ASTANA — Archaeologists from across the Turkic world are moving towards a new model of cooperation that could make the region’s archaeological heritage easier to study as a single interconnected historical space. At the third meeting of the Association of Research Institutes and Centers of Archaeology of the Turkic World (ARICA) in Bugac, Hungary on Aug.
15, experts discussed the creation of a shared digital infrastructure for archaeological research, reported the Turkic Academy. One of the key proposals is an electronic atlas of archaeological sites of the Turkic countries, which would bring together information on the location and chronology of archaeological sites, research findings, photographs, plans and scientific publications.
A digital information portal and electronic research database are also planned to facilitate the exchange of information on expeditions, research projects, publications, conferences, grants, educational programmes and specialists. The initiative is substantial because archaeological heritage does not follow today’s political borders.
Ancient settlements, burial grounds, trade routes and cultural traditions developed across territories that now belong to different states. A common digital research environment could therefore help scholars look at the history of Central Asia and the Eurasian steppe as a connected process rather than a collection of separate national histories.
Founded in 2023, ARICA was created at the initiative of the Turkic Academy with the first meeting held in Shusha in 2024, followed by Ankara and Gaziantep in 2025. Kazakhstan’s Margulan Institute of Archaeology has been among its founding institutions. The association was created as a platform for joint research, exchange of experience and the development of cooperation among archaeological institutions of the Turkic world.
The Turkic Academy, headquartered in Astana, has played a coordinating role in this process, bringing together research institutions and specialists from across the Turkic world. ARICA meetings have involved archaeologists and academic institutions from Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Türkiye, Uzbekistan and Mongolia, among other countries.
The association’s agenda has gradually moved beyond institutional cooperation towards practical joint research. Proposed areas include joint expeditions, excavations and documentation of archaeological sites, as well as the study of Silk Road cities, early Turkic monuments, ancient irrigation systems, nomadic cultures and medieval production centers.
This gives Kazakhstan a role that goes beyond simply contributing archaeological sites to a future database. Kazakh institutions are themselves generating new archaeological data, developing international partnerships and contributing to projects designed to place the history of the Eurasian steppe in a broader regional context.
Kazakhstan’s vast array of archaeological evidence For Kazakhstan, this is particularly relevant. The country occupies a vast part of the Eurasian steppe and contains archaeological evidence covering almost the entire history of human settlement in the region from the Stone Age and early metallurgy to the Kangju period, the Turkic era, the Oghuz world and the Golden Horde.
The scale of Kazakhstan’s archaeological record can be seen in discoveries made across the country in recent years. In 2025, the exhibition “New Discoveries in the Archaeology of Kazakhstan” presented finds covering the Stone Age, Eneolithic, Bronze Age, Saka-Sarmatian period and Middle Ages, reported the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.