China-Uzbekistan joint archaeological team completes excavation of Ozod Cemetery in Uzbekistan

China News Service, Xi'an, September 28 (Reporter Alina) The reporter learned from the Silk Road Archaeological Cooperation Research Center on the 28th that the China-Ukraine joint archaeological team successfully completed the archaeological excavation of the Ozod Cemetery from August 15 to September 28. The results of this excavation demonstrate the interaction and blending between the two major cultural systems of the oasis and grassland in southern Central Asia during the Late Bronze Age. They provide new archaeological materials for re-exploring the migration and diffusion patterns, cultural exchange mechanisms and technology diffusion paths of farmers and herders along the Western Tianshan Mountains, and expand the academic dimension of research on civilizational exchanges along the early Silk Road.

A panoramic view from Ozod Cemetery No. 1. Photo courtesy of the Silk Road Archeology Cooperative Research Center

It is understood that the project is implemented by the Silk Road Archaeological Cooperative Research Center and the Samarkand Archaeological Institute of Uzbekistan. The leaders are Professor Wang Jianxin, chief scientist of the Silk Road Archaeological Center, and Berdimurodov Amuldin, senior researcher of the Samarkand Archaeological Institute. Tang Yunpeng, a young teacher at the Silk Road Archaeological Center, and Arzeev Kamiljan, an assistant researcher at the Samarkand Institute of Archeology, served as the executive team leaders. A total of 8 graduate students from both parties participated in the field excavation.

The Ozod Cemetery is located on the top of the hills southeast of Ozod Village, Surhan River Prefecture, Uzbekistan. It is a newly discovered site by the archaeological team in 2023 during a systematic survey of the east bank of the Surhan River. As the only Bronze Age cemetery in the upper reaches of the Surhan River in Uzbekistan that has been scientifically excavated, the site is of crucial academic significance for completing the cultural pedigree and high-precision chronological sequence of the Bronze Age in southern Central Asia.

Excavated photo of trumpet-shaped earrings. Photo courtesy of the Silk Road Archeology Cooperative Research Center

After more than 40 days of field excavation, the archaeological team has cleared a total of 13 tombs and 8 ash pits in Ozod Cemetery No. 1. The tombs are mainly cave tombs facing north and south; the burial customs have distinct characteristics. Among them, three tombs with intact human bones are typical sideways and bent-limb burials, and eight tombs have obvious secondary disturbance of the original pit, reflecting the unique funeral customs of this group.

This field work used various methods such as horizontal excavation and half-dissection to preliminarily clarify issues such as the shape of the tomb and the burial process. A total of more than 200 pieces (groups) of pottery, silver, copper, glazed sand and other texture relics were unearthed, and more than 50 samples of physical anthropology, pottery residues, dating and other types were simultaneously collected, which accumulated solid physical objects and data for subsequent multidisciplinary comprehensive research. In addition, the archaeological team also used ground-penetrating radar to survey Cemetery Nos. I and II, and initially confirmed the size of the cemetery and the distribution of tombs.

Cave Tomb M11. Photo courtesy of the Silk Road Archeology Cooperative Research Center

Combining unearthed relics and chronological data, the age range of the Ozod cemetery is from 1700 BC to 1500 BC, which is closely related to the Sapali culture. Its chronological sequence covers at least two development stages of the Zharkutan period and the Kuzalin period. This discovery further improves the chronological framework, cultural staging and development of the Sapali culture, and fills the research gap in Bronze Age archeology in the upper reaches of the Surhan River. Typical artifacts such as trumpet-shaped earrings and flat-bottomed jars with triangular stamps were unearthed from the cemetery, showing distinct cultural characteristics of the Fedronovo stage of Andronovo culture, and providing direct physical evidence to reveal the cultural interaction between oasis settlement groups and grassland nomadic groups.

At present, the overall archaeological work of Ozod Cemetery has moved from field excavations to the stage of indoor data collection and multidisciplinary research. The follow-up archaeological team will systematically sort out the excavation data, restore the unearthed relics, carry out a series of scientific research tasks such as physical anthropological identification, analysis of artifact residues, and dating, etc., to deeply clarify the physical characteristics, kinship structure and livelihood patterns of the ancestors in the cemetery, and restore the true historical picture of human migration and mutual learning between civilizations in the early Silk Road.