Nazarbayev University, ASTANA

This research collaboration is focused on prehistoric pottery from east/southeast Kazakhstan where some of the earliest nomadic archaeological remains- exist in Central Asia, extending back nearly 5000 years into the Bronze Age. Historically, the region was central to the operating of the Silk Roads, during which time settled and nomadic societies interacted sharing products, technologies and ideas between east and west. The petrographic analysis represents the first study applying such methods to examine Pre-Silk Road, Bronze Age pottery from the Dhungar/Tian Shan Mountains and will, therefore, contribute baseline data for future studies of potting in the region. We are measuring technological practices and human-environment interactions through comparison of ceramic data from four principle sites spanning 2500 – 800 BC to reconstruct long-term approaches and changes in ceramic production styles, their circulation patterns among mobile groups, and evidence for exchange in ceramic products beyond the local bounds of the potting communities.This research collaboration is focused on prehistoric pottery from east/southeast Kazakhstan where some of the earliest nomadic archaeological remains- exist in Central Asia, extending back nearly 5000 years into the Bronze Age. Historically, the region was central to the operating of the Silk Roads, during which time settled and nomadic societies interacted sharing products, technologies and ideas between east and west. The petrographic analysis represents the first study applying such methods to examine Pre-Silk Road, Bronze Age pottery from the Dhungar/Tian Shan Mountains and will, therefore, contribute baseline data for future studies of potting in the region.

We are measuring technological practices and human-environment interactions through comparison of ceramic data from four principle sites spanning 2500 – 800 BC to reconstruct long-term approaches and changes in ceramic production styles, their circulation patterns among mobile groups, and evidence for exchange in ceramic products beyond the local bounds of the potting communities.