Chang, C.; Ivanov, S.S.; Spengler, R.N., III; Mir-Makhamad, B.; Tourtellotte, P.A. Montane Ecoclines in Ancient Central Asia: A Preliminary Study of Agropastoral Economies in Juuku, Kyrgyzstan. Land2023, 12, 1406.
Chang, C.; Ivanov, S.S.; Spengler, R.N., III; Mir-Makhamad, B.; Tourtellotte, P.A. Montane Ecoclines in Ancient Central Asia: A Preliminary Study of Agropastoral Economies in Juuku, Kyrgyzstan. Land 2023, 12, 1406.
Chang, C.; Ivanov, S.S.; Spengler, R.N., III; Mir-Makhamad, B.; Tourtellotte, P.A. Montane Ecoclines in Ancient Central Asia: A Preliminary Study of Agropastoral Economies in Juuku, Kyrgyzstan. Land2023, 12, 1406.
Chang, C.; Ivanov, S.S.; Spengler, R.N., III; Mir-Makhamad, B.; Tourtellotte, P.A. Montane Ecoclines in Ancient Central Asia: A Preliminary Study of Agropastoral Economies in Juuku, Kyrgyzstan. Land 2023, 12, 1406.
Abstract
This paper uses preliminary studies of archaeological sites (burial mounds and settlements) from the Iron Age through Medieval periods (ca. 800 BCE to 1200 CE) in the Juuku Valley on the South side of Lake Issyk-Kul to model land-use across vertical mountain zones. To do so, we have established a radiometric chronology, conducted test excavations of an Iron Age settlement and a Turkic period burial, undertaken preliminary archaeobotanical research, and pedestrian surveys. Seed remains of wheat (Triticum aestivum), barley (Hordeum vulgare), broomcorn millet (Panicum milaceum) and foxtail millet (Setaria italica) and legumes were recovered in very small quantities from an Iron Age upland settlement at 2100 m asl and a Turkic period burial mound at 1934 m asl. These preliminary archaeobotanical results are compared to the Talgar Iron Age settlements on the north side of the Tian Shan Mountain range in Kazakhstan studied earlier by Robert Spengler. Small samples of faunal remains found at the Turkic period kurgan and from a profile at the upland Iron Age settlement indicate livestock herding of sheep/goats, cattle, and horses in Juuku Valley. The goal of this paper is to test the hypothesis that pastoral transhumance and agropastoralism were economic strategies used by ancient societies during the Iron Age through Medieval periods in mountain-river valley areas between 750 m to 2500 m asl. These economic strategies that combined the pasturing of sheep, goats, cattle and horses with the cultivation of cereals were adapted to the use of different vegetational zones along a vertical gradient. This paper based on preliminary research of upland sites of the Juuku Valley in Kyrgyzstan, initiates a long-term research study of four millennia of settlements that ranged from pastoral transhumance, pastoral nomadism, and combined mountain agriculture using survey data and test excavations.
Keywords
Agropastoralism; Central Asia; Archaeology; Archaeobotany; Turkic burial mound; Iron Age settlement; Ecotones; Mountainous ecoclines
Subject
Environmental and Earth Sciences, Ecology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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