Kubatbek TABALDİYEV

Article | 2022 | Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution10

This paper presents archaeobotanical research results from an occupation horizon of the Chap II site left by the earliest known farming community in the Central Tien Shan mountains in the current territory of Kyrgyzstan. The archaeobotanical samples were recovered from well-defined contexts in domestic waste pits, house floors, fireplaces, and an oven, all of which date to a narrow period of occupation between 2474 and 2162 cal BCE (based on n-14 AMS dates). The archaeobotanical assemblage is dominated by the SW package crops of bread wheat and naked barley. Those are the only species to have progressed further east across the mount . . .ain ranges of Central Asia during the earliest wave of crop dispersal. However, other species in small quantities were also identified at the Chap II site, such as T. durum/turgidum and T. carthlicum, possibly glume wheats and hulled barley. Here, we argue that the dominant compact morphotypes seen only in bread wheat and naked barley caryopses hint toward a selection for the specific adaptive traits of cultigens that enabled successful agriculture in high-altitude ecogeographies. Large variations in cereal caryopses size possibly indicate that crops endured stress (e.g., insufficient nutrients, water, or other) during plant development. More research is needed for a better understanding of the developmental plasticity between different crop species and the formation of unique landraces in diverse environmental niches in the past More less

Kubatbek TABALDİYEV

Article | 2023 | Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution10

Wool-focused economies yielded a pastoralist materiality that visibly shaped the lived experiences of Central Asian populations today. In this paper, we investigate the earlier application of fibers through a key mountain corridor for social interactions during Prehistory. We focus on the site of Chap 1 located in the highlands of the Tien Shan Mountains of Kyrgyzstan where researchers have found a complex agropastoral subsistence culture was established from at least ca. 3,000 BCE. The perishable materials that would have accompanied the early spread of cultural and technological traditions related to fiber-based crafts throughout . . .this area are under-documented due to poor organic preservation. Hence, there has been little consideration of the role that textiles played in highland occupation and how woven fabrics might have facilitated settlement in the extreme climates of Central Asia. We address this ongoing problem through a multi-application survey of Chap's unpublished textile evidence preserved as impressions in coarseware ceramics of its Final Bronze Age. We consider evidence that sheep wool formed a key cultural adaptation for surviving the extreme winters of Central Asia's highland regions More less