Gonur Depe

Gonur Depe is the site of a large early Bronze Age settlement about 60 km north of Mary, ancient Merv, in Turkmenistan, dated from 2400 to 1600 BCE and regarded as the major settlement of the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex. Viktor Sarianidi, who discovered it, excavated it from 1974 to 2013 and uncovered a palace, a fortified mud-brick enclosure and temples with fire altars, which he associated with Zoroastrianism. Its Royal Necropolis held gold, silver and bronze goods and a foal buried on a four-wheeled wagon, radiocarbon-dated to 2250 BCE, and its Large Necropolis more than three thousand graves. The site was most likely abandoned after the Murghab River shifted to the west.