Asia: Central Asia (Geographic Keyword)

26-50 (86 Records)

Ethnoarchaeology, Human-Animal Relationships, and Participatory Research in Mongolia (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Kristen Pearson.

This is an abstract from the "New Directions in Mongolian Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In Mongolia, ethnoarchaeological methods have been applied to questions of mobility, spatial organization, site formation, and animal husbandry practices, among others. An area that remains to be explored is the application of ethnoarchaeological methods to the study of craft production, particularly as out relates to distinctive local resources,...


Evidence for Close Management of Sheep in Ancient Central Asia: Foddering Techniques and Transhumance in the Final Bronze Age (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Alicia Ventresca Miller.

Ancient animal management strategies have important implications for debates on modern pastoral landscape use in Eurasia. As livestock production intensifies in in semi-arid regions there is a need to identify the diverse set of strategies employed by pastoralists. Sequential carbon (δ13C) and oxygen (δ18O) isotope analysis of teeth from domesticated sheep at Bronze Age sites in Kazakhstan exhibit varied isotopic sequences. Sheep from Kent exhibit an inverse relationship where low δ18O values...


Examining Bronze Age Kinship and Community Patterning in the Southern Urals, Russian Federation, through aDNA Study (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Tekla Schmaus. Bryan Hanks. David Reich. Margaret Judd. Andrei Epimakhov.

This is an abstract from the "From the Altai to the Arctic: New Results and New Directions in the Archaeology of North and Inner Asia" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ancient DNA studies have increased exponentially in recent years and have had tremendous impact on our understanding of early genomic patterning in many regions of the world. The vast Eurasian steppe zone has not been overlooked in these important breakthroughs. Several recent studies...


Excavations at Mingtepa, a Sogdian Town near Samarkand (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Alisher Begmatov. Tomoyuki Usami. Husniddin Rahmonov.

This is an abstract from the "Advances and New Perspectives in Central Asian Archaeology" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper presents the initial results of the excavations at Mingtepa, located ca. 20 km northeast of Samarkand, Uzbekistan. This site is presumed to be Kabudhan, a late antique and early medieval Sogdian town, attested in Chinese and Arabic sources. Mingtepa (Uzbek for “thousand hills”) covers an area of about 35 ha. On the...


Five Seasons with the Dukha: House Structure among Nomadic Herders (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Matthew O'Brien. Todd A. Surovell. Randy Haas.

This is an abstract from the "More Than Shelter from the Storm: Hunter-Gatherer Houses and the Built Environment" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Houses are common structures, and the importance and distinction of domestic space has been researched a great detail through ethnography. Yet, how these common structures shape the spatial behavior of residents is often not clearly articulated. This is a particular concern for ephemeral structures that...


From Bit Wear to Ancient DNA: Steppe-ing Out (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only David Anthony. Dorcas Brown.

This is an abstract from the "Wheels, Horses, Babies and Bathwaters: Celebrating the Impact of David W. Anthony on the Study of Prehistory" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. We found our first entry into steppe archaeology in 1989-1992 through a study of microwear caused by bits on horse teeth, which we hoped would identify bitted, and therefore ridden or driven, horses. From then through to the publication of the Samara Valley Project (2016) we...


Functional Riddles, Chipped Stone Technologies, and Fiber Processing in the Late Sixth and Fifth Millennium BCE in Turkmenistan and Northwestern Europe (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Melody Pope.

This is an abstract from the "Cordage, Yarn, and Associated Paraphernalia" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Use-wear and residue analysis draws attention to complexities of technological processes that otherwise remain out of reach archaeologically. Enigmatic wear traces described by microwear analysts as “polish 23,” “polish 10,” and “polis non familiar” occur on distinctive chipped stone tools from Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic sites in...


The Genomic Formation of Central and South Asia (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Vagheesh Narasimhan.

This is an abstract from the "Ancient DNA in Service of Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper serves as an example of how ancient DNA (aDNA) data can provide new insight into large-scale population transformations of archaeological cultures. The details of population transformation through time in Central and South Asia have been unclear due to the lack of aDNA. To address this gap, we generated genome-wide data from 500 ancient...


Geoarchaeological Survey of the Irtysh River Basin, East Kazakhstan (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Zachary Cofran. Reed Coil. Gabriel McGuire.

