Category Archives: ASIA

ASIA, KAZAKHSTAN, WORLD

A Mysterious Human Face Carved on Stone Dated to Bronze Age Discovered in Kazakhstan

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A Mysterious Human Face Carved on Stone Dated to Bronze Age Discovered in Kazakhstan

A Mysterious Human Face Carved on Stone Dated to Bronze Age Discovered in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan’s rich archaeological landscape continues to reveal fascinating details about ancient civilizations. Recent research in the Akmola, and Pavlodar revealed a stone carving depicting a human face and burial sites dating back to the Bronze Age.

Kazakh archaeology not only enriches the scientific world with its remarkable discoveries but also reveals the main stages of the ancient and medieval development of Kazakhstan society.

A mysterious archaeological find has been uncovered in the Akmola Region of Kazakhstan.

Employees of the Regional Emergency Situations Department came across a historical find in the form of a human face carved into stone and invited archaeologists to examine the artifact.

The monument, which originated from an ancient sculptor, was brought to the attention of scientists from Astana and their colleagues abroad. According to the experts, it is currently difficult to determine which era the item belongs to.

Scientists are divided on the origins of the artifact. Some assert that the stone has been in its current location since the Bronze Age, while others attribute its presence to the subsequent Turkic period.

Sergey Yarygin, a leading scientist at the Alkey Margulan Institute, noted that similar carvings have been found in Bronze Age settlements in Central Asia and Eastern Europe, Astana Times reported.

He also pointed out the presence of analogous images in the early Iron Age in southern Siberia and in medieval Turkic cultures that spread across the Eurasian steppes. Despite these parallels, Yarygin emphasized that the exact period of the artifact remains uncertain, as it could belong to various historical epochs, including more recent times.

The distinctive discovery was made by Nursultan Ashkenov and Akhmet Zaripov, employees of the Sandyktau district fire service. The Emergency Situations Department has taken the stone under its protection.

“It is a source of great satisfaction to make such an important discovery while engaged in our primary responsibilities. Furthermore, I believe that this achievement will have a positive impact not only on our district but also on the entire country,” stated Aset Zhangozhin, head of the Emergency Situations Department of Sandyktau district.

This finding is expected to draw more scholarly attention and may prompt further archaeological investigations in the area.

Important discoveries from the Bronze Age in the Pavlodar Region

In the Koktas complex in the Pavlodar Region, a large number of rare and valuable artifacts were unearthed during the archaeological excavation carried out by researchers from the Pavlodar Pedagogical University. The Koktas site also contains over 20 burial mounds, some of which date back to the Saka period.

Among them is the most notable, a bronze spearhead from the mid-13th to the 8th century BCE that is said to have come from the Sargarin-Alexeyev culture.  Asylbek Yelaman, a second-year student, found this spearhead, which is unique for the area. Aside from the spearhead, pieces of pottery kitchenware were also discovered.

ASIA, CHINA, WORLD

The Truth Behind The 4000-Year-Old Skeletons Of “A Mother Who Was Trying To Shield Her Child”

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The Truth Behind The 4000-Year-Old Skeletons Of “A Mother Who Was Trying To Shield Her Child”

The Truth Behind The 4000-Year-Old Skeletons Of "A Mother Who Was Trying To Shield Her Child"

Images of skeletons from the Lajia site in the Qinghai province of China are captivating. Painstaking excavation and pedestaling of the bones reveals adults and children in a 4,000-year-old embrace.

But while these images have gotten media attention today, the archaeological site has been excavated since 1999 by archaeologists primarily from the Institute of Archaeology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Qinghai Provincial Institute of Antiquity and Archaeology.

By Kristina Killgrove

The site of Lajia is associated with the Qijia culture, dating to the late Neolithic to early Bronze Age, and is located in the Guanting Basin of the upper Yellow River.

This site has produced everything from cave-dwelling type houses to pottery kilns to the remains of preserved millet noodles. The spectacular preservation appears to be the result of a catastrophic event: somewhere around 1900 BC, an earthquake shook the area and caused mudslides. Writing in a 2013 article in The Holocene, Chun Chang Huang and colleagues explained that “the enormous mudflows suddenly buried and destroyed the dwellings and killed the women and children at their homes.” But these mudflows, even though triggered by an earthquake, were “created partly by the early settlers themselves” through “soil erosion, mass wasting and accumulation of debris on the hillsides, intensified largely by human disturbance of the landscape by bush clearance from 6000-3950 years before present.”

