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Description:
The volunteer camp is organized within the context of a three-year
INTAS project aimed at the reconstruction of two millennia of
water use and man-land interaction in the oasis of Otrar. The
site, a 10x10 km territory, situated in a semi desertic and lacustrine
landscape at the confluence of the Syrdaria and Arys rivers, is
literally covered by majestic remains of medieval towns, villages,
cemeteries and several layers of irrigation works. A UNESCO-managed
conservation project is also being carried out at the site.
Changes of palaeoclimates, of rivers behaviour and course, processes
of eolian and alluvial sedimentation, pedological problems, and
salinization, all interacted with social and cultural events in
determining the evolution of the site. All historical periods
are represented from the Palaeolithic to ethnographic times, but
the research will focus on the end of the first millennium B.C.
to the late Middle Ages when Otrar city was abandoned (18th century
A.D.).
Volunteers will be taught all the successive phases and methods
of geo-archaeological investigation. They will undertake a survey
(with the help of satellite images, aerial photos, maps, mini-van,
microlight flights for detailed documentation), take part in a
geo-morphological, sedimentary, pedological and paleobotanical
preliminary study of the site, collect samples for detailed laboratory
analyses, excavate trial-trenches and uncover cultural monuments
of strategic importance for dating or sampling purposes and undertake
advanced computerized documentation techniques.
Accommodation will be arranged in very comfortable country houses
of Uzbek style. Volunteers should bring a sleeping bag, a mat,
a sweater, some strong shoes, and a flashlight. The surroundings
offer facilities for excursions to the Syrdaria river, the desert,
the Karatau mountains, the medieval towns of Turkestan and Sauran;
for camel riding and hot springs. Further tours could be organized
at the end of the fieldwork (the Aral lake and Samarkand are just
five hours away).
Period(s) of occupation:
Neolithic to late Medieval
Minimum length of stay for volunteers:
2 weeks
Minimum age:
18 years old
Experience required:
Good physical fitness
Room and Board arrangements:
In local farm house.
Cost: $300 per week
Academic credit:
Offered by: State Institute for Scientific Research and Planning
on the monuments of Material Culture, Min.Culture, Kaz (NIPI PMK)
and Institute of Archaeology (on request)
Tuition: included in the general fee
Bibliography:
Groshev, V., The Ancient Irrigations in South Kazakhstan (in Russian).
Almaty , 1996.
Andrianov, B., Ancient Irrigation Systems in the pre-Aral region
(in Russian). Moscow , 1969.
Akishev, K., Erzakovich, L., and Baipakov, K., Ancient Otrar
(Topography, Stratigraphy, Perspectives) (in Russian) . Alma-Ata,
1972.
Baipakov, K., "Les Fouilles de la Ville d'Otrar." Archeologie
Islamique. III: 87-110. 1992.
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