Article
Agronomy
Eiko Endo, Shinya Shoda, Michael Frachetti, Zhanargul Kaliyeva, Galymzhan Kiyasbek, Aidyn Zhuniskhanov, Xinyi Liu, Paula Doumani Dupuy
Summary: The Inner Asian Mountain Corridor (IAMC) has been identified as a major pathway for the westward dispersal of millet from Northern China. Cross-disciplinary investigations were conducted to distinguish cultivated millet taxa from their wild relatives and clarify the social context underlying millet adoption in novel environments. By using a pottery impression casting method, both millets (Setaria and Panicum) were successfully identified from three Bronze Age sites in eastern/southeastern Kazakhstan.
Article
Ecology
Paula N. Doumani Dupuy, Kubatbek Tabaldiev, Giedre Motuzaite Matuzeviciute
Summary: This paper investigates the early application of fibers and their impact on social interactions in Central Asia. The site of Chap 1 in the Tien Shan Mountains of Kyrgyzstan reveals a complex agropastoral subsistence culture established around 3,000 BCE. The study focuses on the role of textiles in highland occupation and how they facilitated settlement in the extreme climates of Central Asia.
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Patrick Cuthbertson, Tobias Ullmann, Christian Buedel, Aristeidis Varis, Abay Namen, Reimar Seltmann, Denne Reed, Zhaken Taimagambetov, Radu Iovita
Summary: The study presents two models for predicting karstic cave features in the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor (IAMC) and conducted field surveys from 2017 to 2019, identifying 105 cave and rockshelter features. The model-led approach significantly reduces the target area for foot survey, providing an important tool for archaeological research in the region.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Michael Spate, Mumtaz A. Yatoo, Dan Penny, Mohammad Ajmal Shah, Alison Betts
Summary: Archaeological research on agro-pastoralist populations in the Inner Asian mountains indicates their adaptation to various herding and cultivation systems as early as 5000 BP. The study in the Kashmir Valley reveals spatially and temporally discontinuous patterns of agro-pastoralist land use, often coinciding with regional social or environmental changes, especially arid conditions. These findings suggest the importance of specialized agro-pastoralist ecologies in responding to past and future climate deteriorations.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2022)
Article
Archaeology
Taylor R. Hermes, Paula N. Doumani Dupuy, Edward R. Henry, Marc Meyer, Alexey N. Mar'yashev, Michael D. Frachetti
Summary: Archaeological excavations at the Dali site complex in southeastern Kazakhstan have provided a wealth of information on Bronze Age life spanning over two millennia. Research has uncovered architectural remains, ritual and burial contexts, ancient DNA, and evidence of economic practices and material forms. Systematic radiocarbon dating has helped in establishing the chronological context of the site's various phases of occupation, burial, and economy, showing the evolution of local pastoralist societies and their interactions within the region over a span of more than 2000 years.
ASIAN PERSPECTIVES-THE JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
(2021)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Heng Peng, Jianqiang Wang, Chiyang Liu, Shaohua Zhang, Yazhuo Niu, Tianbing Zhang, Bo Song, Wei Han
Summary: Research shows that the Mesozoic intracontinental orogeny and deformation were prevalent in the southern Central Asian Orogenic Belt. The Shalazha Mountain region in the central segment of this belt was studied using apatite fission-track (AFT) thermochronology to understand its tectonothermal evolution. The results indicate that the region experienced three stages of differential cooling, corresponding to two important thrust fault activations in the mountain range.
JOURNAL OF EARTH SCIENCE
(2023)
Review
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Svetlana Svyatko, Rick J. Schulting, Dmitriy Papin, Paula J. Reimer
Summary: This paper discusses recent developments in documenting the spread of millet across the Eurasian steppes, emphasizing the lack of direct data for millet consumption in southern Siberia prior to the Late Bronze Age. The stable isotope and C-14 datasets from the Minusinsk Basin are presented in full to support this conclusion.
Article
Archaeology
Lynne M. Rouse, Kubatbek Tabaldiev, Giedre Motuzaite Matuzeviciute
Summary: Researchers used UAV to survey Kok-Sai in Kyrgyzstan, identifying over 900 archaeological features, including burials and stone structures. Through high-resolution modeling, repeated investment in local physical and cultural infrastructure was found, intersecting with discussions of highland agro-pastoralism organizational strategies and scales.
