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96-567: Fergana first appears in written records in the 5th-century. However, archeological evidence demonstrates that the city had been populated since the Chalcolithic period. Like many other Central Asian places in the sixth and seventh-centuries, Fergana was ruled by the Western Turkic Khaganate . Although it was still predominantly inhabited by eastern Iranians, many Turks had also started to settle there. The city of Fergana

192-585: A transitional Copper Age and the Bronze Age proper . He did not include the transitional period in the Bronze Age, but described it separately from the customary stone / bronze / iron system, at the Bronze Age's beginning. He did not, however, present it as a fourth age but chose to retain the tripartite system . In 1884, Gaetano Chierici , perhaps following the lead of Evans, renamed it in Italian as

288-589: A considerable degree with the local Turkic and Turkic-speaking population, so that at the time of Timur's reign the Barlas had become thoroughly Turkicized in terms of language and habits. Additionally, by adopting Islam, the Central Asian Turks and Mongols also adopted the Persian literary and high culture which had dominated Central Asia since the early days of Islamic influence. Persian literature

384-465: A gallop, the sculpture symbolizes peak speed and power, with its V-shaped leg arrangement echoing Greek symbols of speed and victory. Detailed anatomical features, such as visible ribs and dynamic muscle contractions, showcase a profound understanding of equine biomechanics. The lifelike depiction extends to aerodynamic adaptations like flat ears, a streamlined mane, and a fanned tail, enhancing balance and stability at high speeds. Decorative swirls symbolize

480-426: A good many camels are bred. Over 6,900 ha (17,000 acres) were planted with vines , and some 140,000 ha (350,000 acres) were under cotton . Nearly 400,000 ha (1,000,000 acres) were covered with forests. The government maintained a forestry farm at Marghelan , from which 120,000 to 200,000 young trees were distributed free every year amongst the inhabitants of the province. Silkworm breeding, formerly

576-566: A group of prominent local businessmen brought underlying tensions to a head in the region around Andijan and Qorasuv during the May 2005 unrest in Uzbekistan in which hundreds of protestors were killed by troops. There was violence again in 2010 in the Kyrgyz part of the valley, heated by ethnic tensions, worsening economic conditions due to the global economic crisis, and political conflict over

672-819: A path between Greek, Chinese, Bactrian and Parthian civilisations. It was home to Babur , founder of the Mughal dynasty , tying the region to modern Afghanistan and South Asia. The Russian Empire conquered the valley at the end of the 19th century, and it became part of the Soviet Union in the 1920s. Its three Soviet republics gained independence in 1991. The area largely remains Muslim , populated by ethnic Uzbek , Tajik and Kyrgyz people , often intermixed and not matching modern borders. Historically there have also been substantial numbers of Russian , Kashgarian , Kipchak , Bukharan Jewish and Romani minorities. The economy centers around extensive cotton cultivation,

768-472: A practice initiated by the Soviets, complemented by a diverse array of grains, fruits, and vegetables. Additionally, the region has a rich heritage in stock breeding, leatherwork, and a progressively expanding mining industry, including deposits of coal , iron , sulfur , gypsum , rock-salt , naphtha and some small known oil reserves. The word Fergana ( / f ɜːr ˈ ɡ ɑː n ə / fur-GAHN-ə )

864-625: A prosperous industry, had decayed, despite the encouragement of a state farm at New Marghelan. Coal, iron, sulfur, gypsum , rock-salt , and naphtha are all known to exist, but only the last two have ever been extracted in significant quantities. In the late 19th century there were a few small oil-wells in Fergana, but these no longer function. In the Tsarist period the only industrial enterprises were some seventy or eighty factories engaged in cotton cleaning. Leather, saddlery, paper and cutlery were

960-654: A revolt which was far more widespread than that of 1898, and which was not entirely suppressed by the time of the Russian Revolution . In 1924, the new boundaries separating the Uzbek SSR and Kyrgyz SSR cut off the eastern end of the Fergana Valley, as well as the slopes surrounding it. This was compounded in 1928 when the Tajik ASSR became a fully-fledged republic, and the area around Khujand

1056-632: A separate geographic zone. The valley owes its fertility to two rivers, the Naryn and the Kara Darya , which unite in the valley, near Namangan , to form the Syr Darya . Numerous other tributaries of these rivers exist in the valley including the Sokh River . The streams, and their numerous mountain effluents, not only supply water for irrigation, but also bring down vast quantities of sand, which

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1152-577: A single source. Knowledge of the use of copper was far more widespread than the metal itself. The European Battle Axe culture used stone axes modeled on copper axes, even with moulding carved in the stone. Ötzi the Iceman , who was found in the Ötztal Alps in 1991 and whose remains have been dated to about 3300 BC, was found with a Mondsee copper axe. Examples of Chalcolithic cultures in Europe include Vila Nova de São Pedro and Los Millares on

