The Khanate of Bukhara was a Central Asian state from 1506 to 1785, followed by the Emirate of Bukhara from 1785 to 1920 in what is now modern-day Uzbekistan. It occupied the land between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, known formerly as Transoxiana. Today the territory of the defunct emirate lies mostly in Uzbekistan,… Continue reading Khanate and Emirate of Bukhara
Month: October 2018
Russian Conquest of Central Asia
The Russian Conquest of Central Asia took place in the second half of the nineteenth century. The land that became Russian Turkestan and later Soviet Central Asia is now divided between Kazakhstan in the north, Uzbekistan across the center, Kyrgyzstan in the east, Tajikistan in the southeast and Turkmenistan in the southwest. The area was called Turkestan because most of its inhabitants spoke Turkic languages with the exception of Tajikistan, which speaks an Iranian language.
Sintashta Culture
The Sintashta culture is widely regarded as the origin of the Indo-Iranian languages. The earliest known chariots have been found in Sintashta burials, and the culture is considered a strong candidate for the origin of the technology, which spread throughout the Old World and played an important role in ancient warfare. Sintashta settlements are also remarkable for the intensity of copper mining and bronze metallurgy carried out there, which is unusual for a steppe culture
Bronze Age in Central Asia
Evidence of wheat, copper and millet gives clues to the first connections between West and East were made in the Bronze Age and archaeologists are finding clues of the specific routes that were taken. A current best guess is for a steppe connection at the beginning of the third millennium BC (3000 BCE) and a ‘silk road’ connection at the end of the 3rd millennium (2000 BCE). However, a much earlier connection (the sixth millennium BC) is still arguable
Silk Road Research 