With support from the National Geographic Society, the SAIE Lab is using UAV based LiDAR for large scale geophysical survey to document the remains of an ancient medieval city at Tugunbulak, Uzbekistan. This can provide many new insights into our understanding of medieval mountain communities and their engagement in trade, production, and urban development along the ancient Silk Routes of Central Asia.
Read MoreArchaeological excavations at the site complex of “Dali” – located in southeastern Kazakhstan – provide a rich picture of Bronze Age life spanning from the early third to late second millennia b.c. Nearly ten years of research at the site have produced an abundant assemblage of architectural remains, ritual and burial contexts, human and animal ancient DNA, as well as related economic, ceramic, and other forms of materiality.
Read MoreAs part of the collaborative work between SAIE lab and archaeologists from Sichuan University (founded by the National Social Science Fund of China), we conducted an analysis on the ceramic materials of the Bangga site. The excavations and analysis of Bangga site provided evidence that the site is an agropastoral settlement in the first millennium BC.
Read MoreWith support from the National Geographic Society, the SAIE Lab used high-tech analysis tools for groundbreaking research on an ancient city high in the mountains of Uzbekistan. Site-wide geophysical survey revealed the dense architectural structure of the town center, which spans roughly 7ha at its core. Urban features such as a central mound (citadel), a large industrial workshop area, and a cemetery with over 350 individual burials all frame Tashbulak within a broader syntax of medieval urbanism and early Islamic conversion in the region. Tashbulak is currently one of the only known high mountain town centers constructed and occupied during the time of the Qarakhanid Empire.
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