Our Beginnings
This all began when a Nestorian gravestone with Medieval Syriac script was discovered in East Kazakhstan. Subsequent excavations yielded the first documented Nestorian gravestones found within the territory of Kazakhstan.
In 2015 a farmer in Eastern Kazakhstan found a large stone with an engraved cross and strange writing surrounding the cross. Digital analysis revealed the writing to be Syriac and the stone to be a gravestone of a Nestorian Christian priest. Subsequent developments led to a joint excavation in the summer of 2016 with the Kazakhstan Archeological Institute and the Tandy Archeological Institute of Texas. This excavation yielded the first ever excavated Nestorian gravestones in Kazakhstan, three with ancient Syriac script - the liturgical language of the Church of the East. Several other stones have since been discovered in addition to other artifacts.
Additional successful excavations led to the formal creation of the Department of Nestorian Studies by the Kazakhstan Archeological Institute of the Academy of Sciences. In the Russian academy, Syriac Christianity – also known as the Church of the East in Western circles – is termed Nestorian Christianity, hence the name of this department. The ultimate goal of this department is to create infrastructure to facilitate excavations, research, and publications of this often overlooked history of Kazakhstan and Central Asia.
Significance for Kazakhstan
As Kazakhstan seeks to become one of the top thirty economies in the world as well as serve as a prime mover for the revival of Silk Road commerce, it is important to investigate our history and cultural heritage. For centuries, the Silk Road flourished offering the free flow of trade between the East and the West. It brought silk, paper and ceramic wares to the West. The Silk Road brought furs, metal works, and glass wares to the East. Along with the free flow of trade, the Silk Road also fostered the free exchange of ideas.
Ideas have consequences. Any society which seeks to achieve its full potential must analyze its history as well as the ideas and assumptions underlying society. Who are we as human beings? Where did we come from? What is our purpose? What ideas have worked and why? Which ideas have not worked? Where did we come from and where are we going? How did we get here and how do we get to where we need to go?
Archeology and cultural anthropology are disciplines through which we conduct scientific research to attempt to answer these fundamental questions. To discover – or to rediscover – a lost or forgotten history allows us the opportunity to have a more clear and precise picture of the map of history – where we were, where we are today, and where we should go from here.
This vision is expressed as well in the new program Course Ahead: Spiritual Renewal. In discussions on economic development, particularly as it relates to the One Belt One Road project, Kazakhstan understands the significant role religions of the Silk Road played in trade and commerce.
Kazakhstan and other Central Asian nations today have an extraordinary opportunity to explore and to rediscover not only this lost history and rich cultural heritage, but also to revive the Great Silk Road itself. We must with open arms, open hearts, and open minds investigate the history of Kazakhstan and all of Central Asia. Indeed opportunity knocks. May we embrace the opportunity set before us – to go to work excavating, publishing, filling the museums, and educating the young – to be proactive in helping Kazakhstan and other Central Asian nations to realize their full God-given potential.
The Department for Nestorian Studies was created to investigate the Nestorian aspect of this history, and is a positive step to facilitate the investigation of the role Nestorianism played in the territories of what is to today Kazakhstan and other Central Asian nations.
Rediscovering the Lost Christian History of Central Asia
In his book The Church of the East, Christoph Baumer records, that of the two dozen Turko-Mongol tribes which Genghis Khan united in 1206 to form the Mongolian Empire, at least seven of them were Nestorian Christian. The Kerait Nestorian Christian population, which William of Rubruck described as 200,000 strong, alone represented approximately 12% of the entire population of the newly formed Mongolian Empire. In addition to the Kerait, other tribes which were significantly Nestorian Christian included the Merkit, Naiman, Ongut, Uighurs, Uriyan-gakit, Kangli, and Manchurian.
To give some perspective to the extent of Nestorian development, Philip Jenkins in his book The Lost History of Christianity, notes that in 8th century – before Christianity was accepted in German, Dutch, and Russian territories – the Eastern Church patriarch Timothy already presided over 19 metropolitan sees (regional archbishops) which oversaw eighty five bishops along the Silk Road.
In 780, Timothy reported the conversion of the Turkish king who ruled over much of Central Asia. Mark Dickens has established this people to be the Qarluqs, and that the metropolitan was likely established at their capital city Talas - modern day Taraz, Kazakhstan. The city of Merv – modern Mari, Turkmenistan – had a bishop by 420. By 500, Merv as a major Christian center to Central Asian Turkish tribes, translating important books from Greek and Syriac into the Central Asian and Eastern Asian languages.