JOURNAL OF FIELD ARCHAEOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Songul Alpaslan-Roodenberg, David Anthony, Hiba Babiker, Eszter Banffy, Thomas Booth, Patricia Capone, Arati Deshpande-Mukherjee, Stefanie Eisenmann, Lars Fehren-Schmitz, Michael Frachetti, Ricardo Fujita, Catherine J. Frieman, Qiaomei Fu, Victoria Gibbon, Wolfgang Haak, Mateja Hajdinjak, Kerstin P. Hofmann, Brian Holguin, Takeshi Inomata, Hideaki Kanzawa-Kiriyama, William Keegan, Janet Kelso, Johannes Krause, Ganesan Kumaresan, Chapurukha Kusimba, Sibel Kusimba, Carles Lalueza-Fox, Bastien Llamas, Scott MacEachern, Swapan Mallick, Hirofumi Matsumura, Ana Y. Morales-Arce, Giedre Motuzaite Matuzeviciute, Veena Mushrif-Tripathy, Nathan Nakatsuka, Rodrigo Nores, Christine Ogola, Mercedes Okumura, Nick Patterson, Ron Pinhasi, Samayamantri P. R. Prasad, Mary E. Prendergast, Jose Luis Punzo, David Reich, Rikai Sawafuji, Elizabeth Sawchuk, Stephan Schiffels, Jakob Sedig, Svetlana Shnaider, Kendra Sirak, Pontus Skoglund, Viviane Slon, Meradeth Snow, Marie Soressi, Matthew Spriggs, Philipp W. Stockhammer, Anna Szecsenyi-Nagy, Kumarasamy Thangaraj, Vera Tiesler, Ray Tobler, Chuan-Chao Wang, Christina Warinner, Surangi Yasawardene, Muhammad Zahir
Summary: The article discusses the establishment of ethical guidelines for ancient human DNA research and proposes five globally applicable ethical guidelines, emphasizing the importance of researchers respecting stakeholder perspectives, ensuring data availability for scrutiny, and minimizing damage to human remains.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Alicia R. Ventresca Miller, Shevan Wilkin, Jessica Hendy, Tsagaan Turbat, Dunburee Batsukh, Noost Bayarkhuu, Pierre-Henri Giscard, Jan Bemmann, Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan, Bryan K. Miller, Julia Clark, Patrick Roberts, Nicole Boivin
Summary: This study presents proteomic evidence for shifts in dairy consumption in the Altai Mountains and suggests that the development of complex societies began in the Bronze Age with the adoption of ruminant livestock. The investment in pastoralism grew over time, sustaining growing populations. The appearance of horses and subsequent dietary changes were fueled by a long-term economic dependence on ruminant livestock.
Article
Ecology
Ashley Scott, Sabine Reinhold, Taylor Hermes, Alexey A. Kalmykov, Andrey Belinskiy, Alexandra Buzhilova, Natalia Berezina, Anatoliy R. Kantorovich, Vladimir E. Maslov, Farhad Guliyev, Bertille Lyonnet, Parviz Gasimov, Bakhtiyar Jalilov, Jeyhun Eminli, Emil Iskandarov, Emily Hammer, Selin E. Nugent, Richard Hagan, Kerttu Majander, Paivi Onkamo, Kerkko Nordqvist, Natalia Shishlina, Elena Kaverzneva, Arkadiy I. Korolev, Aleksandr A. Khokhlov, Roman V. Smolyaninov, Svetlana V. Sharapova, Rudiger Krause, Marina Karapetian, Eliza Stolarczyk, Johannes Krause, Svend Hansen, Wolfgang Haak, Christina Warinner
Summary: This study investigates the dietary proteins of individuals from the Pontic-Caspian Steppe and neighboring regions, shedding light on the economic foundations and mobility of pastoralist societies from the Neolithic to Greco-Roman periods. The findings reveal that sheep dairying was present during the early forms of pastoralism in the North Caucasus, and there was a shift from cattle to sheep for dairying during the Maykop and early Yamnaya populations. Livestock specialization broke down and dairy herds became more diversified during aridification, potentially driving the increased mobility of the Middle and Late Bronze Age periods. After a hiatus of over 500 years, the North Caucasian steppe was repopulated with Early Iron Age societies that had a mobile dairy economy, including horse milking.
NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Anthropology
Giedre Motuzaite Matuzeviciute, Elina Ananyevskaya, Jorune Sakalauskaite, Orozbek Soltobaev, Kubatbek Tabaldiev
Summary: Stable isotope analyses confirm the significance of C-4 plants in the Eurasian prehistoric diet. This study provides evidence of the integration of crops into the diet of Central Asian populations and reveals important findings regarding the timing and means of early crop spread.
