Lost for centuries, two Silk Road cities have recently been revealed by drone technology. For centuries, these abandoned cities lay hidden in the mountains of Central Asia. But new research, published recently in the journal Nature, reveals two fortified settlements that were once perched along a key crossroad of silk trade routes. This groundbreaking research in southeastern Uzbekistan could shift our understanding of the Silk Road, a vast network of trade routes that spanned from China to the Mediterranean.
On conventional maps, trade routes spanning the Eurasian continent were assumed to avoid the mountains of Central Asia. But the new research shows the Silk Road network was much larger than previously thought.
Using modern drone mapping technology known as LIDAR — light detection and ranging equipment — a team of archaeologists found that the two cities, Tashbulak and Tugunbulak, were once bustling urban centers despite their isolation and elevation. (A composite view of Tugunbulak using LIDAR technology, which uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure ranges is pictured above.)
The work was led by Michael Frachetti, professor of anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis, alongside Farhod Maksudov, the director of Uzbekistan’s National Center of Archaeology.
Frachetti’s team began conducting archaeological work at Tashbulak in 2011, with research at Tugunbulak commencing in 2018. However, the project was put on hold because of travel restrictions during the pandemic.
Thanks to this new drone-based remote sensing system the team were able to capture images revealing two large urban settlements dotted with watchtowers, fortresses, complex buildings and plazas. (I should add here that similar research, using the same technology, has revealed a vast new number of buildings in the Yucatan Peninsular related to Mayan civilization, and reported in a previous blog.)
Frachetti and his team did not expect the technology to uncover the level of detail it revealed, however. “We were quite surprised when the imagery was compiled, because the high-resolution reveals so much about the structure of the cities and with such clarity,” Frachetti reported. He also noted that, although many large urban centers have been discovered in Central Asia, the vast majority of archaeologically documented cities are in lowland riparian settings.
Tugunbulak and Tashbulak are 3 miles apart and around 7,000 feet above sea level. Large urban centers above 6,000-feet elevation are extremely rare, Frachetti said in his research paper.
Tim Williams, professor of silk roads archaeology at University College London in England, emphasized the significance of the findings, which reveal a more complex upland urban landscape than previously imagined. “This is a ground-breaking piece of research, which demonstrates how linking modern non-invasive survey methods, especially drone-based surveys, can considerably enhance our understanding of ancient landscapes and human adaption,” he said.
Frachetti envisions the cities as being home to a wide range of communities such as craftsmen, traders, herders, political elites and soldiers. “These were large settlements with markets which likely had the bustling activity common to most urban settings of the time,” he said.
According to the radiocarbon dating, both cities rapidly declined around the first half of the 11th century, “a time of conflict among the prevailing political powers,” Frachetti said.
Interestingly, these cities are thought to have engaged in metal production and may have contributed to an over-exploitation of the nearby forest resources beyond a point of economic sustainability, leading to their abandonment.
“We think the causes of the settlements’ ultimate decline were multifaceted, and we hope our ongoing archaeological excavations will provide greater clarity in the years to come,” Frachetti said.
I thought this story was fascinating, although we may have to wait a little before adding these locations to our “Bucket lists”. The sites are remote and there’s actually not much to see until a lot more excavation has been carried out. Reading about the Silk Road has always conjured up exotic images and this discovery only enhances that attraction.
