THE HISTORY OF RESEARCH ON KAZAKH-PERIOD SITES IN THE SYR DARYA AND KARATAU REGIONS: THE 19TH–20TH CENTURIES

Abstract

The article examines the history of research on Kazakh-period monuments in the Syr Darya and Karatau regions and the characteristics of its development during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The study covers research conducted in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, while early eighteenth-century cartographic evidence is also considered in order to outline the initial foundations of this research history. The source base includes travelers’ accounts, military-topographic descriptions, materials from archaeological and archaeological-ethnographic expeditions, architectural studies, monument registers, and ethnographic data. The study traces the development of approaches to describing and recording monuments from route-based observations and descriptions to systematic archaeological, architectural, and ethnographic research. It is shown that nineteenth-century studies primarily recorded the location, appearance, building materials, and local names of monuments, whereas the Soviet period saw the extensive use of architectural measurements, topographic survey, aerial photography, epigraphic research, archaeological excavations, and interviews with informants. The study demonstrates the formation of several interconnected scholarly approaches to the investigation of monuments in the Syr Darya and Karatau regions.