I had a restless night after my stomach kept playing up and the dull aching pain continued. I had organized to meet with various people in Tashkent whose focus is the Silk Road, so it was to be a day of organising my programme for the next few days. In the end I spent far too long chatting to the other guests over breakfast, but it was good to relax a little, especially given the fact that the silk road sights are limited in modern Tashkent.

That afternoon I had organized to meet with Denis and Vladimir Karasev who have set up their own Central Asian Archaeological Group (CAAG) to ensure that the appropriate work can be carried out  to learn more about Uzbekistan’s fascinating and important history. Vladimir Karasev’s career has clearly been impressive as he reels of the list of positions held in the Ministry of Culture and his recent finds. However, as seems to be the case here, the government seems to show little interest in Vladimir’s work and funding his private group has been extremely difficult meaning he has had to make enormous personal sacrifices to carry out his work. His fearless stance and fight for  discovering the truth of Uzbekistan’s past has been criticized despite the enormous evidence he can provide. He tells me stories of how the government will give foreign archeological teams preference on sights, since they pay more. He also recalls stories of developers paying the government bribes to pass planning permission for constructions on archaeological sights. It is for this reason that he has set up CAAG and hopes that it will help to save the remaining sights. Our evening passes quickly as we discuss various aspects of eachother’s works and aspitrations. But it makes me more resolved to help in whatever way to ensure that Uzbek finds remain in Uzbekistan rather than the continual looting of Vladimir’s finds from Museums by corrupt officials and private collectors.

The Silk Road Society UK is encouraging you to support this worthwhile group and its magazine in whatever way you can be it financial or through provision of material. Please write to Denis Karasev at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it for further information.

Or visit: http://www.travelthesilkroad.org/content/view/32/51/