1248-546: A wingspan over 20 cm. Unusual small reptiles, Longisquama with long scales, and Sharovipteryx , which glided using a membrane stretched between their paws, were also found here. The climate of this valley is dry and continental, being mostly a cool arid climate ( Köppen BWk ) or a cool semi-arid climate ( BSk ) in less shielded areas. In March the temperature reaches 20 °C (68 °F), and then rapidly rises to 35 °C (95 °F) in June, July and August. During

1344-524: Is Babur , heir to Timur and famous conqueror and founder of the Mughal dynasty in Medieval India . Islamic proselytizers from the Fergana Valley such as al-Firghani الفرغاني, al-Andijani الأندجاني, al-Namangani النمنگاني, al-Khojandi الخوجندي spread Islam into parts of present-day Russia, China, and India. The Fergana valley was ruled by a series of Muslim states in the medieval period. For much of this period local and southwestern rulers divided

1440-966: Is a Chalcolithic site in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent . It is located on the south bank of Ajay River in West Bengal . Blackware , painted Koshi ware, pottery, various ornaments made of pearl and copper, various types of tools, pieces of fabric woven from Shimul cotton thread, human and various animal skeletons, burnt clay fragments have been found at the site. In March 2018, archaeologists had discovered three carts and copper artifacts including weapons dating to 1800 BC in Sanauli village of Uttar Pradesh. The artifacts belongs to Ochre Coloured Pottery culture . Andean civilizations in South America appear to have independently invented copper smelting. The term "Chalcolithic"

1536-622: Is also applied to American civilizations that already used copper and copper alloys thousands of years before Europeans immigrated. Besides cultures in the Andes and Mesoamerica, the Old Copper complex mined and fabricated copper as tools, weapons, and personal ornaments in an area centered in the upper Great Lakes region (present-day Michigan and Wisconsin ). The evidence of smelting or alloying that has been found in North America

1632-485: Is also documented at the nearby site of Tell Maghzaliyah , which seems to be dated even earlier, and completely lacks pottery. The Timna Valley contains evidence of copper mining in 7000–5000 BC. The process of transition from Neolithic to Chalcolithic in the Middle East is characterized in archaeological stone tool assemblages by a decline in high quality raw material procurement and use. This dramatic shift

1728-504: Is approximately 321,800 as of 2024, was 314,400 as of 2023, and 299,200 as of 2022. Uzbeks are the largest ethnic group, with Russian-speakers comprising about 25% of the city's population. Thanks to independence, Uzbek sport is developing. Sports are becoming more and more popular in all regions of the country. The fact that in recent years world and Asian champions in various sports have appeared in Fergana Region testifies to

1824-520: Is characterized by block subsidence , originally to depths estimated at 6 to 7 kilometres (3.7 to 4.3 mi), largely filled with sediments that range in age as far back as the Permian-Triassic boundary . Some of the sediments are marine carbonates and clays . The faults are upthrusts and overthrusts. Anticlines associated with these faults form traps for petroleum and natural gas , which has been discovered in 52 small fields . In

1920-512: Is deposited alongside their courses, more especially alongside the Syr Darya where it cuts its way through the Khujand - Ajar ridge and forms the valley. This expanse of quicksand , covering an area of 1,900 km (750 sq mi), under the influence of south-west winds, encroaches upon the agricultural districts. The central part of the geological depression that forms the valley

2016-618: Is doubtful; a lead bracelet, found in level XII of Yarim Tepe I, dated to the 6th millennium BC; a small cone-shaped piece of lead, found in the "Burnt House" in TT6 at Arpachiyah , dated to the Halaf period or slightly later than the Yarim Tepe bracelet; and more. Copper smelting is also documented at this site at about the same time period (soon after 6000 BC). However, the use of lead seems to precede copper smelting. Early metallurgy

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2112-463: Is less than 188.1 millimetres or 7 inches, and most of this falls in winter and spring. As of January 1, 2014, the city had a population of 340,600, making it the 3rd largest city in the Fergana Valley . The town was Russian for the first time after its foundation. In 1911 its population consisted of 11,892 people. Of them Russians were 7,534 (63%), Sarts were 2,590 (22%). According to

2208-460: Is not another -lithic age. Subsequently, British scholars used either Evans's "Copper Age" or the term "Eneolithic" (or Æneolithic), a translation of Chierici's eneo-litica . After several years, a number of complaints appeared in the literature that "Eneolithic" seemed to the untrained eye to be produced from e-neolithic , "outside the Neolithic", clearly not a definitive characterization of

2304-619: Is now northern India and Pakistan, driving east through Fergana. Kushan power also consolidated long-distance trade, linking Central Asia to both Han dynasty China and the Roman Empire in Europe. The Kushans ruled the area as part of their larger empire until the 3rd century AD, when the Zoroastrian Persian Sassanid Empire invaded Kushan territory from the southwest. Fergana remained under shifting local and Transoxian rulers thereafter. For periods in