Evidence for the earliest human occupation of Eastern Kazakhstan is poorly known, despite it being part one of the largest countries in the world and flanked along its borders with important paleoanthropological sites in Russia and China. We sought evidence of prehistoric sites by foot and vehicle survey around the Irtysh Basin. At each major point of interest we took photographs geotagged with geographic coordinates, and collected global positioning system (GPS) data. Although much of the area...


Geographical Margins as Key to Understanding Crop Dispersal Mechanisms in Prehistory: Case Study for Kyrgyzstan (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Giedre Motuzaite Matuzeviciute.

More than 8000 years ago, a variety of crop species began to spread across Eurasia, reaching its edges approximately 4000 years later. The chain of mountains that stretches across Central Asia constituted a geographical obstacle that slowed down the dispersal process. Special high altitude adaptive strategies were required not only by humans, but also by plants due to changes in the length of the growing season, climatic conditions, UV intensity, among other factors. Therefore, the mountain...


The Hand-Formed Slip-Painted Pottery of the Central Asian Highlands: History, and a Case-Study at Tashbulak (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Ann Merkle.

This is an abstract from the "Advances and New Perspectives in Central Asian Archaeology" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The hand-formed, slip-painted pottery (HSP) of the Central Asian highlands is found in mountainous and early Turkic sites throughout the region. It is understudied, and the pottery appears in only a limited number of archaeological syntheses and reports. HSP spread to the Central Asian lowlands in tandem with the spread of the...


Herbivore Dung Biomarkers: A Reference Collection for the Archaeology of Pastoral Domestic Spaces in Western and Central Mongolia (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Natalia Égüez. Jean-Luc Houle. Oula Seitsonen. Jamsranjav Bayarshaikhan.

This is an abstract from the "New Directions in Mongolian Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Lipid biomarkers such as alkanes, fatty acids, and steroids together with their stable carbon and hydrogen isotope ratios are nowadays leading proxies for the identification of past climate variability, human activities, and animal presence in a site. These can be extracted from modern feces, desiccated dung, and soil sediments. When applied to...


High-Altitude Hunting and the Emergence of Mobile Pastoralism in Eastern Eurasia (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only William Taylor. Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan. Isaac Hart.

This is an abstract from the "New Directions in Mongolian Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The emergence of herding economies prompted drastic changes to life in eastern Eurasia—situating the cold, arid steppes of Mongolia as a center of the ancient world. Although a growing body of evidence points to an important role for mountain zones in this transition, issues of archaeological preservation have prevented a clear understanding of...


Home-making in the Khorezm Oasis (Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan) (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Elizabeth Brite.

This is an abstract from the "Empirical Approaches to Mobile Pastoralist Households" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A key feature of mobile pastoralism is the circulation of kin groups within a landscape, where movement is structured at least in part by the repeated return to places of social and ritual significance. Cultural anthropologists describe these as practices of "belonging made by moving," where notions of lineal descent, home, and...


Horses in Iron Age Steppe Burials: Their Enduring Socio-political Role (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Katheryn Linduff. Karen Rubinson.

This is an abstract from the "Wheels, Horses, Babies and Bathwaters: Celebrating the Impact of David W. Anthony on the Study of Prehistory" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Horses have been a large part of the David Anthony’s research interests. Horses also played a significant role in the Pazyryk Culture (4th-3rd centuries BCE), a group of peoples buried in the Altai Mountains, in the region where modern Russia, Mongolia, China and Kazakhstan meet....


Horses in Iron Age Steppe Burials: Their Enduring Socio-Political Role (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Karen Rubinson. Katheryn Linduff.

This is an abstract from the "Wheels, Horses, Babies and Bathwaters: Celebrating the Impact of David W. Anthony on the Study of Prehistory" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Horses have been a large part of David Anthony's research interests. Horses also played a significant role in the Pazyryk Culture (4th-3rd centuries BCE), a group of peoples buried in the Altai Mountains in the region where modern Russia, Mongolia, China and Kazakhstan meet....


The House Next Door (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Susan Pollock.

