The Central Asian Archaeological Landscapes

The Central Asian Archaeological Landscapes

The Central Asian Archaeological Landscapes

12/05 2020

Rich in cultural heritage, Central Asia prides itself on its archaeological heritage.

Rich in cultural heritage, Central Asia prides itself on its archaeological heritage. However, urbanization, extensive agriculture, and, in general, routine anthropogenic activities change landscapes inexorably.
The Central Asian Archaeological Landscapes project was launched by University College London (UCL) to track these changes, assess risks, and foresee threats. Over the past hundred years, a lot of research has been carried out in the region and the main goal of the project is to collect this data into a single database. Teams from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China catalog and digitize archives, which tend to deteriorate over time. Old photographs, celluloid films, hand-drawn maps, diagrams, plans, reports and diaries - all this helps to document the monuments, and locate communication and trade routes, which contributed to the transformation of the image of the region. Remote sensing teams explore the area using satellite technology and link archives to a map. The project is sponsored by the Arcadia Foundation and unites the largest institutes and leading scientists of the region, coordinated by the International Institute for Central Asian Studies.
The extraordinary situation associated with self-isolation across the globe did not harm the project in the manner. On the contrary, the participants got more opportunities to meet each other online, discuss problems, share ideas. Find out more about the project and the teams involved on the project website https://uclcaal.org/ and on our pages on Facebook.

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