2400-603: Is of Persian origin. The valley has been set foot on by various peoples. The Fergana Valley is an intermountain depression in Central Asia, between the mountain systems of the Tien Shan in the north and the Alay in the south. The valley is approximately 300 kilometres (190 mi) long and up to 70 kilometres (43 mi) wide, forming an area covering 22,000 square kilometres (8,500 sq mi). Its position makes it

2496-418: Is one of the most important centers of oil refining in Uzbekistan. Natural gas from western Uzbekistan is transported by pipeline to the valley, where it is used to manufacture fertilizer . The Great Fergana Canal , built almost entirely by hand during the 1930s, passes through the northern part of the city and was completed in 1939. During its construction, the canal and the city were widely photographed by

2592-462: Is seen throughout the region, including the Tehran Plain , Iran. Here, analysis of six archaeological sites determined a marked downward trend in not only material quality, but also in aesthetic variation in the lithic artefacts. Fazeli & Coningham use these results as evidence of the loss of craft specialisation caused by increased use of copper tools. The Tehran Plain findings illustrate

2688-427: Is subject to some dispute and a common assumption by archaeologists is that objects were cold-worked into shape. Artifacts from some of these sites have been dated to 6500–1000 BC, making them some of the oldest Chalcolithic sites in the world. Some archaeologists find artifactual and structural evidence of casting by Hopewellian and Mississippian peoples to be demonstrated in the archaeological record. In

2784-634: The Copper Age and Eneolithic ) was an archaeological period characterized by the increasing use of smelted copper . It followed the Neolithic and preceded the Bronze Age . It occurred at different periods in different areas, but was absent in some parts of the world, such as Russia, where there was no well-defined Copper Age between the Stone and Bronze Ages. Stone tools were still predominantly used during this period. The Chalcolithic covers both

2880-409: The Fergana Valley . Archaeological excavations show that the Fergana Region has long been inhabited by people engaged in hunting , farming , animal husbandry, and at later stages of the existence of human society , culture began to develop. It was initially named New Margelan ( Russian : Новый Маргелан ), then renamed Skobelov ( Скобелев ) in 1907 after the first Russian military governor of

2976-478: The Great Fergana Canal have played an important role in the study of archaeological monuments in the region. During the excavation of the canal, monuments from the Bronze Age , slavery and land ownership were discovered and studied. Finds from the 5th century BC and early medieval period in the town of Quva are well studied. Historical sources from the 10th to 11th century state that this city

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3072-937: The Han-Dayuan war , installing a king there. Later the Han set up the Protectorate of the Western Regions The Kushan Empire formed from the same Yuezhi who had conquered the Hellenistic Fergana. The Kushan spread out in the 1st century AD from the Yuezhi confederation in the territories of ancient Bactria on either side of the middle course of the Oxus River or Amu Darya in what is now northern Afghanistan, and southern Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The Kushan conquered most of what

3168-740: The Hellenistic Greco-Bactrian Kingdom . The Greek city of Alexandria on the Oxus was apparently burnt to the ground by the Yuezhi around 145 BC. Pushed by these twin forces, the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom reoriented itself around lands in what is now Afghanistan, while the new invaders were partially assimilated into the Hellenistic culture left in Fergana Valley. According to the Han dynasty Records of

3264-551: The Iberian Peninsula . Pottery of the Beaker people has been found at both sites, dating to several centuries after copper-working began there. The Beaker culture appears to have spread copper and bronze technologies in Europe, along with Indo-European languages. In Britain, copper was used between the 25th and 22nd centuries BC , but some archaeologists do not recognise a British Chalcolithic because production and use

3360-652: The Khanate of Kokand , Kokand was capital of a territory stretching over modern eastern Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, southern Kazakhstan and all of Kyrgyzstan . Fergana was a province of Russian Turkestan , formed in 1876 out of the former khanate of Kokand . It was bounded by the provinces of Syr-darya in the North and Northwest, Samarkand in the West, and Zhetysu in the Northeast, by Chinese Turkestan ( Kashgaria ) in

3456-549: The Stone Age despite the use of copper. Today, Copper Age , Eneolithic , and Chalcolithic are used synonymously to mean Evans's original definition of Copper Age. The emergence of metallurgy may have occurred first in the Fertile Crescent . Lead may have been the first ore that humans smelted , since it can be easily obtained by heating galena . Possible early examples of lead smelting, supported by

3552-622: The Yuezhi from the east and the Sakas Scythians from the south. After 155 BC, the Yuezhi were pushed into Fergana by the alliance of the powerful Xiongnu and the neighboring Wusun from the north and east, invaded urban civilization of the Dayuan , eventually settling on the northern bank of the Oxus in the region of Transoxiana in modern-day Tajikistan and Uzbekistan , just north of

