Excavating a Silk Road City: the Medieval Citadel of Taraz, Kazakhstan (original) (raw)
Related papers
2015
This report presents a summary of the 2011 and 2012 excavations of the joint UK–Kazakhstani excavations in the medieval citadel of Taraz. The city of Taraz, located near the southern border with Uzbekistan, is one of the most significant historic settlements in Kazakhstan, and the investigations in the central market place have started to reveal the composition of the medieval city. Despite frequent mentions inArabic and Chinesewritten sources, the form and evolution of this important Silk Road city remains poorly understood. These excavations, which identified a series of buildings including a bathhouse and a fire shrine, are the first for almost 50 years and include the first C14 radiocarbon date from the city. In addition, this is one of the first detailed accounts in English of an urban excavation in Kazakhstan.
Investigations of Historical Citiesof Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan as Objects of the Silk Way
International Journal for Computational Civil and Structural Engineering, 2020
Since ancient times, the cities of Uzbekistan and Kazakstan have gained worldwide fame, like pearls scattered along the Great Silk Road, they sparkle under the bright sun. Cities of modern Uzbekistan have existed for thousands of years - Tashkent (2200 years), Termez, Bukhara, Khiva (2500 years), Shakhrisabz and Karshi (2700 years), Samarkand (2750 years), Margilan (2000 years), Almaty (1000 years), Turkestan (2000 years), Chimkent (2200 years) and Taraz (2000 years). In Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, numerous collections, repositories, archives and libraries preserve the richest collections of manuscripts collected over many centuries. And all thanks to its favorable location in a picturesque oasis, almost in the center of the network of roads of the Great Silk Road.
Urbanism East of the Aral Sea: The Medieval City of Kuik-Mardan, Kazakhstan
Since 2011, the Centre for Applied Archaeology (UCL) have been undertaking the Silk Road Cities of Kazakhstan Project in the south of the country. For the past two years, attention has been focused on the city of Kuik-Mardan, one of the largest of the seventy or so known cities in the Otrar oasis on the Syr-Darya river. This paper outlines the preliminary results of the multi-discipline fieldwork.
Archaeological Research in Asia, 2022
This paper presents the most recent comprehensive archaeological investigation at ancient Termez, a large site located in southern Uzbekistan along the Amu Darya river. The Joint Uzbek-Spanish team has worked there since 2006. After a first phase of investigation up to 2012, the campaigns restarted in 2018. The paper concentrates on the pottery manufacturing centres related to the Islamic period, located outside the rabad (suburbs) to the northwest and in the shahristan (lower town). Besides accurately investigating the structures and the stratigraphy of each context, ceramic vessels have been collected during surveys and excavations and a selection of them is presented in this paper to give a broad overview of the wares produced and circulating at Termez. First of all, the finding of several pottery workshops unquestionably proves that the city was a very active manufacturing centre for a long period of time. Moreover, the study demonstrates that a large variety of glazed and unglazed items were locally produced, such as fine tableware, storage and kitchen vessels, but also sphero-conical vessels. Their forms and decorations largely conform to the Central Asian Islamic ceramic horizon. The ceramics collected have been dated between the 8th/9th and the 16th/17th century CE.
