7, ts-0.5-0.8 cm (Fig. 2). The flying duck was located in the ornate central circle, oriented in one direction, with wings spaced between the floral ornamentation in the form of "fleshy leaves" of palmette. The composition of the ornament, consisting of naturalist or stylized motifs of palmette leaves, gives the impression that the bird flies in the "environment of the cloud". The narrow body smoothly passes into a thin, slightly curved neck with a small rounded head and an unusually sharp beak, like a stork. The tail is outlined with a thin scalloped line. On the left side, parallel to the wing and parallel to the long neck, there are two wavy lines resembling the image of "snakes". If this is true, then it can be assumed that in Central Asia such a compositional stylized motif of the image symbolizes spring, where the stork, the primordial enemy of snakes, was greatly revered. In the spring, when children saw storks for the first time, they warned domestic snakes about danger, shouting: “ Laylyak keldy, ilon, koch!” - "The stork has arrived, the snake, run!" [22, 104]. But the image of this bowl, despite this, strongly refers to the flying duck. However, by adding the tail and the opened wing, one can judge that at the bottom of this bowl, among the leaves of the palmette, a flying duck is depicted, not a stork. The most common zoomorphic motif in polychrome ceramics with relief modeling of the ornament is the image of a waterfowl - a duck. It is generally accepted in the literature that these ducks are a Sasanian motif [13, 74]. The image of ducks, as well as other birds and animals, which is located against the background of a relief floral ornament, is a widespread ornamental motif in the ceramics of the Near and Near East in the 12th– 14th centuries. The palmettes of this section were represented in the center of decorative circle. The image of a palmette is a stylized image of a palm tree, with its fan-shaped and feathery leaves, which served among the ancient Jews and Egyptians as a symbol of peace and victory [23, 132]. Inside of the American Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Sciences Volume 11, April, 2023 P a g e | 23 www.americanjournal.org scalloped corolla, there is a three-petal palmette, made in the "reserve" and enclosed in a round cartouche, giving an idea of \u200b\u200b growing from one thin stem and from the central ornamental circle. On the outside of the vessel, in the body, a three-petaled palmette was depicted by a repeating interval of a removed wavy cartouche, which the lower part remains unconnected and represents the plant, as it were, in the process of constant growth. Fig. 2. Fragment of a kashin bowl with white and blue painting from Mizdakhkan, late 12th - early 13th centuries. There are some differences in the poses of walking or standing ducks in the image - in the shape and position of the head and neck, the configuration of the body, and the degree of development of the wings and paws. N.M. Bulatov singled out four clear, strictly sustained pictorial canons - standing or walking ducks with the head turned to the left, a standing duck with the head turned towards the tail, a flying duck and a paired images of ducks in the three above-mentioned positions [5, 44]. In the body of the Syrian vase, a walking duck (goose) is depicted on the bottom of a floral decoration. An image of a duck (or goose) is portrayed in the center of a saucer, among large, sharp leaves, on Chinese porcelain of the Liao type from the Karakorum [11, pl. 14]. As you know, goose and duck are the most popular birds of Turkish art. In fairy tales and oral folklore, these images appear as one of the fundamental mythological symbols. The duck represents three American Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Sciences Volume 11, April, 2023 P a g e | 24 www.americanjournal.org elements at once: water, air and sky. Such is the “Pearl Duck”, imprinted in the gold temporal pendants of the Bulgars. According to Altai myths, "The earth, born of the good spirit Ulgen, is represented as a light goose or a duck. Carried out a lump of earth from the bottom of the sea, which is why the earth was formed” [24, 58]. The duck had different colorful symbols and meanings among different people, for example, among the Finnish people, the patron was a duck. The duck was also declared a saint by the inhabitants of the eastern slopes of the Urals. According to Greek myths, the ducks saved Odyssey's soon-to-be wife - Penelope, preventing her from drowning. The cult of birds has been preserved among the Mari to this day. The Mari says that the duck is the