Munchoqtepa and Balandtepa

Ancient Pap

Pap (Bab in the sources) is one of Fergana's ancient towns, already mentioned at the time of the Arab conquest. Its ruins, Balandtepa, lie on the bank of the Syr Darya and comprise a citadel, a shahristan and a rabad. 'Ancient Pap' was added to UNESCO's World Heritage Tentative List on 18 January 2008 and is now part of the 'Silk Roads: Fergana–Syrdarya Corridor' nomination.

Some 30 metres from Balandtepa, on a plateau above the river, lies Munchoqtepa, the cemetery of the town's inhabitants. It was found by chance in the 1980s, when many strings of beads were dug up from its graves — hence the name, 'hill of beads'.

New excavations

Since September 2024 Chinese and Uzbek archaeologists have been excavating Munchoqtepa together. They found six new tombs: five small ones with one or two people each, and a large one holding at least 24 individuals buried in reed coffins. Preliminary radiocarbon dates put the large tombs at around AD 400 and the small ones at around 750. Finds include pottery, coins, bronze mirrors, silk and beads; more than 20 fragments of patterned silk were found stuck to human bones, the remains of clothing. Silk had first been found here in 1987.

Among the finds are round coins with a square hole in the Chinese style; one lay on a body's chest with traces of cord, showing it was worn as a pendant. South of the tombs the foundation of a house roughly 8 metres square was uncovered, which the archaeologists link with Zoroastrianism. Together these finds confirm the Fergana Valley as an important link on the Silk Road between China, western Asia and Europe.