Architectural details from the Sultanuizdag. The issue of attribution, dating and stylistic features of the capitals

The paper reports on architectural details found by chance during constructionworks in the Sultanuizdag Mountains in 1966. Marble capitals and column drumsattracted attention of Khorezm ancient architecture researchers because these are uniqueobjects that have no analogues in the artistic culture of the region in question. Image andstylistic solutions found for the capitals, which display fabulous mixomorphic images oframs with human faces, are of tremendous interest and are still generating debates in thescientific community. In our view, the capitals and the column fragments are attributed to the Khorezm architecture of the Achaemenid period. This attribution was made throughanalysis of stylistic features and design aspects of the capitals and their comparison withthe details of the Kushan Empire period. Special focus was given to the technology ofmarble treatment, the system of proportioning and the methods used to fit together thedrums and keep the columns in place, which have parallels in the Achaemenid architectureand sculpture. The paper examines distinctive features of the mixomorphic image of a halfhuman-half ram in the context of Avestan concepts and singles out specific features thathelp attribute the finds from the Sultanuizdag to provincial Achaemenid sites of the late5th-early 4th centuries BC.