Central Asia in the ancient world (3500 BC – 800 BC). The first cities, the first writing, the first kings who called themselves gods. These articles cover Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus and the Bronze Age world that connected them.
A Soviet expedition found the Gonur oasis in Turkmenistan's Karakum desert in 1974. Its Bronze Age city traded with the Indus; its dates are disputed.
· 2000 BCIn 1934 Folke Bergman counted 120 coffins by the Small River. A 2021 Nature study of 18 genomes found the Tarim mummies had no western ancestry.
· 1900 BCUnder the Arzhan 2 mound in Tuva, southern Siberia, a man and a woman of the 7th century BC lay with 33 other people, 14 horses and over 40 pounds of gold.
· 650 BC
