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GIS lectures on Jalalabad university
At the beginning of October 2023, a lecture on predictive modeling of the Silk Road route through the Pamirs (from Osh to Kashgar) was held at the Jalalabad University (Institute of History).
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Two short films about the expedition to the Pamir in 1928
The end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century was in the spirit of interesting scientific cooperation between Germany and Russia (Soviet Union).
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A brief history of Archaeology in Southern Kyrgyzstan
Turkestan times Contrary to the prevailing opinion that archeology developed in Central Asia during the Soviet Empire, the first researchers (more ethnographic than archaeological) visited the eastern part of the Ferghana basin and southern Kyrgyzstan already at the end of the 19th century. At its end, the Ferghan basin became the subject of interest of St. Petersburg academician V.V. Barthold, who visited Central Asia a total of 5 times (1893-1894, 1902, 1904, 1916, 1928). Barthold also visited the city of Osh, where he studied the topography of the medieval city. As the first scientist, he was interested in the etymology and history of the mountain Sulajman Too above Osh. During…
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First Czechs and Slovaks in Kyrgyzstan – Interhelpo project
The first contact between Central Europe and Kyrgyzstan (excluding ephemeral travelers) was the Interhelpo project – a communist project of enthusiasts who left Czechoslovakia in an effort to help the newly formed Soviet Union.
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Archeology. Like any other science, it copies social discourse.
The national and historical paradigm of the humanities in the first and second half of the 20th century led to the search for civilizational issues, especially at the ethnic level, and historical events such as invasions and war cataclysms.
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Photos by Stephen Graham – Kyrgyzstan before the Great War
Stephen Graham was a British journalist and traveler writing for “The Times” and “Country life” spending his early adult years in Central Asia (“Turkestan”). From the bunch of works he published before and during the Great War three are most interesting from my point of view: A Vagabond in the Caucasus (1911), , Undiscovered Russia (1915), Through Russian Central Asia (1916). He visited Kyrgyz people around 1914/15 and I would like to share two photos from these breathtaking trips. Kyrgyz prayers, 1914. Kyrgyz family, around 1914.
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Some reflections on colonialism – the case of Kyrgyzstan.
In his famous book “Modern Times: A History of the World from the 1920s to the 1980s“, Paul Johnson made some interesting reflections on colonialism and the “white man’s burden”. He argues that a simple and cheap interpretation of colonialism as a tool for vacuuming resources from underdeveloped landscapes does not reflect reality – in many cases colonies were more prestigious and some colonies were even the target of large-scale infrastructure investments – such as railways in India, Congo roads, ports in Malaysia etc…
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Aerial visit above Akhburinskoe gorodishche
In the middle of the urban agglomeration, in the heart of the green oasis of the Akh-Buura River, there is an archaeological fairy tale.
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A Short History of Tractors in Kyrgyzstan
There are only a few topics, which are historians of Eastern countries attracted, especially the history and deployment of tractors in agricultural practice. The electrification of the country and the industrialization of agriculture were tangible (and perhaps the only successful) projects of the monstrous socio-economic engineering of Soviet tsarism. Not surprisingly, in many post-Soviet museums, you can find a truly placed tractor or something remotely reminiscent of a tractor. It is no different in the Osh Museum, where the first tractor brought to Kyrgyzstan in the 1920s throne on a pedestal. It is a beautiful and sturdy piece of iron that I must admit attracted me more than all archaeological…
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Corners of local archeology 02. “Clearly Slavs…”
I studied archeology at three Central European universities, and although the curricula differ, some traditions of German empirical research are constant: the designation of Kosinna’s Siedlungsarchaeologie as the invention of the devil and the belief in the study of material shard culture as the bearer of civilization and ethnicity. Perhaps there is no more paradox than this statement. The second phenomenon in Czech, Slovak and Polish archeology leads to manic labeling of primitive pottery decorated with a wavy line as demonstrably Slavic (Danube typus, Luka rajkoveckaja, Tornow pottery …). Remember – what has a wavy line is Slavic …. (!) What astonishment awaits researchers from the Central European scientific stud…
