Ural Federal University Scholars Celebrate Archaeologist’s Day at Excavations in Uzbekistan
Students of the Ural Institute of Humanities of UrFU are celebrating the Archaeologist’s Day on an expedition in Uzbekistan, where under the guidance of Rustam Ganiev, Head of the Laboratory of Natural Science Methods in Humanities of UrFU, they are undergoing museum and archaeological practice.
During the internship they are scheduled to visit Samarkand, Bukhara, Tashkent and Shakhrisabz. Now the students are taking part in excavations at the ancient settlement of Afrasiab, on the northern outskirts of modern Samarkand. There they have already found the first shards.
“At the moment we are digging the outskirts of ancient Samarkand, the quarter and dwelling of ordinary residents of the ancient city, traders, craftsmen. The finds are standard – a hearth, a tandoor, a lot of ceramics, some glassware, one knife, a few coins, animal bones. Earlier colleagues from Uzbekistan found a burial of a woman in a neighboring excavation. Digging is interesting, but it is very hot, so we dig from 06:00 to 11:00,” says Rustam Ganiev.
In previous visits, the UrFU researchers dug the central part of the city, where people with higher income probably lived. As Ganiev explains, in the dwellings of these people found “tashnau”, which is a sanitary-cleaning device designed to drain dirty water after washing hands, dishes, as well as a ceramic pipe for draining water and some wall images that are called frescoes.
It should be reminded that the staff of the Department of Russian History and the Laboratory of Natural Science Methods in Humanities of UrFU agreed to resume research practices in 2022-2023 with Samarkand State University named after S. Rashivod (one of the oldest universities in Uzbekistan), with Samarkand State Historical-Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve and with Institute of Archaeological Research named after Y. Gulyamov Archaeological Institute of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan.
UrFU students have been traveling to Uzbekistan for internships since 2010 (at that time it was the first student group from Russia to come to Uzbekistan for excavations since 1989), but there was more than a three-year hiatus due to COVID-19 restrictions. This year the trips have resumed.