Yedisu Bölgesi Kurganlarının Tarihi ve Kültürel Açıdan Değerlendirilmesi

Abstract

Inner Asia has historically served as a dynamic crucible of intense political, cultural, and ethnic mobility, functioning as the primordial homeland for nomadic societies such as the Turks and Mongols. Characterized primarily by pastoralism and seasonal migrations between summer and winter pastures, these steppe communities utilized portable tents as their most practical adaptation to nomadic life. Concurrently, recent archaeological excavations demonstrate that urban traditions also emerged within this nomadic landscape, beginning as early as the Saka period. This regional dynamism and socio-economic prosperity were profoundly catalyzed by the Great Silk Road, which expanded trade volumes, diversified social capacities, and funded monumental architecture alongside the exceptionally rich funerary contexts discovered today. Representing all these dense historical characteristics, the Yedisu (Semirechye) region, encompassing a vast territory in southeastern Kazakhstan, stands out as a critical transit zone and a cultural hub for travelers and merchants alike. Consequently, the area preserves an extraordinary abundance of archaeological, written, and architectural remains, including ancient cities, fortresses, graves, tombstones, rock paintings, balbals, and stone statues. This thesis focuses specifically on the kurgans of the Yedisu region, which constitute the richest repository of archaeological data available for tracing the developmental trajectory of Turkic cultural history back to its earliest epochs. By analyzing distinct kurgan groups dating between the 8th century BC and the 3rd century AD, this study comprehensively examines the material culture and historical traces of early nomadic societies, focusing predominantly on the Saka and Wusun communities.