This is an abstract from the "From Households to Empires: Papers Presented in Honor of Bradley J. Parker" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The attention devoted to households and houses in archaeology over the last few decades has brought with it a welcome emphasis on small-scale domestic practices and the rhythms of daily life. But houses are not only constructed and lived in – they are also abandoned and reused in various ways. I will focus on...


Imperial Impact: Population Dynamics and Political Landscapes of Inner Asia under the First Steppe Empire (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Bryan Miller. Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan.

This is an abstract from the "From the Altai to the Arctic: New Results and New Directions in the Archaeology of North and Inner Asia" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper integrates survey, mortuary, and genetic research into a multidisciplinary and multiscalar consideration of the impact that large political regimes like empires have on the social landscapes of individual communities and whole regions. In the case of the first steppe empire...


The Influence of Pastoral Cultivation Strategies and Novel Cuisines on Newly Introduced Crops in Central Asia during the Bronze and Iron Ages (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Melissa Ritchey.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. When crops are spread into new landscapes, communities, and their associated subsistence practices and culinary preferences, the crops undergo substantial selective pressure. This pressure can come in the form of new environmental constraints, such as a different growing season, or cultural pressure from differences in preferred taste, productivity, or...


Investigating Stone Tool Recycling Behaviors in Surface Deposits in the Semizbugu Mountains, Kazakhstan (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Emily Coco. Talgat Mamirov.

This is an abstract from the "Advances and New Perspectives in Central Asian Archaeology" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The surface site complex of Semizbugu is a well-known Paleolithic site in Pribalkhash, Kazakhstan. Tens of thousands of artifacts from all Paleolithic periods have been collected from 11 different locations across this landscape between 1961 and 2013. During our 2022 field season, we conducted a new study at Semizbugu. We...


Investigating the Dietary Economy of Ancient Margiana: Ongoing Archaeobotanical Research at Togolok 1 (2300–1700 BC) (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Traci Billings.

This is an abstract from the "Advances and New Perspectives in Central Asian Archaeology" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeobotanical research in Central Asia has expanded greatly in the last two decades, changing much about our understanding of past subsistence strategies and lifeways throughout the broader region. Archaeobotany is a crucial tool for gaining insight into the way that human/plant relationships shape and structure society. The...


The Iron Age Culture of Sistan, Afghanistan (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Mitch Allen. William B. Trousdale.

Our knowledge of the cultural history of western Central Asia is spotty and incomplete between the collapse of complex societies of the Bronze Age and the middle of the first millennium BCE. This is particularly true of the little-studied Sistan region of southwest Afghanistan and eastern Iran. The Helmand Sistan Project, conducted by the Smithsonian Institution and Afghan Directorate of Archaeology and Historic Preservation through the 1970s but hitherto unpublished, uncovered through survey...


Knotting Accuracy & Dimension Variation in Modern Turkmen Carpets (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Victoria Sluka.

A pilot study of pile carpet variation and error is carried out on ethnographic Turkmen carpets. No such work has been previously published, and so this analysis provides basic data and conclusions on carpet variation, including type and intensity of variation, to be used as a starting point for further study of archaeologic carpet samples. Data is taken from six comparable carpets, informing on two aspects of carpet variation. The dimensions and knot densities of the carpets’ motifs are used...


Landscape Archaeology in the Juuku Valley on the South Side of Lake Issyk-Kul (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Claudia Chang. Sergey Ivanov. Perry Tourtellotte.

This is an abstract from the "Advances and New Perspectives in Central Asian Archaeology" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Since 2019 our team has conducted surveys of Bronze Age through Medieval sites in the Jukuu Valley, an intermontane region on the south side of Lake Issyk-Kul. Surveys have uncovered palimpsests of four millennia of land use. Radiometric dating, cultural historical sequences of site types, and mortuary remains have recalibrated...


Landscapes of the Silk Road: Written, Imagined, and Embodied Spacetimes (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Kathryn Franklin.

This paper approaches Silk Road-scapes as imagined topographies, a particular inheritance of the medieval culture of travel, and of its representations of the world(s). How we imagine the ‘Silk Road’ landscape is therefore rooted in assumptions about categories and conditions of agency (social and historical), and about space. These include mobility, transcendence, and visibility—both in the landscape and in the record. Travel and cosmopolitan encounters along roads (Silk or otherwise) are...