Two ‘Machu Picchu’ of the Silk Road found high in the mountains of Uzbekistan

This was the first time that a state-of-the-art laser light adapted for drones was used in Central Asia and the results could not be more successful. Archaeologists at the University of Washington have discovered the remains of two ancient Silk Road trading cities in the mountains of Uzbekistan.

The images obtained through this system, known as lidar, made it possible to discover two medieval cities with their fortifications, squares, streets and houses, which were used specifically to map cities from the 6th to the 11th century. Used by citizens, traders and travelers passing through. A vast network of ancient routes that connected Europe and East Asia.

Between 2,000 and 2,200 meters high

As researchers reported in an article published in the journal, both cities NatureThey are located 2,000 to 2,200 meters above sea level (roughly the same as Peru’s Machu Picchu) in rugged terrain, making them an unusual example of thriving mountain urbanization.

The smallest enclave, today called Tashbulak, covered about 12 hectares, while the largest, Tugunbulak, reached 120 hectares, “becoming one of the largest regional cities of its time,” according to St. Louis. Michael Frachetti, professor of archeology at the University of Washington, explains. ,

“These would have been important urban centers in Central Asia, especially when the lowlands were abandoned and placed in more challenging high-altitude environments,” he said in a statement. “Although the mountains are commonly considered a barrier to Silk Road trade and movement, the mountains were actually home to important centers of interaction. He added, “Animals, minerals, and other valuable resources probably fueled their prosperity.”

Lidar technology is commonly used to map archaeological landscapes blocked by dense vegetation, but it has additional importance where vegetation is sparse, such as the mountains of Uzbekistan. “The use of drones is strictly regulated in the country, so this discovery is also due to the political support and permits we get through partners and local governments,” Frachetti said.

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David Ruiz Marul

“The site had an elaborate urban structure with a distinctive material culture that differed significantly from the sedentary lifestyle of the lowlands,” says Farhod Maksudov, director of the National Archaeological Center of Uzbekistan. He added, “It is clear that the people who lived in Tugunbulak for more than a thousand years were nomadic pastoralists who maintained their own distinct and independent culture and political economy.”

The scans enabled advanced computer analysis of ancient archaeological surfaces, providing unprecedented insight into the architecture and organization of cities. “These are some of the highest-resolution lidar images ever published, and were made possible, in part, by the erosion dynamics unique to this mountainous environment,” says Fracchetti.

Archaeologists for the first time traced the purported Silk Road routes in southeastern Uzbekistan using predictive computer models about these cities and surveys conducted between 2011 and 2015. But the final part of the project took years to complete.

Still, experts don’t lament the loss of time. Those extra years ultimately proved to be a blessing, allowing researchers to take full advantage of the latest advances in drone-mounted lasers. “The final high-resolution maps were a combination of more than 17 flights over three weeks. It would have taken us a decade to manually map such large sites,” says Fracchetti.

millions of rows

The obtained data were compiled into a 3D model that was subjected to analysis by computational algorithms to automatically detect millions of lines to study archaeological surfaces and predict possible architectural alignments.

Experts remind that both cities deserved very close inspection. Therefore, preliminary excavations have already been carried out in one of the fortified structures of Tugunbulak. These works suggest that the fort, a building protected by three-metre-thick mud walls, may have been a factory where local goldsmiths transformed rich deposits of iron ore into steel. Such industry would have been a major feature of the city and its economy.

convert iron ore into steel

Tashbulak and Tugunbulak were not merely remote outposts or resting places. “The Silk Road was not just about the endpoints of China and the West,” warns Frachetti. “In Central Asia, important political forces were at work. The complex heart of the network was also an engine of innovation,” he explains.

Frachetti hopes to use the same combination of on-the-ground spy work and drone-based lidar to obtain images of other high-altitude settlements along the Silk Road and beyond. “We may actually be changing the map of urban development in medieval Asia,” he concluded.

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