Of course, my interest was piqued by the image of the skeletons of an adult and a child found embracing, particularly because the caption referred to a mother and son (as DNA is the only way to tell the sex of young children).

The main publication of the skeletons (in English, that is), is a 2007 article in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology by Shi-Zhu Gao and colleagues at Jilin University in China that deals with DNA analysis of the 16 skeletons from two houses inundated by the mudslides.

Gao and colleagues were interested in knowing if the 16 individuals were related and looked at mitochondrial DNA, which is passed down through the maternal line. “Twelve [DNA] sequences from individuals found in one house were assigned to only five haplotypes,” they write, “consistent with a possible close kinship.” The two skeletons — an adult woman in her mid-30s and a 3- to 4-year-old child — whose image has riveted the media today are assumed to be mother and child, but many media outlets are speaking of “mother and son.”

The only way to tell the sex of a subadult is through DNA analysis, but the 2007 publication has no information on sex of the child.

Even more interesting, though, were the DNA results of these two individuals. Gao and colleagues write that, “the two mtDNA sequences from the individuals of F3 (one of the houses) differ from each other at five nucleotide positions.

Although these two subjects may be genetically linked by a mother/son (or daughter) relationship, this result unambiguously excludes kinship through the maternal lineage.” Further, they explain that these people and their mtDNA haplotypes were different from the individuals in F4 (the other house).

A patrilineal relationship remains a possibility since their skeletal remains were found close together.”

There was one group that did represent a mother-child pair according to the DNA analysis: a late 20s female and a 1- to 2-year-old child from house F4. I don’t think this is the pairing illustrated in the circulating image above for two reasons: the child skull in that photo is more consistent with a 3- to 4-year-old, and based on the diagram in the 2007 article and the image below, the photos show two different adult-child pairs.

I couldn’t find a clear image that represents the biological mother-child pair, although the photo above shows most of the groups from house F4.

According to my cross-referencing of the 2007 article with these images, the biological mother-child pair is represented by the skeletons at the very bottom.

Skeletons from house F4 at Lajia, China. The skeletons that showed a mother-child relationship.

Regardless of which dyad is depicted, what was the relationship between the adult woman and the 3- or 4-year-old child in house F3? Was she perhaps an aunt or an unrelated caregiver? Perhaps they were members of the same extended family? The 2007 DNA results seem to directly contradict the easy explanation of mother protecting her child. But that is, I think, what makes both the archaeological and the DNA results even more exciting.

What was the structure of the family like at Lajia? And what does the protective stance of a woman over a child, not biologically her own mean for our understanding of Bronze Age China?

The photos from the “Pompeii of the East” are certainly breathtaking, but the story behind them is even more complicated and intriguing.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinakillg…

ASIA, EUROPE, RUSSIA, WORLD

Scientists discover intact Ice Age woolly rhino in Siberia

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Scientists discover intact Ice Age woolly rhino in Siberia

Russian researchers have just announced the discovery of a remarkably well-preserved woolly rhinoceros that was excavated in August 2020.

Scientists discover intact Ice Age woolly rhino in Siberia
The specimen was excavated in August 2020, and has yet to be transported for thorough analysis.

According to The Siberian Times, the specimen is between 20,000 and 50,000 years old, and was found in such pristine condition that much of its internal organs were still intact. Some are calling this the best-preserved carcass of its kind.

The frozen Siberian tundra offers the perfect conditions to preserve Ice Age remnants like this, while climate change has seen a slew of them melt to the surface. In recent years, experts in Yakutia, Siberia have excavated everything from ancient lion cubs and bison to a horse and woolly mammoths.

Scientists estimate that this latest discovery is about 80 percent undamaged. Indeed, all of its limbs, fur, and most of its teeth remain intact. Scientists are even confident that they can determine the creature’s last meal.

“The young rhino was between three and four years old and lived separately from its mother when it died, most likely by drowning,” said Dr. Valery Plotnikov from Yakutia’s Academy of Sciences. “The gender of the animal is still unknown… The rhino has a very thick short underfur, very likely it died in the summer.”

Footage of the woolly rhino discovered in Yakutia in August 2020.

The specimen was unearthed not too far from where Sasha, the world’s only baby woolly rhino, was discovered in 2014. Sasha is believed to be about 34,000 years old and was around seven months old when she died.