Article
Anthropology
Elissa Bullion, Farhod Maksudov, Edward R. Henry, Ann Merkle, Michael Frachetti
Summary: Archaeological studies of Early Islamic communities in Central Asia have mainly focused on urban communities in lowland areas. However, recent geophysical survey and excavation of an Early Islamic cemetery in southeastern Uzbekistan reveal that it is one of the earliest documented Islamic burial grounds in Central Asia. AMS dating confirms that the cemetery was established in the mid-eighth century AD. The burials at Tashbulak comply with Islamic prescriptions for grave form and body deposition, suggesting the presence of a funerary community of practice. This challenges the prevailing notion of Islamic conversion in peripheral areas as a slow diffusion process, emphasizing the significance of archaeological approaches in documenting the diversity of Early Islamic communities.
Article
Anthropology
Taylor R. Hermes, Clemens Schmid, Kubatbek Tabaldiev, Giedre Motuzaite Matuzeviciute
Summary: This study presents insights into ancient animal management strategies in the Tian Shan region through carbon and oxygen stable isotope analysis of domesticated caprine teeth. The results show that domesticated caprines had subtle but variable manipulation of diets and off-season birth patterns, highlighting the sophisticated agro-pastoralist production system in Central Asia during the Bronze and Iron Ages.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OSTEOARCHAEOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Guillermo G. Torres, Janina Dose, Tim P. Hasenbein, Marianne Nygaard, Ben Krause-Kyora, Jonas Mengel-From, Kaare Christensen, Karen Andersen-Ranberg, Daniel Kolbe, Wolfgang Lieb, Matthias Laudes, Siegfried Goerg, Stefan Schreiber, Andre Franke, Amke Caliebe, Gregor Kuhlenbaeumer, Almut Nebel
Summary: Longevity is a complex phenotype influenced by both environmental and genetic factors. By calculating polygenic risk scores, this study found that long-lived individuals have lower scores for late-life diseases, suggesting a genetic contribution to the protection against age-related diseases. The TOMM40/APOE/APOC1 gene region was identified as an important hub for longevity.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Wayne Powell, Michael Frachetti, Cemal Pulak, H. Arthur Bankoff, Gojko Barjamovic, Michael Johnson, Ryan Mathur, Vincent C. Pigott, Michael Price, K. Aslihan Yener
Summary: This paper presents a comprehensive sourcing analysis of tin ingots from the Uluburun shipwreck, revealing the culturally diverse and multiregional nature of Eurasian tin exchange during the Late Bronze Age. The study finds that one-third of the tin ingots were sourced from Central Asia, while the remaining two-thirds were derived from the Taurus Mountains of Turkey.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Juhyeon Lee, Bryan K. Miller, Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan, Erik Johannesson, Alicia Ventresca Miller, Christina Warinner, Choongwon Jeong
Summary: This study investigates aristocratic and local elite cemeteries at the western frontier of the Xiongnu Empire and finds that genetic diversity within these communities is comparable to the empire as a whole. The study also reveals high diversity within extended families. Lower-status individuals show the highest genetic heterogeneity, implying diverse origins, while higher-status individuals have less genetic diversity, suggesting concentration of elite status and power within specific subsets of the broader Xiongnu population.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Margaux L. C. Depaermentier, Ben Krause-Kyora, Irka Hajdas, Michael Kempf, Thomas Kuhn, Norbert Spichtig, Peter-Andrew Schwarz, Claudia Gerling
Summary: The multi-isotope and aDNA analyses of the Basel-Waisenhaus burial community in Switzerland suggest that the burial ground was occupied by a local family around AD 400, contradicting previous assumptions of immigrant Alamans. This finding supports the idea of long-lasting occupation at the Roman periphery in the Upper and High Rhine region, rather than a replacement by immigrated populations.
Article
Anthropology
Taylor R. Hermes, Clemens Schmid, Kubatbek Tabaldiev, Giedre Motuzaite Matuzeviciute
Summary: This study analyzes domesticated caprine teeth from Kyrgyzstan to reveal ancient animal management strategies and agro-pastoralist production systems. It highlights the use of off-season production to improve herd security and extend food availability, emphasizing the link between Central Asian mountain agro-pastoral culture and social dynamics.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OSTEOARCHAEOLOGY
(2022)