3648-517: The eneo-litica , or "bronze–stone" transition. The phrase was never intended to mean that the period was the only one in which both bronze and stone were used. The Copper Age features the use of copper, excluding bronze; moreover, stone continued to be used throughout both the Bronze Age and the Iron Age . The part -litica simply names the Stone Age as the point from which the transition began and

3744-656: The 1870s, when, on the basis of the significant number of large copper objects unearthed within the Carpathian Basin , he suggested that the previous threefold division of the Prehistoric Age – the Stone , Bronze and Iron Ages – should be further divided with the introduction of the Copper Age. In 1881, John Evans recognized that use of copper often preceded the use of bronze, and distinguished between

3840-580: The 1926 census , of the 14,275 inhabitants in the city, there were 7,942 Russians (55%), 667 were Ukrainians (4.6%), and 514 were Jews (3.6%), while there were only 3,011 Uzbeks (21.0%). As of 2013, Fergana is virtually mono-ethnic - of the city's 350,600 residents, 316,268 are Uzbek (90.0%). In addition to Uzbeks, 12,084 Russians (3.4%), 3,114 Tajiks (1.1%), 2,028 Koreans (0.7%), and 626 Tatars (0.2%) also live in Fergana. There are also Azerbaijanis , Armenians , Jews, Germans and representatives of other nations . The population of Fergana city

3936-535: The 19th century, a considerable trade carried on with Russia: raw cotton, raw silk , tobacco, hides, sheepskins, fruit and cotton and leather goods were exported, and manufactured wares, textiles, tea and sugar were imported and in part re-exported to Kashgaria and Bokhara. The total trade of Fergana reached an annual value of nearly £3.5 million in 1911. Nowadays it suffers from the same depression that affects all trade that either originates in or has to pass through Uzbekistan. The only significant international export

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4032-726: The 4th and 5th centuries, the Sassanid Empire directly controlled Transoxiana and Fergana, led by the conquests of Shapur II and Khosrau I against the Kushans and the Hephthalite Empire . Sassanid rule of Fergana was interrupted by the Hepthalites , possibly Turkic. Hepthalite rule was ended by the Gokturks in mid of 6th century. The Turkic Khaganates ruled it until the first quarter of 8th century when it

4128-667: The 5th millennium BC copper artifacts start to appear in East Asia, such as in the Jiangzhai and Hongshan cultures , but those metal artifacts were not widely used during this early stage. Copper manufacturing gradually appeared in the Yangshao period (5000–3000 BC). Jiangzhai is the only site where copper artifacts were found in the Banpo culture. Archaeologists have found remains of copper metallurgy in various cultures from

4224-563: The Chinese as unusual in features, with a sophisticated urban civilization, similar to that of the Bactrians and Parthians : "The Son of Heaven on hearing all this reasoned thus: Fergana (Dayuan) and the possessions of Bactria and Parthia are large countries, full of rare things, with a population living in fixed abodes and given to occupations somewhat identical with those of the Chinese people, but with weak armies, and placing great value on

4320-501: The Copper Age. Around 1900, many writers began to substitute Chalcolithic for Eneolithic, to avoid the false segmentation. The term chalcolithic is a combination of two words- Chalco+Lithic, derived from the Greek words "khalkos" meaning "copper", and "líthos" meaning "stone". But "chalcolithic" could also mislead: For readers unfamiliar with the Italian language, chalcolithic seemed to suggest another -lithic age, paradoxically part of

4416-694: The East, and by Bukhara and Afghanistan in the South. Its southern limits, in the Pamirs , were fixed by an Anglo-Russian commission in 1885, from Zorkul (Victoria Lake) to the Chinese frontier; and Khignan , Roshan and Wakhan were assigned to Afghanistan in exchange for part of Darvaz (on the left bank of the Panj ), which was given to Bukhara . The area amounted to some 53,000 km (20,463 sq mi), of which 17,600 km (6,795 sq mi) are in

4512-436: The Fergana Valley, Mikhail Skobelev . In 1924, after the Soviet Union 's reconquest of the region from the Basmachi movement , the name was changed to Fergana , after the province of which it was the centre. During World War I , the city was the location of a Russian prisoner-of-war camp for German and Austro-Hungarian POWs, including ethnic Polish conscripts, many of whom died to typhus . The industrial base of Fergana

4608-469: The Grand Historian or Shiji , based on the travels of Zhang Qian and published around 126 BC, the region of Fergana is presented as the country of the Dayuan (Ta-Yuan), possibly descendants of Greeks colonists (Dayuan may be a transliteration of "Great Ionians"). The area was renowned for its Heavenly Horses , which the Chinese tried to obtain from the Dayuan with little success until they waged war against them in 104 BC. The Dayuan were identified by

