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Paper abstract:

The kurgans (burial mounds) and ruins of ancient settlements and constructions are important elements of the heritage landscape of Kyrgyzstan and the entire Eurasian region. They are a great source of information about the people who lived on this territory in ancient times. Despite their importance, over the years these archaeological sites have continued to deteriorate under the influence of a number of factors. However, as practice shows, even destroyed kurgans or other heritage objects can be important sources of information about the past.

My study uses the power of declassified historical satellite imagery, combined with modern mapping services and geographic information systems (GIS) to find and locate the ruined archaeological sites. Although historical satellite imagery is available online, it is very rarely used by archaeologists in the Central Asian region. My research is aimed at showing the potential of GIS and historical satellite imagery to study the heritage landscape through case studies from Kyrgyzstan

The research is based on several cases in several areas of Kyrgyzstan: a) on 503 hectares between Ak-Torpok village and the Bishkek-Kara-Balta railroad in Chuy region; b) Ketmen-Tobo valley, which was turned into water reservoir in Jalal-Abad region; c) the areas near the ancient settlement of Ak-Beshim, near the town of Tokmok; d) other cases.

It provides a brief history of archaeological investigations in each area, eyewitness accounts, and the dynamics of heritage landscape change over time. In addition, the international experience of using cartography, GIS, and declassified satellite imagery to locate and study archaeological sites is discussed.

The study proposed the use of a series of historical satellite images from the U.S. CORONA, ARGON, LANYARD, GAMBIT and HEXAGON reconnaissance programs over different periods from 1960s to late 1970s to achieve maximum effectiveness to find, locate and study heritage landscapes of the past. The results of the work show that through the use of images from different periods in combination with modern GIS and digital maps it is possible to detect and locate a sufficiently higher number of lost archaeological sites.

The methods used in this study can contribute directly to ongoing efforts of finding and preserving archaeological sites that were considered lost for further research.

My research is based on Landscape Archaeology theory and scientific papers within this field.