A Mountaintop Discovery is Changing Everything We Knew About the Silk Road

Michael Natale
Tue, October 29, 2024 

One Find is Changing Our Picture of the Silk RoadMarc Dozier - Getty Images

A new LiDAR survey of previously discovered Silk Road sites reveals a more sprawling urban history than first imagined.

An aerial survey of the Tashbulak and Tugunbulak sites in Uzbekistan uncovered more than 300 medieval archaeological features, suggesting a robust urban community.

The Silk Road—which existed from 114 B.C. to 1450 A.D.—was a vital and expansive trade route that connected the Eastern and Western worlds

A new survey of two archaeological sites along the Silk Road has unveiled a stunning new discovery that rewrites our understanding of the famed Eurasian trade route that spanned continents and centuries.

As reported in Newsweek, a new aerial survey of Tashbulak and Tugunbulak—two archaeological sites roughly three miles apart in the Uzbekistan mountains—utilized LiDAR (a remote sensing technique that uses laser pulses to create 3D images of a landscape) to reveal more than 300 medieval archaeological features. The two sites, which were discovered in 2011 and 2015, are located 6,562 to 7,218 feet above sea level. At that elevation, the land was unlikely to have supported large-scale urban development at the time, given the difficulties posed to construction and agriculture.

But this new survey—the results of which were published in Nature—indicates that that’s exactly what occurred at Tashbulak and Tugunbulak.

“The LiDAR results indicate that the scale of urbanization in this area was much more expansive than previously known,” Brown University researcher Zachary Silvia told Newsweek. Silvia, while not involved directly in the study, has published a News & Views article for Nature about the results, and singled out the significance of this revelation. “This is the first—and probably only—ancient or medieval city located at this elevation in Central Asia, which forces us to reconsider what we know about urbanization in the area.”

Among the structures discovered by the study’s LiDAR flights were “watchtowers connected with walls along a ridgeline, evidence of terracing, and a central fortress surrounded by walls made of stone and mud brick.” But while this survey revealed what structures were once present at Tashbulak and Tugunbulak, there are still more questions to be answered.

“Typically, remote sensing techniques are one tool within the broader tool kit of the archaeologist,” Silvia noted to Newsweek. “The next step for the team would be to confirm their findings through geophysics—techniques that ‘see’ below the surface—and targeted excavations that can confirm whether or not this is indeed such an extensive settlement. I am optimistic that this is precisely what the team will find in the coming years.”

Lost Silk Road cities rediscovered by scientists in mountains of Uzbekistan

Amelia Neath
Mon 28 October 2024 

Researchers excavate medieval pottery at the newly rediscovered medieval Silk Road city Tugunbulak in 2022 (via REUTERS)


Two cities lost for centuries have been uncovered by archaeologists in Uzbekistan along the Silk Road in a discovery that could shift the perspective on what we know about the ancient trading route.

The cities were discovered in the rugged mountains only 3km apart using laser remote-sensing technology that can detect structures under vegetation.

Researchers sent out LiDAR scanning technology, used to measure topography, on drones to map the scale and layout of the cities, uncovering structures, plazas, roads and other urban features indicating city settlements.

Their placement among the mountains, around 2,000-2,200m (6,562-7217 feet) above sea level, is particularly interesting as an altitude this high would have delivered bittely cold winters – with temperature levels that only three per cent of the global population live at today.

Publishing their findings in the scientific journal Nature, the researchers also said the discovery of these cities, which appear to have been mysteriously abandoned hundreds of years ago, could shift the understanding of the economic and cultural landscape of historic Central Asia.

“The key finding of this study is the existence of large, fortified and planned cities at high elevation, which is still a rare occurrence but is much more exceptional in ancient times,” research leader Michael Frachetti from Washington University in Saint Louis, said, per Reuters.

A 2018 drone photograph of a part of the newly discovered medieval Silk Road city Tugunbulak, located in the mountains of southeastern Uzbekistan (via REUTERS)

Tugunbulak, the larger of the two cities, existed from around the 6th to the 11th century CE, spanning across 300 acres. Researchers believe it once had a population of tens of thousands and is thought to be one of the largest cities of its time within the region.

The vast city had five watchtowers and a central fortress all protected by thick stone and mud-brick walls.

After excavating one of Tugunbulak’s fortified buildings, the researchers found the remains of kilns and furnaces, leading them to believe that it could have been a factory where metalsmiths were producing iron or steel.

"Tugunbulak in particular complicates much of the historical understanding of the early medieval political economy of the Silk Routes, placing both political power and industrial production far outside the regional ‘breadbaskets’ such as Samarkand," Frachetti said.

The other city, Tashbulak, was around ten times smaller than its neighbour, with a population reaching into the low thousands. It existed in a similar period from 730-750 to 1030-1050 AD.

Excavations of Tugunbulak being carried out in 2022 (via REUTERS)

While Tasbulak is not thought to be an industrial hub on the same scale as Tugunbulak, the smaller city has shown interesting cultural aspects reflecting the early spread of Islam.

Researchers unearthed 400 graves of men, women and children, including some of the oldest Muslim burials that have been discovered in the region.

"The cemetery is mismatched to the small size of the town. There’s definitely something ideologically oriented around Tashbulak that has people being buried there," Frachetti said.

The scientists first discovered Tasbulak in 2011, then found Tugunbulak a few years later.

With more research, they hope to unearth why these people chose to set up life in the mountains in a move that strayed away from the norm of the typical agricultural societies of the time.

“If we’re right, we’ve got a new kid on the block,” Frachetti told National Geographic, which funded the research.

“These people weren’t the barbarian horse-riding hordes that history has often painted them as. They were mountain populations, probably with nomadic political systems, but they were also investing in major urban infrastructure. This changes everything we thought we knew about Central Asian history.”