Mobility and Highland Medieval Urbanism of the Nomadic Qarakhanids (9th-11th c. CE, Uzbekistan)

Summary

This is an abstract from the "From Campsite to Capital – Mobility Patterns and Urbanism in Inner Asia" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Recent discoveries of a series of highland urban sites (located over 2000m elevation) in the Pamir foothills of Uzbekistan inspire a full reconsideration of the political and economic organization of the Qarakhanid Khaganate and their relationship to both lowland and highland cities. The Qarakhanids controlled Central Asia from the 9th-12th c. CE, yet their archaeological signature remains limited and biased toward agricultural settings. Here we present recent archaeological data from their highland urban settings, illustrating a previously undocumented model for "nomadic" highland urbanism and its impact on the trade and political structure of the medieval Silk Road.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• From Campsite to Capital – Mobility Patterns and Urbanism in Inner Asia   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23834