Landscape and Settlement over 4 millennia on the south side of Lake Issyk kul, Kyrgyzstan: Preliminary Results of Survey Research in 2019-2021

: This paper discusses the preliminary results of archaeological surveys conducted in the Juuku Region of north-central Kyrgyzstan on the south side of Lake Issyk kul. Our goal was to document ancient and contemporary agropastoral systems over a four millenia time period. During the surveys about 350 loci were identified as settlements; burial mounds; graves; single artifact finds; and artifact scatters (ceramic). The areas of Juuku Valley survey included two discrete pol-ygons: Polygon 1; Lower Juuku at 1750 to 1950 m asl in elevation and Polygon 2; Chak Juuku or Upper Eastern Branch Juuku Valley at 2060 to 2100 m asl in elevation. Three radiometric dates and preliminary archaeobotanical studies were conducted at three exposed profile cuts. The methods included here are: (1) pedestrian surveys; (2) use of digital maps (Google Earth; Encarta); (3) placing archaeological loci within known chronological time periods; (4) AMS dating of charcoal samples collected from profile deposits; and (5) preliminary identification of plant remains found from archaeobotanical samples. The results of our research represent the first step toward inventorying and interpreting archaeological data in the Juuku Valley derived from field studies


Introduction
The preliminary results of pedestrian survey conducted in the late summer months of 2019 and in 2021 by a team of Kyrgyz and American archaeologists is presented here. The objectives of the surveys were to inventory and examine Bronze Age through Ethnographic Kyrgyz period archaeological features, settlements, graves, burial mounds, and artifact findings in the Juuku Valley of north-central Kyrgyzstan, a heavily dissected upland valley and gorge of the Inner Tian Shan. The Juuku Valley is a narrow valley defined by two mountain streams that flow from the Inner Tian Shan Mountain Range. The valley opens up into an alluvial fan that empties into the Lake Issyk kul, the second-largest saline lake in the world. Our research questions focused on developing a model for ancient and contemporary agropastoralism (herding of sheep, goats, cattle, and horses and the cultivation of wheat, barley, and the two millets) and upland seasonal pastoral transhumance in the jailau or summer pastured below the higher alpine meadows of the Inner Tian Shan range, peaks reaching elevations of 4800 meters in this region. Moreover the Inner Tian Shan Mountains are the ideal area for testing hypotheses regarding important inner-montane communities along trade routes along the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor [1]. Similar efforts at documenting the complex landscapes and settlement patterns in Eurasia have been made by archaeological survey teams working in the Altai, at the borders of four contemporary nation-states, China, Russia, Mongolia and Kazakhstan examining the ritual and settlement landscapes over at least four millennia from the Neolithic period through the Iron Age, known as the Dzhungaria Landscape Project [2].
Recently archaeologists such as Lynne Rouse and her colleagues [3,4] have undertaken UAV surveys and GIS mapping in the Kochkor Valley, also in the Inner Tian Shan. The objectives of their surveys and use of digital mapping and UAV technology have been to record upland archaeological features dating from the Bronze Age through Medieval periods in conjunction with archaeological excavations conducted at the upland site of Chap at 2000 m elevation asl. that has deposits dating from 1065 BCE to 825 BCE. Rouse and her colleagues hope to document the Inner Asian Mountain corridors of this important passageway of the Inner Tian Shan range [4]. At the Late Bronze transitional phase, the Chap site has yielded evidence for the cultivation of Hordeum vulgare (hulled and unhulled barley), Triticum (free-threshing and possible glume wheats), Panicum miliaceum (broomcorn millet) Setaria italica (foxtail millet) and Pisum sativum (pea) [5][6][7]. Recent research throughout Central Eurasia has stressed the importance of tracing agropastoralism throughout the Bronze through Medieval periods [8].
In the Inner Tian Shan Range, small inter-montane valleys and gorges such as the Juuku probably served as secondary or even primary routes through the Inner Tian Shan into the Syr Daria basin and the Ferghana Valley and south into the Tarim Basin, China. Systematic surveys in these intermontane regions addresses the following : (1) the lack of inventories and registration of archaeological sites and features along the southern side of Lake Issyk kul in upland valleys; (2) the necessity for full-scale planning for sustainable development of natural landscapes and the cultural and historical preservation of this region; and (3) a need for scientific modeling of ancient and contemporary land-use in intermontane valleys of pastoralism, foraging, and agriculture. Also sustainable development of natural and cultural landscapes in Eurasian contexts require the integration of cultural heritage and land development policies [9].

