Unknown Saka Settlement on the Shores of Issyk-Kul?

Hypothesis—1985

At the bottom of the Tyup Bay of Issyk-Kul during the field season of 1985, we discovered a large settlement. The findings indicated that it existed sometime in the first millennium BC. However, all of this needed to be proven through new excavations and scientific research. We based our work on one appealing hypothesis: the discovery of the city of Chigu—the capital of the nomads in the 2nd century BC. This needed to be confirmed or disproved through field (or rather, underwater) archaeological research. We believe that constructing a hypothesis and then thoroughly testing it is undoubtedly a better path to truth than simply accumulating facts without relying on a core hypothesis, and then drawing conclusions, hypotheses, or theories from the summed results. While we do not deny the possibility of taking the latter approach, we preferred the former as it seemed more interesting. Even if the facts disproved the hypothesis, it would still provide a certain resolution to the problem. For a negative result is also a result.

Thus, we assumed that we had found the ruins of the famous city of Chigu—the residence of the powerful ruler of the ancient Usun tribal union on Issyk-Kul, an important intermediate trading point on the emerging Silk Road. Based on this, we began to view our initial coastal and underwater finds as items of material culture from the capital residence of ancient nomadic lords.

Subsequent discoveries—each older than the last—led us further away from the boundary of the new era to the beginning of the first millennium BC—toward the time of the final Bronze Age (the concluding stage of the Bronze Age) and the formation of the Saka nomadic tribal union. This was later succeeded by the Usun tribal union with its capital in Chitu, which absorbed all the elements of the preceding culture.

So perhaps we have discovered an unknown Saka settlement on the shores of Issyk-Kul, which later grew into the capital of the Usuns?

Questions followed questions, mysteries followed mysteries. They continued later when we touched upon medieval underwater settlements.

The background of the search, the search process itself, the analysis of the materials obtained, facts, legends, and hypotheses compose the narratives of the proposed book.

Zhang Qian, a master diplomat but a mediocre military commander