The Northern Masters of Eurasia: Nomadic Elites at the Dawn of the Silk Roads

Nomads of Eurasia have long been seen as phantom menaces at the edges of history, hovering beyond the realms of civilization. Yet archaeological remains from Central Asia reveal that peoples of the steppe created sophisticated societies and became active drivers—not passive purveyors—of continental trade and exchange. Through excavations of tombs and the peoples and treasures within, this Klinsky Expedition will help elucidate how steppe nomads harnessed together the east-west Silk Routes and the north-south Fur Routes to become architects of archaic globalizations. 

Arman Bisembayev and other local scholars have in recent years begun to unearth a host of elaborate burial sites in western Kazakhstan spanning the first millennium BCE—a time when Scythians of the vast steppelands laid the first groundwork for intense transcontinental interactions and Hunnic elites eventually rose to become entrepreneurs of the wide realms linking together the great empires from East to West. Our group from the University of Michigan has established a new project with Dr. Bisembayev and other colleagues of the Kazakh Institute of Archaeology to investigate the leaders of this long yet pivotal period in early Eurasian history.  

Although most burials sit as unassuming mounds within the open steppe, they yield a wealth of materials. We will conduct detailed surface and subsurface surveys to identify not only the large conspicuous mounds but also the obscure ritual spaces and hidden burial chambers within the cemetery grounds. Team members will also engage in in-field preservation to manage fragile objects or organic materials, followed by laboratory conservation to look at the material compositions and manufacturing techniques of any objects of interest. Finally, we will further bioarchaeological studies through laboratory analyses that address diet and health as well as kin relations and larger population dynamics. 

In addition to greatly expanding the work at the newly investigated sites of Taskopa and Akbulak, we also aim to launch regional surveys to look for as-of-yet undocumented cemeteries of the nomadic elites that lie in the core areas north of the Caspian Sea—a region that linked the Central Asian “Silk Road” realms with the Black Sea and the Mediterranean worlds beyond. 

Bryan K. Miller is assistant professor of Central Asian art and archaeology in the History of Art Department and assistant curator of Asian archaeology in the Museum of Anthropological Archaeology. His work investigates the intersections of visual materials and political cultures in the Eurasian steppes. His recent book on the Xiongnu, the first nomadic empire, interweaves textual analyses of Chinese accounts with archaeological examinations of material remains spread across China, Mongolia, and southern Russia, all in an effort to challenge normative constructs of nomadic societies and the political institutions—and visual arts—they create. His new work in Kazakhstan expands this suite of investigations to explore the active role that steppe societies played in shaping the continental exchanges so often attributed to the Silk Roads.