Translation. Region: Russian Federal
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
BEIJING, June 18 (Xinhua) — Chinese archaeology is developing dynamically. Not long ago, advanced Chinese archaeological technologies were used during excavations at the Munchaktepa ancient settlement in Uzbekistan, and the results confirmed the spread of Chinese civilization in this area in ancient times.
Uzbekistan was an important hub and trade transit point on the Great Silk Road. According to the Shanghai Observer multimedia platform, since 2012, archaeological research institutions of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CAS) together with the National Center for Archaeological Research of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan have been conducting systematic field excavations in the Fergana Valley of this country. It was confirmed that the ancient city of Munchaktepa was most likely the capital of the ancient state of Davan mentioned in historical chronicles. This discovery provided important material evidence of civilizational exchange on the Great Silk Road.
In 2024, excavations at the Munchaktepa site reached a new milestone. Collective burials were discovered at the site. In early 2025, with the support of the AONK, members of the Joint Laboratory of Scientific and Technical Archaeology under the Belt and Road Initiative went to the Munchaktepa site to conduct excavations.
Initially, the researchers, with the help of the Uzbek side, built a temporary mobile module, but it turned out that it did not fully meet the working conditions. In this situation, they actually dismantled and reassembled their laboratory from Beijing: they selected portable equipment and necessary materials and built a mobile laboratory on the excavation site.
“The collaboration model we developed for meticulous excavation and rapid on-site protection of relics is an advanced technology that has undergone countless practical tests in China. This time, it has been fully applied to an archaeological site in Central Asia,” said Han Huarui, a junior researcher at AOC.
“We used the technology of transporting objects in a protective box to completely encapsulate these fragile relics. This not only minimized damage to the objects during transportation, but also preserved the burial information for future research,” she said.
When working with metal objects, the researchers carried out cleaning. After extraction, by removing corrosion, the original state of many artifacts such as earrings, pendants, etc. was restored.
The most surprising discovery was the Wuzhu coin. After conservation treatment, the characters “Wu Zhu” became clearly visible on the coin. This is the most direct evidence of ancient trade and exchange between the East and the West.
Cross-border archaeological research has become a successful practice of applying interdisciplinary approaches in Chinese archaeology, as well as a successful demonstration of Chinese archaeological concepts and technologies in the international arena. -0-