Materials and Methods
The pedestrian surveys conducted by a team of three field archaeologists was aided by inspection of the imagery provided by Google Earth, Soviet maps, and other digital maps (Encarta). The loci were recorded using Garmin GPS units and each loci was photographed and recorded in field notebooks. From detailed notes, Excel spreadsheets were used to inventory all site and artifact loci. During 15 field days in 2019 and 30 field days in 2021 we amassed an inventory of over 1000 loci in the Kizil Suu, Saruu, and Juuku Valleys. Field surveys were also carried out in upland areas of Sutti Bulak, Chichi Khan, Kadzhi Sai, and Chong Kizil Suu. Radiocarbon samples were taken from three exposed profiles, one in Lower Juuku polygon and two in Upper Juuku polygon. The charcoal samples were sent to Beta, Analytic for AMS (accelerated mass spectrometry) analysis and the results were obtained in October 2021. Also archaeobotanical samples were extracted from these three sites. The soils were washed using standard flotation methodology in the Republic of Kyrgyzstan and preliminary microscopic analyses and seed sorting and identifications were conducted at the Max Planck Institute for Human History.

Results
During the 2019 and 2021 surveys we registered about 350 loci (single artifact finds, sherd scatters, graves, burial mounds (kurgans), house foundations, house depressions from our pedestrian surveys in the Lower Juuku and Chak Juuku. These initial results shall aid in developing methods for undertaking larger landscape archaeology projects in this region and for establishing the time-space systematics for examining the geographical locations of settlements, burial mounds, and artifact scatters. The landscape palimpsests also indicate that large Medieval settlements (fortresses, citadels and their accompanying walled residential areas) often cover earlier Bronze and Iron Age settlements and mortuary complexes. The results of the surveys will also be used to select areas for test excavations and large-scale block excavations of both mortuary and settlement complexes in order to examine early subsistence economies. In the future, archaeobotanical and faunal analyses will be undertaken at a few selected Iron Age sites in the Juuku Valley and the surrounding regions in addition to standard interpretations of ancient architecture, households and activity areas, and artifact inventories (ceramic, stone and metal remains).
3.1. Study Area: The Juuku Valley is a small intermontane valley formed by the mountain streams flowing southward to Lake Issky kul. The main glacier peak of this valley is It Tash (elevation 4808 m) and the entire valley extends 50 km north towards the southern littoral of Lake Issyk kul. The narrow valley opens up in the Lower Juuku area forming a large alluvial fan (an area of about 6.7 sq km.) 3.2. Chronology: During the survey we established a local historical chronology based on archaeological and historical sources from the Tian Shan and surrounding regions. These phase designations are based on archaeological research conducted in Kyrgyzstan over the past one-hundred years on settlements, burial mounds, graves, and artifact collections throughout north-central Kyrgyzstan and the Semirech'ye region of southeastern Kazakhstan [10][11][12]. During the Soviet period Vinnik identified about 17 Medieval period settlements along the SW coast of Lake Issyk kul [13]. Local expertise allowed us to place our survey findings into these chronological and phase designations [10,14].    1754 -1762 cal AD 196 -186 cal BP These results were obtained using AMS radiocarbon methods and have been calibrated using INTCAL20 by Beta Analytic, Inc [15].
Two very small flotation samples were taken at this site, a total of 17 L. The archaeobotany team found a total of 41 seeds, the majority were wild plants. The field crops included bareley, wheat, and peas, along with the major component of carbonized chenopods and weed seeds of wild Fabaceae and grasses (Poacae) [16].   Table 4 we describe the settlements, burial mounds, and graves, and artifact finds in the Chak Juuku area. In addition there are 2 other settlements of unknown age (KS 21.184 and KS 21.185) found in the vicinity of the Settlement 1, the Wusun period site. It is possible that these stone foundations could be associated with Settlement 1, although no temporal evidence of ceramic sherds were associated with these settlements.  Table 4). The surface features include rock outlines of four or more rooms and measures approximately 10 m X 7 m. From an exposed profile of charcoal room fill, three archaeobotanical soil samples (14.5 l) were taken. There were a small number of carbonized seeds identified from four domesticated crops including barley, wheat, broomcorn millet and foxtail millet. More than half the assemblage included wild plants such as chenopods, wild legumes and cleavers [16].  Table 4). From the two small soil samples (11.5 liters) one barley seed were identified, the rest were wild seeds [16].  Table 6.

Mortuary Complexes
There were many lines of Iron Age burial mounds found in both Upper and Lower Juuku. The largest numbers of burial sites, were earthen or stone mounds known as kurgans. In Figure 6 there are two large Saka period earthen mounds found in the Lower Juuku.

