Digging up the Past

A row has erupted over excavations by a Georgian archaeological team at a historical site in Kyrgyzstan. Although the Kyrgyz government has now banned further work there following public pressure, NBCentralAsia observers say the case highlights the lax controls governing archaeological exploration.



At the end of July, Kyrgyz media reported that archaeologists from Georgia were conducting a dig at the Manas Ordo site in the northern Talas region. The site has a 14th century mausoleum where the daughter of a Karakhanid-dynasty ruler is buried, but local tradition has it that the building is in fact the last resting-place of Manas, the hero of Kyrgyzstan’s national epic.



The site has been a major tourist attraction and a place of pilgrimage for Kyrgyz since the government erected several modern buildings there in 1995 to mark the 1000th anniversary of the Manas poem.



The excavation work, at the foot of Karool-Choku, a hill near the mausoleum, sparked many rumours, one of which was that Manas’s treasure, consisting of 4,000 tons of gold, was hidden there.



At the beginning of August, one of the Georgian archaeologists, Vissarion Khvinteliani, tried to clear up the situation by saying his team was hoping to find an ancient building of immense historical and religious significance under the hill.



The dig engendered a wave of public indignation, with a number of politicians and NGO activists describing it as sacrilegious and accusing Cholponbek Abykeev, the head of the presidential administration’s public affairs department, of backing the foreign archaeologists.



Under mounting pressure, Prime Minister Almazbek Atambaev banned any further exploration on August 6.



Abykeev told NBCentralAsia that the exploration team believe the man-made hill contains a 3,200 year old building, but he said they “never talked about any treasure”.



He added that those in charge of the Manas-Ordo side had a right to decide what happens on their territory, and that they had signed an agreement with the Georgian archaeologists and with Kyrgyzstan’s Institute of History.



But according to Jumamidel Imankulov, director of research at Kyrgyzrestavratsia, a centre for historical restoration, the Georgian archaeologists did not obtain a proper permit to explore the hill.



“Some high-level official from the government gave them some sort of permit and they started digging, ignoring all Kyrgyz laws and rules”, he said.



Aida Abdykanova, an archaeologist and lecturer at the American University in Central Asia, says that licensing bodies should tighten up on archaeological digs, cross-check people’s motives for digging and ensure it is done properly.



“I would like the government, the Academy of Sciences and the ministry of culture to exert strict control over the issuing of open-ended permits and licenses and make sure that reports are done on time”, she said.



(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)