2000 BC Earthquake: Western Turkmenistan

2000 B.C. (38.0 N, 58.2 E ) ; h = (18) km; M = (7.1); IO = (9-10). Evidence of an earthquake was found by archeological

excavations in the village of Ak-Tepe, 18 km northeast of Ashkhabad. In 1931, an expedition of the Turkmen branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR uncovered the remains of a collapsed and burned building. According to the reports [Gr]: ... The structure, made from brick. represents a system of small ... rooms, covered ... by a flat roof. It appears that the people abandoned the building rapidly and unexpectedly: the remains of an untouched dinner -- a leg of kulan on an alabaster dish and a serving clay vessel -- were found near the entrance to one of the rooms. Not far from the exit of one of the rooms we found the skeleton of a man, trapped by the collapsed building. The rooms were full of household utensils. There were no signs of pillaging. In one of the rooms, several large clay vessels that had fallen were exhumed; they had once served for holding water. They were all leaning to the

west. There were traces of a fire--evidently, the roof had collapsed onto burning areas in several of the rooms." We have not yet located any references to this earthquake in literary sources. The evaluation of the earthquake's intensity at 9 is based on an analysis of the destruction of buildings of raw brick, which were typical for all of Turkmenia and similar to construction in the area of the Ashkhabad earthquake of 1948. Intensity 9-10 is assumed at the epicenter. Evaluation of the depth is given roughly, taking into account the focal depths of the major earthquakes of the Ashkhabad epicentral zone. (reference #223)