4704-554: The Great founded the city of Alexandria Eschate "The Furthest", probably renaming Cyropolis. This was in the southwestern part of the Fergana Valley, on the southern bank of the river Syr Darya (ancient Jaxartes), at the location of the modern city of Khujand , in the state of Tajikistan . Supplemented by Alexander's veterans, it was later ruled by Seleucids before secession of Bactria. The Hellenistic settlements, such as Alexandria Eschate, serve as vibrant examples of cultural and artistic exchanges that occurred following Alexander

4800-402: The Great's conquests. Among the artifacts that highlight this fusion is the Ferghana horse sculpture from the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, dating back to around 4 to 1 BCE. The Ferghana horse sculpture, a ceremonial gilt bronze finial from the 4th-1st century BCE, exemplifies the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom's artistic synthesis of Greek and Scythian influences. Capturing a horse in the suspension phase of

4896-405: The Greco-Bactrian king Euthydemus extended his control to Sogdiana. There are indications that from Alexandria Eschate the Greco-Bactrians may have led expeditions as far as Kashgar and Ürümqi in Chinese Turkestan , leading to the first known contacts between China and the West around 220 BC. Several statuettes and representations of Greek soldiers have been found north of the Tian Shan , on

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4992-444: The Pamirs. Not all the inhabitants of the area were happy with this state of affairs. In 1898 Muhammed Ali Khalfa proclaimed a jihad against the Russians. However, after about 20 Russians had been killed, Khalfa was captured and executed. When the 1905 Revolution spread across the Russian Empire, some Jadids were active in the Fergana Valley. When the Tsarist regime extended the military draft to include Muslims , this led to

5088-445: The area, along with most of central Asia as fiefs from the Golden Horde of the Mongol Empire. The Fergana became part of a larger Turco-Mongol empire. This Mongolian nomadic confederation known as Barlas , were remnants of the original Mongol army of Genghis Khan . After the Mongol conquest of Central Asia, the Barlas settled in Turkistan (which then became also known as Moghulistan - "Land of Mongols") and intermingled to

5184-415: The borders. Located in an arid region, the Fergana valley owes its fertility to two rivers, the Naryn and the Kara Darya , which run from the east, joining near Namangan , forming the Syr Darya river . The valley's history stretches back over 2,300 years, when Alexander the Great founded Alexandria Eschate at its southwestern end. Chinese chroniclers date its towns to more than 2,100 years ago, as

5280-413: The city by Abdallah, the governor of Khurasan. By the time of Ahmad's death in 864 or 865, he was the ruler of most of Transoxiana , Bukhara and Khwarazm . Samarkand and Fergana went to his son, Nasr I of Samanid , leading to a series of Samanid dynasty Muslim rulers of the valley. During demise of Samanids in 10th century, Fergana Valley was conquered by Karakhanids . Eastern part of Fergana later

5376-456: The doorstep to China, and are today on display in the Xinjiang museum at Urumqi (Boardman). Of the Greco-Bactrians, the Greek historian Strabo too writes that: they extended their empire even as far as the Seres (Chinese) and the Phryni . The Fergana area, called Dayuan by the Chinese, remained an integral part of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom until after the time of Demetrius I of Bactria (c. 120 BC), when confronted with invasions by

5472-477: The early cold working (hammering) of near pure copper ores, as exhibited by the likes of North American Great Lakes Old Copper complex , from around 6,500 BC, through the later copper smelting cultures. The archaeological site of Belovode, on Rudnik mountain in Serbia , has the world's oldest securely dated evidence of copper smelting at high temperature, from c.  5,000 BC . The transition from Copper Age to Bronze Age in Europe occurred between

5568-458: The effects of the introduction of copper working technologies on the in-place systems of lithic craft specialists and raw materials. Networks of exchange and specialized processing and production that had evolved during the Neolithic seem to have collapsed by the Middle Chalcolithic ( c.  4500–3500 BC ) and been replaced by the use of local materials by a primarily household-based production of stone tools. Arsenical copper or bronze

5664-421: The establishment of independent republics, borders have been strongly enforced, though the impact of the new international borders was minor until 1998–2000. Uzbekistan regularly closes its borders with Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, strangling trade and causing immense difficulties for those who live in the region. People in the Tajikistan city of Khujand traveling to the Tajik capital of Dushanbe , unable to take

5760-747: The existence of a few exotic black-slipped pottery items from the Indus Valley . In India, Chalcolithic culture flourished in mainly four farming communities – Ahar or Banas , Kayatha , Malwa , and Jorwe . These communities had some common traits like painted pottery and use of copper, but they had a distinct ceramic design tradition. Banas culture (2000–1600 BC) had ceramics with red, white, and black design. Kayatha culture (2450–1700 BC) had ceramics painted with brown colored design. Malwa culture (1900–1400 BC) had profusely decorated pottery with red or black colored design. Jorwe culture (1500–900 BC) had ceramics with matte surface and black-on-red design. Pandu Rajar Dhibi (2000–1600 BC)

