A CHRONOLOGY OF CENTRAL ASIA - Tourism in Central Asia: Cultural Potential and Challenges - page 333

TABLE 1 A Chronolo gical List that Covers the History of Central Asia

Period Events

4000-1000 Afanasyevo culture: In the environs of Ashkhabad, Turkmenistan.

Horse, sheep and cattle breeding prevalent. Adobe houses.

3000 Kelteminar culture: Around the Aral Sea.

2000 Indo-Iranians pass through Central Asia on the way from the

Indo-European homeland in southern Russia to India and Persia.

1700-1200 Andronovo culture: Yayik and Lake Balkhash, along the banks

of the River Irtysh and the head of the River Obi. Predominantly
horse and sheep breeding culture.

1200 The Cimmerians begin to occupy the South Russian Steppe.

1200-700 Karasuk culture: The head of the River Yenisey. Southern Siberia

and the environs of Altai, the middle region of the Yenisey area.
Thin-faced mongoloid features. Agriculture around Altai. Four-
wheeled carts, houses made of felt.

1200-700 The Proto-Turks to the south-west of the Altai-Sayan mountains

start to move toward Ordos in the east, and Volga in the west.

1050-256 Chou dynasty in China. Influences of Turkish culture: horse rear-

ing, cult of the sky (gök), military characteristics in administra-
tion, animal styles in art.

705-400 Scythians: In the region including the environs of the Azak Sea, to

the north of Crimea and the Black Sea, central Don and Dneiper
rivers up to the Danube. The Saka: Around the Syr Darya and
Aral Sea.

700-330 The Parsi state in Persia.

700-100 Tagar culture: Bronze and bone objects decorated with animal

heads. Bronze knives, daggers and arrow heads. Iron forging in
the Minusinsk region and the environs of Altai in the 5th-fourth
century B.C.

624-543 Buddha, the founder of Buddhism.

Sixth century Zoroastrianism in Persia. Massagets between the Aral and Cas-

pian Seas.

Sixth century The Invasion of Transoxiana by the Achaemenids of Persia under

Darius I and Cyrus and the establishment of three satrapies: Sog-
diana, Khorezm and Saka.

516-513 Persian King Darius' campaign against the Scythians.

400- + 200 Sarmatian occupation from Central Asia to the Danube, including

the region north of the Black Sea, central Dnieper as far as the
Carpathian mountains.