Within this chapter we will lay out a discussion of why landscape-scale archaeological research is so crucial to scholarship moving forward, particularly focussing on high and late medieval (12th–15th centuries AD) Silk Road heritage within the Republic of Armenia. We will provide a brief overview of how the methods and research priorities of the first seasons of the Vayots Dzor Silk Road Survey (VDSRS) emerged from historical data pertaining to that landscape, as well as perceived obligations to heritage management concerns at the local and institute level. Ultimately, this chapter will attempt a preliminary synthesis of the VDSRS data, with the aim in mind of (re)characterising the Vayots Dzor section of the Silk Road Corridor as an object of study both in terms of its particular history and also with an awareness of the contemporary relevance of archaeological research in this region. Keywords: Medieval landscape; Armenia; Silk Road Heritage; Infrastructure
Urbanism under Turco-Mongol Rule: Excavations at Otrar, Kazakhstan
TSU-Ti The International Scientific Journal of Humanities, 2022
This paper describes archaeological investigation of occupation dating to approximately the 12th-15th centuries AD at the site of Otrar in southern Kazakhstan. It primarily summarises excavation and survey carried out in the summer and autumn of 2021, which aimed to investigate the city’s economic, urban and environmental state in the decades preceding the Mongol Conquest of 1219/20 and the changes which occurred over the following two centuries. Focussing on test trenches dug in the shahristan and industrial areas as well as investigation of the defensive walls around the raised shahristan and lower rabad area, evidence for urban change and continuity was characterised and dated where possible. Initial data suggests that a defensive wall was constructed around the rabad in approximately the 11th or early 12th century. Renovation and conservation work provided the opportunity to study the shahristan wall which likely dates to the 14th century. This wall was repeatedly replastered, but probably represents the last major refortification of the city. Excavations in the shahristan revealed a period of non-architectural occupation or partial abandonment before a reoccupation in the 14th century, which may approximately coincide with renovation of the walls of the shahristan. The preliminary work described here hints at interesting changes in investment and occupation at the city between the 11th and 15th centuries by targeting data from across the site and taking advantage of extensive previous excavation. It forms part of our effort to quantify and describe changes in urban occupation at Otrar, forming a basis to investigate their causes.
Archaeological Sites, Cultural Heritage, and Sustainable Development in the Republic of Kazakhstan
Intech, 2019
This paper addresses the problem of protecting and preserving archaeological sites from the Bronze Age through the Medieval Period (ca. 2500 BC-1500 CE) as part of sustainable development that includes such economic and social benefits as (1) promoting national status; (2) integrating archaeological sites into the Silk Route narrative; (3) developing tourism related to historic and cultural heritage; and (4) creating a citizenry that values its cultural and historic resources in the face of rapid economic development and changing natural and cultural landscapes. Two UNESCO World Heritage sites will be discussed briefly: Otrar and the surrounding oasis, a medieval complex of sites along the Great Silk Route, and Tamgaly, a petroglyph and archaeological reserve. These two UNESCO World Heritage archaeological sites or preserves will be contrasted with the Talgar Iron Age sites (400 BC-100 CE) situated in a rapidly changing landscape due to economic development and infrastructure (pipelines, railways, roads, and housing) about 12-15 km east of the major city of Almaty. The goal of this article is to discuss the complexity of the entangled sectors of cultural and historic preservation, economic development, tourism, and global transnational heritage within the framework of sustainability.
The medieval cities of Otrar oasis, Kazakhstan. Kuik-Mardan Excavation 2018
UCL Repository, 2022
For full archive see UCL repository https://rdr.ucl.ac.uk/articles/dataset/The\_medieval\_cities\_of\_Otrar\_oasis\_Kazakhstan\_Kuik-Mardan\_Excavation\_and\_field\_season\_2018\_short\_preliminary\_report\_/20055275 The report is a short summary of the 2018 field season as written by the team of field supervisors - Sarah Ritchie, Katie Campbell, Kayrat Zhambulatov, Victoria Sluka and Gai (Gaygysyz) Jorayev. The data collected during the season then formed part of research work of the partner institutions and for individual researchers. The field season was organised as a close collaboration between the UCL Centre for Applied Archaeology (part of UCL Institute of Archaeology), Margulan Institute of Archaeology of Kazakhstan (Ә.Х. Марғұлан атындағы Археология институты) and Otrar State Archaeological Museum («Отырар» мемлекеттік археологиялық музей-қорығы). The team undertook a short excavation at Kuik-Mardan and trained students in field documentation and finds processing techniques. The archaeological site of Kuik-Mardan (also known as Мардан күйік, Күйік-Мардан, Куюк-Мардан) within the Otrar oasis, one of the most complex archaeological landscapes of Central Asia. It is located in Southern Kazakhstan (coordinates: decimal degrees: 42.902453° 68.248664°), near to the Syr Darya river. The monument is protected by the Otrar State Archaeological Museum which is located in the nearby town of Shaulder, and the museum also acts as a research centre for study of the oasis, with many finds from excavations on display.