parent of the world. It was she who became the bride of the great god of thunder Ukko and laid an enormous egg - the earth. Among the Kirghiz, atayka - ogar or red duck - came from the daughter-in-law of the prophet, who ventured to swim in the forbidden lake. Since this bird originated from a man, according to Muslim customs, its meat is not eatable. The Kalmyks have a sacred red duck, it's "all birds' pop." Among the Kachins, the duck is a god of the air, the Orochs believe that the first person came from him. Duck in Ukrainian folklore poem is a feminine symbol, especially sad. In a Cossack song, the weeping woman of a Cossack who left for the countryside is likened to a duck floating on the lake. Until quite recently, the Buryat did not hunt waterfowl. According to ancient Slavic myths, a duck gave birth to the world [30]. In Khorezm, zoomorphic images on medieval glazed ceramics are represented by ducks, pheasants, hares, fish, etc. Feathers such as a dove, an eagle, a pheasant are the favorite zoomorphic images for Kerder ceramists and from animals are known deer, a gazelle (gazelle), and a horse. This version is completed by the two fragments of a watering bowl with the image of a bird described earlier. Although they are imported products, the ceramists of Prial South imitated their products to the imported samples during the production of ceramic products. Kashin ceramics from the South Aral Sea region are characterised by a white-grey porous paste. Kashin occurs here in the late twelfth - early thirteenth century. A huge amount of work was devoted to Kashin products, known throughout the Eurasian continent by Professor M.-Sh. Kdyrniyazov [14, 74; 15, 73- 75; 16, 162]. The researcher believes that the Kashin ceramics of the medieval Khorezm had its own local traditions and schools, which are associated solely with this area. Bowls of kashin with the image of a bird can be seen among the ceramic complex of Shehr-Islam, which dates from the 9th to the beginning of the 13th century. The researcher J. Iskanderova believes the leading role among the glazed ceramics of Khaivankala (Kerder) belongs to birds [12, 59-60] and associates them with astral symbols and dates them to the 9th-11th centuries. Besides these, they are located in the environment of the Afrasiab ceramic complex of the 9th-10th centuries. In the Aral Sea region, the design of ceramics with zoomorphic and feathered plots is found in the settlement of Zamakhshara [9, 293. Fig. 15], Kerder ceramic [20, 114-115, fig. 11-12], Sadwar (2, 242). Fig. 3, 8. Table, 1-65; rice. 6-7], in Angren X in [7, 71], Fergana in XI-XII centuries. [8, 98. Fig. 1], Semirechye [6, 4], in Merv [18, 86] and in other parts of Central Asia, where it dates from the IX-early XIII century. The area of distribution of the image of birds on ceramic products can be observed from the 9th to the 13th century throughout the territory of Central Asia. In general, the two bowls presented fall into the categories of highly artistic ceremonial objects, are interpreted from the point of view of mythology American Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Sciences Volume 11, April, 2023 P a g e | 25 www.americanjournal.org and are used to determine cultural layers. Until now, they can be considered as an imported product, because images on ceramic products are very rare for the South Aral region of this period. Naturally, the taxonomic series concerned do not exhaust all interpretive possibilities. Plot motifs can be interpreted even more deeply and demonstrate symbolic, schematic and transformational meanings. Thus, in the South Aral Sea region, the image of a bird was reflected on the surface of the bottoms of watering bowls with plant compositions, which has a deep symbolic semantic content and astrological significance. Although the religion of Muslims did not permit pictures of living beings in the visual arts. Despite this taboo, fine arts in the South Aral Sea region, which had long and strong traditions, continued to exist for a long time in the minds of the people, as a valuable relic of the spiritual culture of the ancestors of the region. On the other hand, the images on the ceramic products of the Southern Aral Sea can be taken as an attribute of the highly artistic creation of the master ceramists of the region. REFERENCES 1. Atagarryev E. Kashin ceramics of Shehr Islam // 1969. SA No. 2, pp. 274-278. 2. Armarchuk E A. Semantics of zoomorphic ornamentation of glazed ceramics of Khorezm // Archaeological research in Turkmenistan. Ashgabad, 1992. 3. Bolshakov O.G. 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