Tag Archive for 'Silk Road'

A drone captured this image of Tugunbulak in 2018. Image credit: M. Frachetti.

Two Ancient Silk Road Cities Discovered in Uzbekistan

Oct 30, 2024 by News Staff

Named Tashbulak and Tugunbulak, these two medieval cities are among the largest ever documented in the mountainous parts of the Silk Road, the vast network...

A compilation of evidence for ancient chickens in Central Asia: SEM images of a Bash Tepa egg shell, emphasizing morphologically distinct breathing pores at magnifications x30 (a), x150 (b), x750 (e, f); (c) a ceramic egg with clay balls from Bukhara dating between the tenth and twelfth centuries CE; (d) the Sophytes coin from Bactria in 300 BCE; (g) a fragment of an ossuary from Bash Tepa dating to the last centuries BCE, with an apparent chicken on the top; (h) a selection of eggshells from the Bukhara site, showing color (essentially all white) and burning, which was evident on many of the shells. Image credit: Peters et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-46093-2.

Study: Chickens Were Widely Raised across Southern Central Asia as Early as 400 BCE

Apr 2, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

The origins and dispersal of the chicken (Gallus gallus) across the ancient world is one of the most enigmatic questions regarding Eurasian domesticated...

Dong et al. elucidate grapevine evolution and domestication histories with 3,525 cultivated and wild accessions worldwide: in the Pleistocene, harsh climate drove the separation of wild grape ecotypes caused by continuous habitat fragmentation; then, domestication occurred concurrently about 11,000 years ago in Western Asia and the Caucasus to yield table and wine grapevines; the Western Asia domesticates dispersed into Europe with early farmers, introgressed with ancient wild western ecotypes, and subsequently diversified along human migration trails into muscat and unique western wine grape ancestries by the Late Neolithic. Image credit: Dong et al., doi: 10.1126/science.add8655.

New Study Sheds Light on Origins and Domestication of Grapevines

Mar 22, 2023 by News Staff

Humans have extensively shaped animals and plants through domestication. Although wine and table grapes have been important culturally for thousands of...

Toonen et al. challenge the long-held view that the fall of Central Asia’s river civilizations was determined by warfare and the destruction of irrigation infrastructure during the Mongol invasion. Image credit: National Library, Berlin.

Climate Change, Not Mongol Invasion, Destroyed Central Asia’s River Civilizations

Dec 17, 2020 by News Staff

The Aral Sea basin in Central Asia and its major rivers, the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, were the center of advanced river civilizations, and a principal...

Ashkenazi Jews of 19th century Eastern Europe portrayed in Jews Praying in the Synagogue on Yom Kippur, by Maurycy Gottlieb, 1878 (from Jewish Art, p. 199).

Yiddish Language was Invented by Slavo-Iranian Jewish Merchants, Scientists Say

Apr 19, 2016 by News Staff

A new tool called the Geographic Population Structure (GPS), which converts DNA data into its ancestral coordinates, has pinpointed origin of Yiddish speakers,...