5856-417: The extreme rarity of native lead, include: lead beads , found on Level IX of Chatal/Çatal Hüyük in central Anatolia , though they might be made of galena, cerussite , or metallic lead, and accordingly might or might not be evidence of early smelting; a lead bead, found in a GK59 group test square in the 4th level of Jarmo , dated to the 7th millennium BCE, though it is small enough that its human usage

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5952-441: The fact that physical culture and sports are becoming more and more popular among Fergana residents, especially among the youth . In 1991 there were only 17 stadiums in Fergana region, now there are 46,759 football fields and 33 modern tennis courts . Many sports facilities have been built in Fergana, such as Istiklol tennis complex, Kimyogar complex, swimming pool and Istiklol stadium, equipped with equipment that fully meets

6048-435: The fertile abundance of Fergana, as well as the possibility of purchasing further high-quality silk manufactured in Margilan . The most famous export from the region were the 'blood-sweating' Heavenly Horses which captured the imagination of the Chinese during the Han dynasty, but in fact these were almost certainly bred on the Steppe, either west of Bukhara or north of Tashkent , and merely brought to Fergana for sale. In

6144-415: The five months following April precipitation is rare, but increases in frequency starting in October. Snow and frost, down to −20 °C (−4 °F), occurs in December and January. Fergana, on the route to Tarim Basin from the west, remained at the boundaries of a number of classical era empires. As early as 500 BC, the western sections of the Fergana Valley formed part of the Sogdiana region, which

6240-440: The horse's power and celestial nature, reflecting the cultural reverence for horses and the era's craftsmanship. Integrating elements of movement and triumph, this sculpture connects deeply to ancient narratives of success and achievement, offering insights into the historical and artistic context of its time. After 250 BC, the city probably remained in contact with the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom centered on Bactria , especially when

6336-531: The late 5th and the late 3rd millennium BC . In the Ancient Near East the Copper Age covered about the same period, beginning in the late 5th millennium BC and lasting for about a millennium before it gave rise to the Early Bronze Age . A study in the journal Antiquity from 2013 reporting the discovery of a tin bronze foil from the Pločnik archaeological site dated to c.  4,650 BC , as well as 14 other artefacts from Bulgaria and Serbia dated to before 4,000 BC, showed that early tin bronze

6432-462: The late fourth to the early third millennia BC. These include the copper-smelting remains and copper artifacts of the Hongshan culture (4700–2900) and copper slag at the Yuanwozhen site. This indicates that inhabitants of the Yellow River valley had already learned how to make copper artifacts by the later Yangshao period. In the region of the Aïr Mountains , Niger, independent copper smelting developed between 3000 and 2500 BC. The process

6528-456: The more direct route through Uzbekistan, have to cross a high mountain pass between the two cities instead, along a terrible road. Communications between the Kyrgyzstan cities of Bishkek and Osh pass through difficult mountainous country. Ethnic tensions also flared into riots in 1990 , most notably in the town of Uzgen , near Osh. There has been no further ethnic violence, and things appeared to have quieted down for several years. However,

6624-519: The noted photographer Max Penson . With a western loan Fergana is able to modernize its refinery and also reduce air pollution emissions. Fergana has a cool arid climate ( Köppen BWk ). Winters are cold and short, with a daily average low temperature of −2.6 °C (27.3 °F) and a daily average high of 4.8 °C (40.6 °F) in January; summers are hot, with an average low temperature of 20.6 °C (69.1 °F) and an average high of 35.1 °C (95.2 °F) in July. Annual precipitation

6720-551: The ouster of Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev in April 2010. In June 2010, about 200 people have been reported to be killed during clashes in Osh and Jalal-Abad , and 2000 more were injured. Between 100,000 and 300,000 refugees, predominantly of Uzbek ethnic origin, attempted to flee to Uzbekistan, causing a major humanitarian crisis. The area has also been subject to informal radicalization. In Tsarist times, out of some 1,200,000 ha (3,000,000 acres) of cultivated land, about two thirds were under constant irrigation and

6816-430: The period. Originally, the term Bronze Age meant that either copper or bronze was being used as the chief hard substance for the manufacture of tools and weapons. Ancient writers, who provided the essential cultural references for educated people during the 19th century, used the same name for both copper- and bronze-using ages. The concept of the Copper Age was put forward by Hungarian scientist Ferenc Pulszky in

6912-612: The principal products of the domestic or cottage industries. This was not greatly added to in Soviet times, when industrialisation was concentrated in the cities of Samarkand and Bukhara . Historically the Fergana Valley was an important staging-post on the Silk Road for goods and people traveling from China to the Middle East and Europe. After crossing the passes from Kashgar in Xinjiang, traders would have found welcome relief in

