Ancient Agricultural and Pastoral Landscapes on the South Side of Lake Issyk-Kul: Long-Term Diachronic Analysis of Changing Patterns of Land Use, Climate Change, and Ritual Use in the Juuku and Kizil Suu Valleys

Claudia Chang, Sergei S. Ivanov, Perry A. Tourtellotte, Robert N. Spengler, Basira Mir-Makhamad and David Kramar
Additional contact information
Claudia Chang: Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University, New York, NY 10028, USA
Sergei S. Ivanov: International Relations and Oriental Studies, Kyrgyz National University, Frunze Street, Bishkek 720033, Kyrgyzstan
Perry A. Tourtellotte: Independent Scholar, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA
Robert N. Spengler: Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, 07745 Jena, Germany
Basira Mir-Makhamad: Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, 07745 Jena, Germany
David Kramar: Carrington Research Extension Center, North Dakota State University Cooperative Extension, Fargo, ND 58108, USA

Land, 2022, vol. 11, issue 6, 1-24

Abstract: The main goal of this paper is to present results of preliminary archaeological research on the south side of Lake Issyk-Kul in Kyrgyzstan. We test the hypothesis that agropastoral land use changed over four millennia from the Bronze Age through the Kirghiz period due to economic, socio-political, and religious shifts in the prehistoric and historic societies of this region. Our research objectives are to: (1) describe and analyze survey results from the Lower Kizil Suu Valley; (2) discuss the results of radiometric and archaeobotanical samples taken from three stratigraphic profiles at three settlements from the Juuku Valley, including the chronological periods of the Wusun (140 to 437 CE), the Qarakhanid (942 to 1228 CE), and the historic Kirghiz (1700 to present CE); and (3) conduct preliminary GIS spatial analyses on the Iron Age mortuary remains (Saka and Wusun periods). This research emerges out of the first archaeological surveys conducted in 2019–2021 and includes the Lower Kizil Suu alluvial fan; it is an initial step toward developing a model for agropastoral land use for upland valleys of the Inner Tian Shan Mountains.

Keywords: archaeological landscapes; Iron Age; Medieval Period; agriculture; pastoralism; vertical zonation; Issyk-Kul Lake; archaeobotany; GIS mapping (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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