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Archaeologists from the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen (UWB) focused their research on mountainous areas in southern Kyrgyzstan, where nomadic communities were forced into sedentarization during the period of Soviet agricultural collectivization. Until then, the traditional subsistence of Kyrgyz people was based on the vertical transhumance of cattle and horses, which grazed on the summer grasslands in the montane zone spring to autumn (dzhailo) and spent the winters in the valleys or foothills (kyshlak). In the 1930s, entire communities had to abandon their nomadic way of life and settle in permanent villages, where kolkhozes and sovkhozes were established. Community members who resisted were deported to other regions or imprisoned in Gulag camps as part of the fight against the so-called kulaks.

In the Batken region, researchers focused on the settlement of Ravat (1,800 m above sea level), where the historical settlement structure was documented. The survey confirmed a long settlement tradition from the prehistoric period to the modern era and also revealed the remains of a medieval caravanserai, which the local kolkhoz used as a fuel storage facility and tractor repair shop. The building was later dismantled due to a lack of building materials, and the historical bricks from the Karakhanid period (10th–12th centuries) were used in the construction of modern Soviet cotton dryers in the village of Samarkandek near the border with Tajikistan.
The research also aimed at the second section of the village, which was used as a kolkhoz dzhailo for summer grazing, where the entire community would relocate every summer until the 1980s. Today, the now-abandoned houses bear witness to the everyday life of Kyrgyz kolkhoz workers.

In the Osh region, research continued in three mountain villages at altitudes ranging from 1,400 to 2,200 meters above sea level. The team documented material remains associated with the transition from a nomadic to a sedentary way of life and recorded the oral testimonies. At the Ak-Dzhar site, where archaeological research on Iron Age settlement mounds had previously been conducted, the remains of a settlement abandoned after the deportation of the nomadic community were uncovered. For centuries, the site served as a winter camp for the Kodokochun tribe, whose inhabitants were resettled to the Fergana Valley in 1952–1953, where they had to work on cotton plantations. Archaeologists found the remains of dwellings and material culture items from the 19th and the early 20th century.

And that's not all. We previously reported on another topic that archaeologists from the Faculty of Arts of the University of West Bohemia brought back from Kazachstan.


The expedition is part of the project The Land Gone Wilde: Archaeological and Transdisciplinary Research on Resilience Strategies in the 20th Century (OP JAK, reg. no. CZ.02.01.01/00/23_025/0008705), which is supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports and co-financed by the European Union.