7008-575: The region was known to the Greeks as Cyropolis , named after Cyrus the Great. The Sogdian Rock or Rock of Ariamazes, a fortress in Sogdiana, was captured in 327 BC by the forces of Alexander the Great ; after an extended campaign putting down Sogdian resistance and founding military outposts manned by his Greek veterans, Alexander united Sogdiana with Bactria into one satrapy . In 329 BC, Alexander

7104-528: The remaining third under partial irrigation. The soil was considered by the authors of the article in the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition to be admirably cultivated, the principal crops having been cotton, wheat , rice , barley , maize , millet , lucerne , tobacco , vegetables and fruit. Gardening was conducted with a high degree of skill and success. Large numbers of horses, cattle and sheep were kept, and

7200-565: The rich produce of China" ( Book of the Later Han ). Agricultural activities of the Dayuan reported by Zhang Qian included cultivation of grain and grapes for wine-making. The area of Fergana was thus the theater of the first major interaction between an urbanized culture speaking Indo-European languages and the Chinese civilization, which led to the opening up the Silk Road from the 1st century BC onwards. The Han later captured Dayuan in

7296-525: The south of the valley, in the spurs of the Turkestan ridge, there is the Madygen fossil locality , in which more than 15 thousand fossils of Triassic plants ( Ginkgoales , cycads , ferns , Neocalamitaceae ) and animals ( insects , crustaceans , fishes , amphibians ) were discovered. The most numerous are insect fossils which include the large Gigatitan from the extinct order Titanoptera with

7392-712: The throne. During the 8th century, Fergana was the location of fierce rivalry between Tang dynasty China and the expansion of Muslim power. The Umayyads waged several wars against the Sogdian and Turkic population. They were defeated by the Turgesh who came dominated the Ferghana Valley until their defeat by Tang in 750. At the same time, the Abbasids defeated the Umayyads and sent their forces to Central Asia. This

7488-598: The valley into a series of small states. From the 16th century, the Shaybanid dynasty of the Khanate of Bukhara ruled Fergana, replaced by the Janid dynasty of Bukhara in 1599. In 1709 Shaybanid emir Shahrukh of the Minglar Uzbeks declared independence from the Khanate of Bukhara , establishing a state in the eastern part of the Fergana Valley. He built a citadel to be his capital in the small town of Kokand . As

7584-516: The valley is a religiously conservative region which was particularly hard-hit by President Karimov 's secularization legislation in Uzbekistan, together with his decision to close the borders with Kyrgyzstan in 2003. This devastated the local economy by preventing the importation of cheap Chinese consumer goods. The deposition of Askar Akayev in Kyrgyzstan in April 2005, coupled with the arrest of

7680-651: The world standards. Fergana has a high proportion of Russians , Koreans and Tatars compared to other Fergana Valley cities. With its wide, tree-lined boulevards and Russian Empire -era buildings, and the Russian language spoken frequently on the streets, the city has a distinctly different feel from the rest of the region. Chalcolithic West Asia (6000–3500 BC) Europe (5500–2200 BC) Central Asia (3700–1700 BC) South Asia (4300–1800 BC) China (5000–2900 BC) The Chalcolithic ( /ˈkælkoʊˌlɪθɪk/ cal-co- LI -thik ) (also called

7776-497: Was a pottery workshop in province of Balochistan , Pakistan, that dates to 4,500 years ago; 12 blades and blade fragments were excavated there. These blades are 12–18 cm (5–7 in) long, 1.2–2.0 cm (0.5–0.8 in) wide, and relatively thin. Archaeological experiments show that these blades were made with a copper indenter and functioned as a potter's tool to trim and shape unfired pottery. Petrographic analysis indicates local pottery manufacturing, but also reveals

7872-422: Was developed in the 20th century. Industry in the city included textile manufacturing and a nitric fertiliser plant. Some of the industrial development was a result of Evacuation in the Soviet Union during World War II. Fergana has been a center for oil production in the Fergana Valley since the region's first oil refinery was built near the city in 1908. Since then, more refineries have been added, and Fergana

7968-611: Was indeed taking place by the 4th millennium BC. Since the slag identified at Norşuntepe contains no arsenic, this means that arsenic in some form was added separately. A copper axe found at Prokuplje , Serbia contains the oldest securely dated evidence of copper-making, c.  5500 BC (7,500 years ago). The find in June ;2010 extends the known record of copper smelting by about 800 years, and suggests that copper smelting may have been invented in separate parts of Asia and Europe at that time rather than spreading from

8064-675: Was instrumental in the assimilation of the Timurid elite to the Perso-Islamic courtly culture. Heir to one of these confederations, Timur , founder of the Timurid dynasty , added the valley to a newly consolidated empire in the late 14th century, ruling the area from Samarkand . Located on the Northern Silk Road , the Fergana played a significant part in the flowering of medieval Central Asian Islam. Its most famous son

