Studies of ancient plant remains from a medieval archaeological site in the Pamir Mountains of Uzbekistan have shown that fruits, such as apples, peaches, apricots, and melons, were cultivated in the foothills of Inner Asia.
The archaeo-botanical study, conducted by a team from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, is among the first systematic analyses of medieval agricultural crops in the heart of the ancient Silk Road. It analyzed preserved ancient seeds and plant parts recovered from a medieval archaeological site in the foothills of the Pamir Mountains of eastern Uzbekistan.
The site, Tashbulak, is currently under excavation by a collaborative international Uzbek/American project involving Washington University in St. Louis, and the Institute for Archaeological Research, Academy of Sciences in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.