Sasha’s discovery first showed scientists that even baby woolly rhinos had fur, and this latest discovery has only strengthened that theory.

“We have learned that woolly rhinoceroses were covered in very thick hair,” said Dr. Plotnikov of Sasha. “Previously, we could judge this only from rock paintings discovered in France. Now, judging by the thick coat with the undercoat, we can conclude that the rhinoceroses were fully adapted to the cold climate from a young age.”

As it stands, researchers have been unable to further analyze this latest specimen until stable ice roads can form for them to travel back to Yakutia’s capital of Yakutsk.

Most of the animal’s teeth, fur, and internal organs were kept intact beneath the Siberian permafrost for millennia.

Discovered downstream of Tirekhtyakh River, finding the rhino wasn’t a cakewalk, as transportation across Yakutia’s utterly vast and remote territory is incredibly treacherous. Even in the summer, many areas are only accessible by air or boat.

In the winter, however, a rather practical network of ice roads forms, which allows people to travel across the tundra.

Despite having to wait for those roads to form in order to properly assess the specimen, Dr. Plotnikov and his team have already gleaned much from the find.

The horns of this creature, for instance, have suggested that this particular species of woolly rhino foraged for food. The fact that the animal’s internal organs remain intact will also show the scientists a lot about how this prehistoric creature lived.

“There are soft tissues in the back of the carcass, possibly genitals and part of the intestine,” said Dr. Plotnikov. “This makes it possible to study the excreta, while will allow us to reconstruct the paleoenvironment of that period.”

Yakutia is a remarkably fertile place for those in search of Ice Age animals. In just the last few years, researchers have found ancient wolf pups, “pygmy” mammoths, birds, foals, and more. Just this past summer, an Ice Age wolf pup was discovered with the remains of what could have been one of the last woolly rhinos on Earth in its stomach.

As for this latest woolly rhino, it will ultimately be transported to Sweden where researchers have been working to sequence the genomes of several species of prehistoric rhinos.

ASIA, SAUDI ARABIA, WORLD

Experts believe the 7,000-year-old circular stone structures were once houses, complete with doorways and roofs in Saudi Arabia

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Experts believe the 7,000-year-old circular stone structures were once houses, complete with doorways and roofs in Saudi Arabia

Archaeologists have excavated eight ancient “standing stone circles” in Saudi Arabia that they say were used as houses.

Eight of the 345 stone circles identified by aerial surveys in the Harrat ‘Uwayrid lava field in Saudi Arabia have been analyzed by researchers from the University of Western Australia and the University of Sydney, who suggest that the structures may have been roofed and served as dwellings.

These findings were published in the scientific journal “Levant” by a research team led by archaeologist Jane McMahon from the University of Sydney. The study examined 431 standing stone circles at various sites in Harrat Uwayrid in AlUla, with 52 undergoing field surveys and 11 being excavated.

This study, supervised by the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU), reveals that the region’s inhabitants were more stable and advanced than previously believed.

The circles date back around 7,000 years and have the remains of stone walls and at least one doorway.

An aerial view of some standing stone circles.

These dwellings consisted of vertically erected stone slabs with diameters ranging from four to eight meters. The outer circumference had two rows of stone slabs, likely used as foundations for wooden columns, possibly made of Acacia, supporting the roof.

A central slab within these stone circles supported a main wooden column. This architectural feature suggests a sophisticated understanding of weight distribution and structural support among the ancient inhabitants. Tools and animal remains found at these sites suggest that ceilings might have been made from animal skins.

During their excavations, the archaeologists discovered the remains of many stone tools made of basalt. In addition, excavations have unearthed tools linked to animal husbandry, including implements for wool shearing and sheep slaughter.

“These structures – which we think of more as shelters than ‘houses’ – were used for any and all activities. Inside, we found evidence of stone tool-making, cooking, and eating, as well as lost and broken tools used for processing animal hides,” said Jane McMahon from the University of Sydney.

The shelter foundations were formed by massive basalt blocks weighing up to a tonne each.

The team concluded that many, if not all, of the standing stone circles are also domestic structures based on the artifacts discovered within and the circles’ resemblance to ancient homes excavated in Jordan.

Also among the finds were a variety of seashells, all of which came from the Red Sea, which is located about 75 miles (120 kilometers) to the west. Other artifacts include sandstone and limestone ornaments and bracelets, as well as a piece of red sandstone chalk, possibly used for drawing.

Arrowheads discovered match types used in southern and eastern Jordan, indicating clear interaction between the regions.

