Shogo Kume

Affiliation: Institute for the Study of Ancient Civilizations and Cultural Resources
Job Class: Specially Appointed Assistant Professor
Specialty: Central Asian Archaeology
*Kanazawa University

Research Topic

My research focuses on the emergence of agropastoralism in the mountainous and foothill zone of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. My current field projects include Mol Bulak, a nomadic campsite in the Tien Shan mountains in Kyrgyzstan and a large sedentary village of Dalverzin in the Fergana Valley in Uzbekistan, focusing on the transition to food producing economy in the 2nd Millennium BC in the regions from the viewpoints of environmental adaptation, cultural exchange, and human migration.

Before Central Asia, my fieldwork was based in the Near East, concentrated on the study of developments of agropastoralism during the 8th-7th Millennium BC at Tell Seker al-Aheimar in northeastern Syria and origins of tribal communities during the 3rd Millennium BC at Tell Ghanem al-‘Ali in north Syria.

Selected Publications

• Kume, S. and S. Arai 2023. The First Herders in the Tien Shan Mountains. In: K. Imamura (ed.), Pastoral Societies in Central Asia: People, Animals, Intersection and Migration, pp. 32-59. Kyoto: Kyoto University Press (in Japanese).
• Kume, S., S. Arai, H. Hosimov and B. Matbabaev 2023. The Formation of the Proto-Silk Roads (2): The Third Season of Excavations at Dalverzin, Uzbekistan (2022). In: Japanese Society for West Asian Archaeology (ed.), Proceedings of the 30th Annual Meeting of Excavations in West Asia, pp. 80-84. Tsukuba: Japanese Society for West Asian Archaeology (in Japanese).
• Tatsumi, Y., S. Kume, S. Arai and A. Abdykanova 2023. The Formation of the Proto-Silk Roads (1): Geophysical Survey at Mol Bulak (the 4th Season) in Kyrgyzstan (2022). In: Japanese Society for West Asian Archaeology (ed.), Proceedings of the 30th Annual Meeting of Excavations in West Asia, pp. 75-79. Tsukuba: Japanese Society for West Asian Archaeology (in Japanese).