Archaeologists have uncovered the submerged ruins of a medieval Silk Highway metropolis beneath Lake Issyk-Kul. Positioned in northeastern Kyrgyzstan, excessive within the Tien Shan mountains, the lake sits at an elevation of about 1,607 meters (5,272 ft) above sea degree and is the second-largest mountain lake on this planet after Lake Titicaca.
The invention was made by a world underwater archaeological expedition earlier this yr. The expedition, carried out in shallow waters at depths of about 1 to 4 m (3.3 to 13 ft) , uncovered submerged ruins together with brick buildings, a millstone, embellished architectural fragments, a thirteenth–14th-century Muslim necropolis, burials, and enormous ceramic vessels. It confirms {that a} thriving settlement as soon as stood there earlier than being misplaced to an earthquake.
The significance of the Issyk-Kul discovery lies in confirming the existence of a medieval Silk Highway metropolis lengthy thought misplaced, providing direct proof of its structure, commerce, and spiritual life. By uncovering ruins, artifacts, and burials, scientists can now reconstruct how completely different cultures, economies, and faiths intersected in Central Asia, whereas additionally preserving a singular underwater heritage web site that had remained hidden for hundreds of years.
The primary web site found by scientists throughout the Issyk-Kul expedition was the ruins of a medieval metropolis. At this web site, they discovered baked-brick buildings, fragments of destroyed buildings, and a stone millstone used for grinding grain. In addition they found an architectural characteristic that implies a embellished social constructing like a mosque, bathhouse, or madrasa. They recorded the stays of stone and wooden-beam buildings, after which despatched samples for relationship to search out out the settlement’s age.
“The monument underneath examine is a metropolis or a big business agglomeration on one of many essential sections of the Silk Highway,” defined Valery Kolchenko, who led the Kyrgyz workforce. “Firstly of the fifteenth century, because of a horrible earthquake, town went underneath the waters of the lake.”
Elizaveta Romashkina
Kolchenko likens the drama of the earthquake to the volcanic decimation of Pompeii. He suggests town was shortly flooded.
The workforce additionally collected fragments of wooden and different natural supplies from the buildings and despatched them for dendrochronological evaluation (learning tree-ring patterns to find out age) and AMS relationship (Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, a precise type of radiocarbon relationship).
The second web site revealed a putting and haunting discovery: a Muslim cemetery from the thirteenth to 14th century beneath the lake’s waters. It covers an space measuring about 300 x 200 m (984 x 656 ft).
Archaeologists documented burials that adopted conventional Islamic rituals; skeletons had been laid with their our bodies dealing with north and their faces turned towards the Qibla, the route of the Kaaba in Mecca.
From this necropolis, the workforce recovered the stays of two people, a person and a lady. They’ll endure in-depth anthropological examine to higher perceive their age, well being, and cultural context. The location offers direct proof of how Islamic practices unfold into Central Asia throughout the Silk Highway period.
“Folks right here practiced varied religions: pagan Tengrianism, Buddhism, Nestorian Christianity,” mentioned Maksim Menshikov, a researcher engaged on the expedition. “The ruling elite usually turned to Islam throughout their rule, however this faith didn’t turn into widespread in Central Asia till the thirteenth century. Earlier than that, Islam was primarily the faith of the the Aristocracy and of these engaged in energetic financial exercise.”
One other web site uncovered fragments of medieval ceramics together with a big intact khum, a storage vessel used for holding grain, liquids, or different items. The khum stays deeply embedded within the lakebed and will probably be rigorously raised within the subsequent excavation season. Close by, the workforce found three burials, which they imagine belong to an earlier cemetery. This implies that the world was used repeatedly over completely different durations, indicating a fancy, multi‑layered historical past of occupation and improvement.
The workforce additionally found mud partitions and buried soils, and drilled underwater to doc the stays of rounded and rectangular buildings. These buildings are believed to have been elements of dwellings or public buildings. These soil and structural analyses are essential as a result of they permit scientists to reconstruct the chronology of town’s progress, transformation, and eventual decline earlier than it was submerged.
Superior underwater drones from Trionix Lab mapped the ruins intimately, making a digital document that can assist protect the location as erosion continues.
To archaeologists, Issyk-Kul is not only a lake however a time capsule, the place every artifact, whether or not a millstone or a skeleton, reveals echoes of commerce, religion, and endurance alongside the Silk Highway.
Supply: Russian Geographical Society