McMahon highlighted that these early inhabitants were not merely shepherds but had sophisticated architecture, domesticated animals, ornaments, decorations, and various tools. The number and size of stone circles suggest a larger population than previously estimated.

Grindstones and mullers.

The research team included experts from King Saud University, local AlUla residents like Youssef Al-Balawi who provided ethnographic and cultural insights, and students from the University of Hail.

ASIA, ISRAEL, WORLD

A 4000-year-old Fabric Found in a Cave of Skulls in the Judean Desert is the Oldest Dyed with Insect Dye

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A 4000-year-old Fabric Found in a Cave of Skulls in the Judean Desert is the Oldest Dyed with Insect Dye

A 4000-year-old Fabric Found in a Cave of Skulls in the Judean Desert is the Oldest Dyed with Insect Dye

Researchers discovered an ancient textile dyed with kermes (Kermes vermilio) in Israel’s Cave of Skulls that dates back to the Middle Bronze Age.

This textile, found in the Judean Desert and made of linen and wool dyed red, has been dated by direct radiocarbon to the Middle Bronze Age, specifically between 1954 and 1767 BC.

What makes this find unique is the use of red dye derived from the insect Kermes vermilioa luxurious and rare source of color in ancient times.

In a study of textiles discovered in the Cave of the Skulls in the Judean Desert, researchers conducted dye analyses using High-Pressure Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and identified a unique, red-dyed textile dyed with scaly insects.

This technique allowed for the detection of the dye’s presence and verified that the red dye originated from the scale insect Kermes vermilio, which parasitizes oak trees, particularly Quercus coccifera.

Despite being destructive, this method only needs a small sample, protecting the integrity of the antiquated object.

Textiles are rare items in the archaeological record due to their perishable nature and the rapid decomposition to which they are subject, making their preservation under special conditions, such as those in the caves of the Judean Desert, exceptionally valuable.

On the left larvae of kermes vermilio, in the center the analyzed tissue.

Detailed examination of this textile, despite its small size, enables researchers to trace the origin of the red color back to the insect species used, a significant discovery not only for its age but also for what it reveals about ancient civilizations’ knowledge and technology in the handling and application of natural dyes.

Given that using dyes made from scale insects, such as Kermes vermilio, was an expensive and labor-intensive process, it is possible that these textiles served as status and power symbols in prehistoric societies.

In addition to reflecting individual preferences, textile color was used in ancient societies as a nonverbal communication system about a person’s social and economic standing.

ASIA, JAPAN, WORLD

Japanese scientists ‘reawaken’ cells of a 28,000-Year-Old woolly mammoth

Japanese scientists ‘reawaken’ cells of a 28,000-Year-Old woolly mammoth

Japanese scientists 'reawaken' cells of a 28,000-Year-Old woolly mammoth

Her name is Yuka: an ancient woolly mammoth that last lived some 28,000 years ago, before becoming mummified in the frozen permafrost wastelands of northern Siberia.

But now that icy tomb is no longer the end of Yuka’s story.

The mammoth’s well-preserved remains were discovered in 2010, and scientists in Japan have now reawakened traces of biological activity in this long-extinct beast – by implanting Yuka’s cell nuclei into the egg cells of mice.

“This suggests that, despite the years that have passed, cell activity can still happen and parts of it can be recreated,” genetic engineer Kei Miyamoto from Kindai University told AFP.

In their experiment, the researchers extracted bone marrow and muscle tissue from Yuka’s remains, and inserted the least-damaged nucleus-like structures they could recover into living mouse oocytes (germ cells) in the lab.

Red and green dyed proteins around a mammoth cell nucleus (upper right) in a mouse oocyte (Kindai University)

In total, 88 of these nuclei structures were collected from 273.5 milligrams of mammoth tissue, and once some of these nuclei were injected into egg cells, a number of the modified cells demonstrated signs of cellular activity that precede cell division.

“In the reconstructed oocytes, the mammoth nuclei showed the spindle assembly, histone incorporation, and partial nuclear formation,” the authors explain in the new paper.

“However, the full activation of nuclei for cleavage was not confirmed.”

Despite the faintness of this limited biological activity, the fact anything could be observed at all is remarkable, and suggests that “cell nuclei are, at least partially, sustained even in over a 28,000 year period”, the researchers say.

