Migration, Anthropological Continuity And Ethnocultural Change In Ancient And Early Medieval Central Asia

Abstract

This article analyzes migration processes in Central Asia from the Stone Age to the Early Middle Ages through the prism of anthropology, archaeology and historical interpretation. The region is examined not merely as a geographical corridor between East and West, but as a long-term zone of demographic interaction, cultural adaptation and biological continuity. Special attention is paid to the relationship between environmental change, settlement dynamics, economic specialization and the formation of mixed ethnocultural communities. Archaeological and anthropological evidence suggests that Central Asia was shaped by the coexistence of local population continuity and repeated external migrations. Southern agricultural communities, steppe pastoral groups, early nomads, Huns, Yuezhis, Hephthalites and Turkic tribes contributed in different ways to the transformation of the region’s demographic and cultural landscape. The article argues that migration in Central Asia should not be interpreted only as a destructive or military phenomenon. It was also a mechanism of adaptation, technological exchange, urban development, political integration and ethnocultural synthesis.