Protecting Historic Treasures: Kazakhstan
Significant cultural landscapes along the Silk Road
The Silk Road was a vast network of routes across Central Asia that flourished during the first millennium of the current era. As much as it provided a link between China and Europe, the Silk Road also functioned as a trading network among neighboring communities and states. In terms of historical development, the movement of ideas and technology along the route was as important as the trading of goods.
The focus on Silk Road documentation to date has been on the conservation of remains of the towns that dotted the ancient trade network. But conservation architect Yelena Khorosh points out that the success of the route depended equally on the participation and cooperation of nomadic tribes who populated the desert through which the Silk Road passed. Nomadic groups were themselves important conduits for the movement of goods, information and technology in the area.
This is particularly true for Kazakhstan, where the northern Silk Road passed largely through thinly populated areas of desert and steppe. A project funded by the U.S. Ambassador's Fund for Cultural Preservation undertook a survey of cultural landscapes associated with the Silk Road in Kazakhstan, paying special attention to collecting evidence of nomadic cultures. The project, which runs from 2006 to 2007, consists of a survey of existing data and a field survey of likely sites.
Evidence of nomad cultures-such as houses, yurt platforms, burial mounds, the remains of wells, and petroglyphs-will be collected and the sites delineated and mapped to provide a basis for future protection.
Work is underway to compile an unprecedented "serial nomination" of sites associated with the Silk Road for a UNESCO World Heritage listing. Kazakhstani officials hope that the project will result in the nomination of the first trans-boundary World Heritage Site, stretching across China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
On the preliminary list no sites were listed for nomads, says Khorosh, who is project director for the survey, a UNESCO expert and an official at the Kazakh Scientific Research Institute on Problems of the Cultural Heritage of Nomads.
She says the concept of cultural landscape, which she describes as the common work of nature and man, needs to be more widely recognized in Central Asia, as nomads did not build monumental cultures. The current economic boom in Kazakhstan adds urgency to the need to identify and protect cultural landscapes, as mining, agriculture, housing and infrastructure projects are often launched without a preliminary archaeological survey. Many of the sites also face threats of flooding and salination due to extensive alteration of watercourses during the last century.