Calling the accomplishment a “significant step toward bringing mammoths back from the dead”, Miyamoto acknowledges there is nonetheless a long way to go before the world can expect to see a Jurassic Park-style resurrection of this long-vanished species.

“Once we obtain cell nuclei that are kept in better condition, we can expect to advance the research to the stage of cell division,” Miyamoto told The Asahi Shimbun.

Less-damaged samples, the researchers suggest, could hypothetically enable the possibility of inducing further nuclear functions, such as DNA replication and transcription.

Another thing that is needed is better technology. Previous similar work in 2009 by members of the same research team didn’t get this far – which the scientists at least partially put down to “technological limitations at that time”, and the state of the frozen mammoth tissues used.

To that end, the researchers think their new research could provide a new “platform to evaluate the biological activities of nuclei in extinct animal species” – an incremental progression to perhaps one day, maybe, seeing Yuka’s kind roam again.

ASIA, INDONESIA, WORLD

51,000-year-old Indonesian cave painting may be the world’s oldest storytelling art

51,000-year-old Indonesian cave painting may be the world’s oldest storytelling art

51,000-year-old Indonesian cave painting may be the world's oldest storytelling art
The 51,200-year-old cave art in Leang Karampuang, Sulawesi, is the oldest narrative rock art ever discovered. The artwork depicts a human-like figure interacting with a warty pig.

A cave painting on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi may be the oldest evidence of narrative art ever discovered, researchers say. The artwork, which depicts a human-like figure interacting with a warty pig, suggests people may have been using art as a way of telling stories for much longer than we thought. 

Archaeological evidence shows that Neanderthals began marking caves as early as 75,000 years ago, but these markings were typically non-figurative. Until a few years ago, the oldest known figurative cave painting was a 21,000-year-old rock art panel in Lascaux, France, showing a bird-headed human charging a bison. But in 2019, archaeologists unearthed hundreds of examples of rock art in caves in the Maros-Pangkep karst.

The rock art included a 15-foot-wide (4.5 meters) panel depicting human-like figures engaging with warty pigs (Sus celebensis) and anoas (Bubalus) — dwarf buffalos native to Sulawesi.

“Storytelling is a hugely important part of human evolution, and possibly even it helps to explain our success as a species. But finding evidence for it in art, especially very early cave art, is exceptionally rare,” Adam Brumm, co-author of the new study and an archaeologist at Griffith University in Australia, said at a news conference. 

The archaeologists previously dated the panel rock art and found it to be at least 43,900 years old, while the oldest image they found in the area was of a 45,500-year-old warty pig. 

Now, using a more sensitive dating technique, the archaeologists found that the rock art is at least 4,000 years older than previously thought, making it around 48,000 years old.

More strikingly, the archaeologists found a similar depiction of the human-like figure and warty pig at another cave in Leang Karampuang that was at least 51,200 years old, making it the oldest known narrative art. Their findings were published Wednesday (July 3) in the journal Nature. 

Archaeologists were intrigued by the narrative art’s depiction of a part-human, part-animal figure, or therianthrope. 

A panorama of the nearly 15-feet-wide (4.5 meters) panel in one of the caves.

“Archaeologists are very interested in depictions of therianthrope because it provides evidence for the ability to imagine the existence of a supernatural being, something that does not exist in real life,” Brumm said. 

Previously, the earliest evidence of a therianthrope was the 40,000-year-old ‘Lion Man’ sculpture unearthed in a cave in Germany. 

“These depictions from Indonesia are pushing back the dates back nearly 20,000 years earlier, which is groundbreaking, really,” said Derek Hodgson, an archaeologist and scientific advisor for INSCRIBE, a European-based project investigating the development of writing, who was not involved in the study.

The early evidence of a therianthrope is a sign of complex human cognition, Hodgson told Live Science. “You don’t find any of these Neanderthals or early pre-human archaic species producing complex figurative art.” 

A map of Indonesian Island of Sulawesi where the archaeologists conducted the study. The area inside the rectangle is the southwestern peninsula of Mares-Pangkep karst. The red boxes on the right show the location of the cave sites.

To more accurately date the narrative art, the researchers used a technique called laser ablation uranium-series imaging. 

Previously, the scientists dated the cave paintings by carbon-dating small samples of cave “popcorn” — calcite clusters that have accumulated over thousands of years. 

But in the new study, Brumm and his team used even smaller calcite samples — just 0.002 inches (44 microns) long. By taking much smaller samples, the archaeologists gain a higher resolution of the age distribution of the calcite on the cave walls. The technique also minimizes the damage made to the artwork.