8160-512: Was leading to the Battle of Talas in 751, which resulted in a victory for the Abbasids and the disengagement of China from Central Asia. Two antecedent battles in 715 and 717 had seen the Chinese prevail over Arab forces. A series of Arab, Persian, and later Turkic Muslim rulers reigned over the Fergana. The Samanid Empire , rising from the Arab Muslim conquest of Persia , pushed into what

8256-426: Was made a part of it. This blocked the valley's natural outlet and the routes to Samarkand and Bukhara, but none of these borders was of any great significance so long as Soviet rule lasted. The whole region was part of a single economy geared to cotton production on a massive scale, and the overarching political structures meant that crossing borders was not a problem. With the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 and

8352-589: Was more common than previously thought and developed independently in Europe 1,500 years before the first tin bronze alloys in the Near East . In Britain, the Chalcolithic is a short period between about 2,500 and 2,200 BC, characterized by the first appearance of objects of copper and gold, a new ceramic culture and the immigration of Beaker culture people, heralding the end of the local late Neolithic. The multiple names result from multiple definitions of

8448-699: Was not in a developed state, indicating smelting was not foreign. It became mature about 1500 BC. Fergana Valley Fergana Valley is a valley in Central Asia , lying mostly in eastern Uzbekistan , extending into southern Kyrgyzstan and northern Tajikistan . Encompassing three former Soviet Republics , the valley is ethnically diverse and relations among the countries are tense. Ethnic enclaves of Uzbeks in Kyrgyz sovereign territory, restricted right of movement, lack of agreement about border demarcation and disputes over access to family members and places of economic activity contribute to tension at

8544-699: Was on a small scale. Ceramic similarities between the Indus Valley civilisation , southern Turkmenistan , and northern Iran during 4300–3300 BC of the Chalcolithic period suggest considerable mobility and trade. The term "Chalcolithic" has also been used in the context of the South Asian Stone Age . In Bhirrana , the earliest Indus civilization site, copper bangles and arrowheads were found. The inhabitants of Mehrgarh in present-day Pakistan fashioned tools with local copper ore between 7000 and 3300 BC. The Nausharo site

8640-437: Was produced in eastern Turkey ( Malatya Province ) at two ancient sites, Norşuntepe and Değirmentepe , around 4200 BC. According to Boscher (2016), hearths or natural draft furnaces, slag , ore, and pigment had been recovered throughout these sites. This was in the context of Ubaid period architectural complexes typical of southern Mesopotamian architecture. Norşuntepe site demonstrates that some form of arsenic alloying

8736-532: Was refounded in 1876 as a garrison town and colonial appendage to Margilan ( 22 kilometres or 13 + 1 ⁄ 2 miles to the northwest) by the Russian Empire . Fergana Region is one of the centers of ancient culture in Uzbekistan . Photographs of Stone Age settlements and rocks found in the area show that stone tools have been used by people in the valley since ancient times . Excavations of

8832-634: Was ruled from further west and owed fealty to the Achaemenid Empire at the time of Darius the Great . The independent and warlike Sogdiana formed a border region insulating the Achaemenid Persians from the nomadic Scythians to the north and east. It was forcibly settled by exiled Greeks from the Anatolian coast, who had rebelled or otherwise given Persia trouble. Eventually, it had a significant Greek community. The capital of

8928-736: Was subjugated by the Tang dynasty The Kingdom of Ferghana was ruled by the Ikhshids , who submitted as vassal to the Chinese Tang between 659 and 790. It was attacked by the Tibetan Empire in 715. The Umayyad Caliphate in 715 deposed the ruler, and installed a new king Alutar on the throne. The Chinese sent 10,000 troops under Zhang Xiaosong to Ferghana. He defeated Alutar and the Arab occupation force at Namangan and reinstalled Ikhshid on

9024-450: Was the largest and most prosperous in the valley after Akhsikath . Archaeological materials confirm that the city of Margilan was a large village in the 10th century and took on the appearance of a hamlet in the 11th and 12th centuries. The monuments found in the settlements of the Chust culture , engaged in sedentary agriculture and animal husbandry , are important for the study of

9120-504: Was then called Greater Khorasan , including Transoxiana and the Fergana Valley from the West. In 819, Ahmad ibn Asad —son of Asad ibn Saman —was granted authority over the city of Fergana by Caliph Al-Ma'mun 's governor of Khorasan , Ghassan ibn 'Abbad, as a reward for his support against the rebel Rafi' ibn Laith . Following the death of his brother Nuh , who ruled in Samarkand, Ahmad and another brother Yahya were given rule over

9216-511: Was under suzerenaity of Karakhitays . Karakhanid rule lasted till 1212, when Khwarezmshahs conquered the western part of the valley. Genghis Khan invaded Transoxiana and Fergana in 1219 during his conquest of Khwarazm . Before his death in 1227, he assigned the lands of Western Central Asia to his second son Chagatai , and this region became known as the Chagatai Khanate . But it was not long before Transoxian Turkic leaders ruled

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