Sarazm
archaeological site
Sarazm (Tajik: Саразм) is a town and also a jamoat in the city of Panjakent in Sughd Region, north-western Tajikistan. It dates back to the 4th millennium BC, with C14 dates ranging from 3900 to 2100 BC, and was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The jamoat is part of and has a total population of 27,877 (2015). It consists of 21 villages, including Chimqal'a (the seat), Abdusamad, Bostondeh, Kamar, Kamar-Tash and Sohibnazar.
The archaeological site of the ancient city of Sarazm is near Sohibnazar, a village on the left bank of the river Zeravshan, near the border with Uzbekistan. The culture of Sarazm precedes the arrival of the Andronovo steppe culture in South Central Asia in the 2nd millennium BC.
Archeology
Located 15 kilometers west of the city of Panjakent, the site occupies an area of about 1.5 km in length and 400 to 900m in width. At the peak of the occupation, the site would have covered an area of up to 90 hectares, 35 of which are unobstructed.
The site is of great interest for archaeologists as it constitutes the first proto-historical agricultural society in this region of Central Asia. Moreover, it is the most north-eastern of those proto-historical agricultural permanent settlements. Sarazm was the first city in Central Asia to maintain economic relations with a network of settlements covering a vast territory from the Turkmenistan steppes and the Aral sea (in the northwest) to the Iranian Plateau and the Indus (in the south and southeast).
Discovery and excavations
Following surface discoveries unearthed due to agricultural activity, the first excavation of the site started in 1977 and was conducted by Abdullah Isakov of the Academy of Science of Tajikistan.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q422929. VIAF identifies the subject as 238114834. Authority coordinates are 39.517, 67.567. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2015 and 1977.
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