“It really changes the way we do the dating on record, and it can be applied to other records as well,” study co-author Renaud Joannes-Boyau, a geochronologist at Southern Cross University in Australia, said at the news conference.  

A team of Australian and Indonesian archaeologists excavate the caves in the Maros-Pangkep karst on the island of Sulawesi.

But not everyone agrees. Paul Pettitt, a paleolithic archaeologist at Durham University in the U.K. who was not involved in the study, said that to suggest the art is a narrative, the researchers had to “really make a leap of faith.” 

“The dating method is robust, but the team’s interpretations are certainly not,” he wrote in a statement emailed to Live Science. Looking at the images, it was unclear to him whether these paintings were isolated depictions that just happened to be next to each other. 

According to the authors, while the identity of the painters, most likely Homo sapiens, is a mystery, the lack of evidence for human occupations suggests that the cave might have been reserved for art-making. The cave is tucked away from the rest of the area at a higher elevation.

The interior of the Leang Karampuang cave wall in Sulawesi is filled with calcite clusters.

“It’s possible that people, these early humans, were only going up into these high-level caves to make this art,” study co-author Maxime Aubert, an archaeologist and geochemist at Griffith University, said at the news conference. “Perhaps there was stories and rituals associated with the viewing of the art, we don’t know. But these seem to be special places in the landscape.”

The team is planning to survey and date more rock art in the area. 

Recently, Adhi Agus Oktaviana, the study’s lead author and archaeologist at the Center for Prehistory and Austronesian Studies (CPAS) in Indonesia, found a painting in another cave of three figures depicting a human, a half-human-half-bird and a bird figure. But the team has not analyzed the painting yet.

“It’s very likely that there is some more beautiful ones hidden somewhere that we don’t know,” Aubert said.  

ASIA, WORLD

Archaeologists Discovered 8th-century BC Settlement in Uzbekistan

Archaeologists Discovered 8th-century BC Settlement in Uzbekistan

Archaeologists Discovered 8th-century BC Settlement in Uzbekistan

A team of Chinese and Uzbek archaeologists discovered an ancient settlement dating back to the 8th century BC in Uzbekistan, near the country’s Surxondaryo River, also known as Surkhandarya.

A square-shaped architectural structure with several rooms, including a kiln and waste pits, is present at the recently excavated site, offering insight into the ancient civilization that once flourished there.

Numerous smaller square rooms within the ruins were discovered; based on the abundance of pottery wares discovered nearby, archaeologists believe these rooms served as living quarters or kitchens.

Utensils made of stone such as millstone, mortars, and pestles were discovered, revealing the “food processing history of ancient people in the region,” Archaeologist He Jierao told the Global Times.

“It reveals the evolution of ancient people’s community lifestyles and how they developed more civilized lifestyles,” He emphasized.

Beginning in April, the excavation project was led by Northwest University archaeologist Ma Jian and his team in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, China. Three major discoveries were made in Uzbekistan between April and June by experts from China and Uzbekistan.

In addition to the 8th-century BC settlement, another major project involved the investigation of the ancient Kushan Empire.  Twenty-five old tombs and six buildings from the Kushan Empire were found as a result of the combined efforts.

The Kushan Empire was a powerful political system that ruled over what is now Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. It was founded in the first century AD by the nomadic Yuezhi people.

Surxondaryo
Archaeologists uncover 8th-century BC ruins near Surkhandarya river

Archaeologist Wang Meng noted that such discoveries are crucial for establishing a chronological timeline of the Kushan culture in the region, helping to trace the development of civilization around the Surkhandarya area.

In the third project, archaeologists focused on the Fergana Valley in eastern Uzbekistan, where they explored and reviewed 84 ruins between April and May. 

A precious cliff painting was also discovered during the research, which helped paint a picture of the ancient culture of the Namangan Region of Uzbekistan.

These discoveries mark the latest milestones in a longstanding archaeological partnership between Northwest University and Uzbekistan, which began in 2009.

By 2024, more than 70 joint projects had been conducted in Central Asia, aiming to study the historical exchanges along the ancient Silk Road.

Wang Jianxin, a pioneering archaeologist who began working in Uzbekistan 15 years ago, highlighted that these collaborations have challenged Western-centric interpretations of Silk Road history and enhanced global understanding of China’s contributions to ancient Silk Road civilization.