Advances and New Perspectives in Central Asian Archaeology

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Advances and New Perspectives in Central Asian Archaeology" at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This symposium brings together researchers who focus on the wider Central Asian space, including the five post-Soviet Central Asian states (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan), Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Xinjiang, and Mongolia, as well as the Volga-Ural region to discuss current approaches and questions in Central Asian archaeology. By addressing a wide range of topics that are relevant to Central Asia, we aim not only to connect scholars working across Central Asia but also highlight the work of new researchers and methodologies being employed in archaeological research in the region. We welcome papers that approach Central Asian archaeology from a variety of perspectives and methodologies that focus on archaeological research from across all periods of our human past.

Other Keywords
Bronze Age • Iron Age • Survey • Pastoralism • Social Organization • History Of Archaeology • Mortuary Analysis • Zooarchaeology • Paleoethnobotany • Ceramic Analysis

Geographic Keywords
Republic of Azerbaijan (Country) • Republic of Uzbekistan (Country) • State of Kuwait (Country) • Turkmenistan (Country) • Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (Country) • Republic of Tajikistan (Country) • Kyrgyz Republic (Country) • Republic of Kazakhstan (Country) • Asia (Continent) • Asia: Central Asia

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-11 of 11)

  • Documents (11)
Documents
  • Archaeology of Mining in Central Asia: Current Projects, Approaches, and Limitations (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Mariana Castro.

    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 archaeology of mining in ancient Central Asia has long interested Russian-speaking archaeologists and geologists. Already in 1917, for example, Veber recognized Central Asia as a fertile ground for archaeological inquiry concerning pre-modern mines. Yet, perhaps due to remoteness and political setting, the research produced...

  • Development of Pastoralism in Prehistoric Central Asia: A Case Study at Koken, East Kazakhstan (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Zhuldyz Tashmanbetova. Paula Doumani Dupuy. Aidyn Zhuniskhanov.

    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 tradition of practicing mobile pastoralism in Central Asia’s steppe, forest-steppe, and foothill regions stretches back to at least the Bronze Age period (ca. 3500–800 BC). This preliminary study explores environmental biases and related human choices in livestock management during the period of early emergence and...

  • A (Different) Pot for Every Grave: Multiscalar Burial Analysis of a Bronze Age Cemetery in Eastern Kazakhstan (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Paula Dupuy. Elissa Bullion. Galymzhan Kiyasbek. Erbolat Rakhmankulov. Aidyn Zhuniskhanov.

    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 prehistoric site of Koken, located in the semiarid foothills of eastern Kazakhstan, records a deep history of human occupation spanning the Mesolithic to historical periods. Our research at Koken since 2019 has focused on an integrated habitation, rock art, and cemetery complex dating to the Bronze Age. We will present...

  • A Diverse Form of Organization in the Pazyryk Culture (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Karen Rubinson. Katheryn Linduff.

    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 Pazyryk Culture, situated in the Altai Mountains of Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and China, flourished for a relatively short period, fifth–third centuries BCE. A series of burial grounds from the later phase, fourth–mid-third centuries BCE, reveal the remains of three groups of individuals of high, mid, and lower status....

  • Early Islamic Glazed Ceramics from Bukhara and Tashkent: An Archaeometric Analysis (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Catherine Klesner.

    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 results of the archaeometric analysis of 150 early Islamic style glazed ceramics from Central Asia. The glazed ceramics, introduced to the region in the ninth century CE, served as important cultural markers and demonstrated the intentional affiliation that the residents in Mā Warāʾ an-Nahr developed with...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • Pit-House Complexes: A New Form of Rural Domestic Architecture in Hellenistic and Post-Hellenistic Central Asia (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Zachary Silvia.

    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. To date studies of ancient Central Asian rural architecture are marked by an imbalance with much attention focused on the estates of elite landowners and less effective nods to non-elite pithouse structures. Recent excavations at Bashtepa in the Bukhara Oasis of Uzbekistan (2021) have revealed an intermediary form of domestic...