Discussion
The results of the Juuku Valley survey shows that there is a high density of archaeological materials dating from the Bronze Age through historic/ethnographic Kirghiz period, about 4 millennia of Holocene history. The majority of surface finds represent burial mounds and graves easily visible on landscape surfaces. Settlement locations are easily visible for the Medieval Period since the architectural features consist of standing mudbrick walls, stone foundations and other obvious features, visible on the ground and in satellite imagery. Our primary goal in 2021 was to locate Iron Age settlements, a much more difficult task since many of these settlements could be buried by more recent Medieval settlements or destroyed by modern-day agriculture. Since artifact scatters of Iron Age ceramics were found on ploughed fields this indicates that buried Iron Age settlements are extant throughout the Juuku Valley. A preferred time for pedestrian survey is during the spring months before extensive planting of grain crops and in the fall months after harvesting crops and the tilling of soils. Our survey results are the first step towards developing a systematic study of vertical zones of the Inner Tian Shan in order to test hypotheses about ancient farming and pastoral practices.
We focused on the one valley most intensively surveyed and selected Polygon 1 and Polygon 2 because each polygon represented a different elevational zone and a different set of potential agricultural and pastoral strategies for both contemporary and ancient land use. Today the Lower Juuku Valley is well-suited for the cultivation of wheat, barley, oats and fodder crops during the summer months when large tracts of land can be irrigated and cultivated using large machinery such as tractors and harvesters. Herd animals such as sheep, goats, cattle and horses could be pastured on the agricultural stubble after harvest. The Upper Juuku is more suitable for summer pasturelands for cattle, sheep, goats, and horses. It has rich forest and riparian areas that attract a variety of fish and wild animals so it is also suitable for fishing, forestry, and foraging/hunting. There are possible pockets where a limited amount of cultivation of short-growing crops such as barley and the millets might be cultivated. In these field seasons we also initiated preliminary archaeobotanical studies from the three settlements. In the future we hope to construct an ArcView GIS (Geographic Information Systems) database using more sophisticated methods such as UAV surveys, use of satellite imagery, and in-depth spatial analyses.

Conclusions
Archaeological surveys are necessary in this region of north-central Kyrgyzstan for two main reasons: (1) the upland areas away from the lake edge are poorly known by Kirghiz archaeologists and therefore there is a considerable gap or lack in the historical context of this region; and (2) Lake Issyk kul is an important tourist area that will be developed, especially the south side of the Lake, where Juuku Valley is located, therefore impacting and possibly destroying the fragile environmental and cultural resources of this region. Settlement archaeology, especially for the prehistoric periods is little known in the Republic of Kyrgyzstan. Recently research on Epipaleolithic through Neolithic layers at Obishir have been conducted by international teams of archaeologists [17][18][19]. As archaeologists begin to explore the early beginnings of foraging, pastoral, and agricultural economies in Kyrgyzstan, surveys like the Juuku Valley and the Kochkor surveys will become more essential for the next generation of archaeologists [20,3,4]. Our work represents a modest first step in establishing systematic archaeological survey methods in order to reconstruct settlement-subsistence systems in ancient Central Asia.
Author Contributions: C.Chang and P.A. Tourtellotte provided the conceptualization of the paper. The methodolology for the field surveys was designed by S.S. Ivanov and P.A.Tourtellotte; quantitative analyses and tables was prepared by C.Chang; validation of results were undertaken by S.S.Ivanov, C.Chang and P.A.Tourtellotte; resources were obtained by all three authors; writing, including review & editing was performed by all three authors; visualization including photography and digital mapping, and the graphical abstract was designed by P.A.Tourtellotte; field and laboratory supervision undertaken by S.S.Ivanov; project administration conducted by S.S. Ivanov; funding acquisition by C.Chang.Funding: The funding for this fieldwork study was supplied by the National Geographic Society, "The effects of earthquakes on Inner Tian Shan passages: Iron Age and Medieval Landscapes" (NGS-59769R- 19). No funds were provided for publication.

Data Availability Statement:
The results of the archaeological surveys are currently archived by C.Chang (USA) and S.S.Ivanov (Kyrgyz National University). These include GPS data points, digital mapping, fieldnotes, and preliminary reports. The radiometric data is archived by Beta Analytic Laboratory in Coral Gables, Fl (USA). Artifact collections (ceramics, metal, stone) are archived at the Kyrgyz National University in the Faculty of Far Eastern Studies. The archaeobotanical material is archived at the Max Planck Institute of Human History, Archaeology Department under the supervision of Robert N. Spengler, III, Laboratory Director of the Archaeobotany Laboratory.