The Kulal Tepa Archaeological Project: Preliminary report for the first season of archaeological survey, autumn 2023 (southern Uzbekistan)

Abstract

This report introduces the background and methods of the survey part of the Kulal Tepa Archaeological Project of the Czech-Uzbekistani Archaeological Expedition, which combines extensive surface survey, systematic surface collection, and remote sensing, and outlines the preliminary results of its first season in 2023. The surface assemblages show in the valley of Kulal Tepa only a limited past activity related either to the Prehistory or to the High Medieval and Pre -Modern periods. On the other hand, this area seems to have been steadily occupied in the Antique and Early Medieval periods. Although only a small portion of the valley was used during the Hellenistic and Transitional/Early Kushan period (the site of Iskandar Tepa), the collected material suggests a substantial development dated from no later than the Kushano -Sasanian period, resulting in an identified artefact scatter stretching on around 80 ha around Kulal Tepa. A combination of more or less stable settlement activities and irrigated agriculture is suggested as a preliminary interpretation.

Keywords

• central asia
• northern bactria
• archaeological survey
• landscape archaeology
• kushano -sasanian period