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Начальный этап работ Хорезмской археолого-этнографической экспедиции в Казахстане (архивные материалы 1946–1951 гг.
The archive of the Khorezmian Archaeological and Ethnographic Expedition which is kept in the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow) contains unique materials (photographs, drawings, plans, field diaries) related to the activities of this expedition in Soviet times on the territory of three Central Asian republics, including Kazakhstan. Work in Kazakhstan began after the end of World War II, in 1946. For the first time in Soviet archeology, aerial photography was used on a large-scale, and the first flights were done over the territory of Kazakhstan (Kyzylorda region). In 1946, unique photographs were taken of the Dzhety-asar landscape, the Chirik-rabat settlement and the ‘marsh towns’ in the Syr Darya delta. The lower Syr Darya always attracted S.P. Tolstov, the head of the expedition, as a region historically inextricably linked with Khorezm, as a contact zone between the steppe nomads and the farmers of the oases of Transoxiana. Much work was done in 1946-1951, aerial photographs were taken of large areas in the Kyzylorda region, surveys was carried out in the ‘marsh towns’. Large-scale excavations were started at a number of sites (Altyn-asar, Dzhety-asar No. 9) in the Dzhety-asar landscape. In fact, the directions of the most important archaeological work that was carried out in subsequent years in the eastern Aral Sea region were outlined during this short initial period of very intensive work of the KhAEE