In the Footsteps of the Silk Road: Czech-Kyrgyz Geo-environmental Project

Abstract

Kyrgyzstan can be represented, geomorphologically-speaking, by a transect between the Ferganalowlands and the Tien Shan highlands and is an outstanding area for the study of paleoclimaticconditions relating to climatic changes. These changes have been crucial for the behaviour of pastcultures in this area, especially due to the presence of the Silk Road. A Czech environmental team,covering geology, geomorphology, pedology, paleoecology, archaeobotany, malacology, osteologyand many other disciplines, has been following up previous survey fieldwork undertaken in this area.Since 2021, the expeditions in the south-eastern Kyrgyzstan (Osh Region) have been aiming at thestructure and settlement pattern development in the contact zone between the fertile Fergana basin andthe steppe environment at the foothills of the Pamir-Alai and Tian-Shan Mountains, from prehistoryuntil the present, including the material testimony of life on the ancient and medieval Silk Road.This work is a part of an agreement between the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, the Osh StateUniversity and the Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnology named after B. Dzamgyrchinov ofthe National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic. One of the major challenges of the ongoinggeoarchaeological and palaeoecological research is to link climate changes and changes forced byhuman action with the transformation of settlement and landscape patterns.