KazNU and China’s Northwestern University Conduct Joint Archaeological Research in the Markakol Region

In the Markakol District of the East Kazakhstan Region, the Joint Kazakh-Chinese Altai Archaeological Expedition was established on the basis of a memorandum between Al-Farabi Kazakh National University and the Silk Road Archaeological Research Center of Northwestern University, located in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, People’s Republic of China, and conducted field archaeological research. The joint research is aligned with SDG 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities, particularly with the area related to the study and preservation of cultural and natural heritage.

The main objective of the expedition was to jointly investigate archaeological sites in the Markakol region, expand the scientific database, and scientifically document the region’s cultural heritage through the application of modern archaeological methods.

The field research was carried out in several areas:

• archaeological excavations were conducted at the Saty burial and ritual complex near the village of Toskaiyng, where two burial mounds of the Pazyryk culture, dated to the 5th–3rd centuries BCE and belonging to the Late Saka period, were investigated. Following the completion of the research, the burial mounds were restored to their original condition;

• as a result of the excavations, the skeletal remains of four horses and the skeletal remains of two humans that had survived looting were recovered from the two burial mounds. In addition, other archaeological artefacts discovered during the excavations are currently being prepared for laboratory analysis;

• archaeological surveys were conducted in the Karakaba River valley and adjacent areas, during which potentially new archaeological sites were identified and preliminary data on the sites were collected;

• aerial photogrammetry data were used for the recording and documentation of archaeological landscapes.

The research was conducted under the supervision of Gani Kalikhanovich Omarov, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Director of the Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology at KazNU, and Associate Professor.

The expedition involved staff members of the Department of Archaeology, Ethnology and Museology at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, specialists from relevant scientific organizations, and students majoring in Archaeology at the Faculty of History. From the Chinese side, doctoral students Du Meng, Shi Handa, Song Jiawen, and Zhao Tingting, under the supervision of Professor Shao Huiqiu of Northwestern University, participated in the field research.

Within the framework of the expedition, scientific research and students’ field training were carried out simultaneously, creating opportunities for the exchange of archaeological research experience between Kazakhstani and Chinese specialists.

Specialists from KazNU and Northwestern University working in the field of Silk Road archaeology agreed to continue joint archaeological research in the Markakol region next year. This agreement will contribute to the further development of scientific cooperation between the two universities and facilitate the comprehensive study of the archaeological heritage of the Altai at the international level.

The project was implemented within the framework of the research project AP26100595 “Archaeological Sites and Cultural Heritage of the Markakol Basin: An Interdisciplinary and Comprehensive Study” of the Science Committee of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan.