Sciences have a lot of questions which, apparently, can never be finally answered. Among them there is a question about origination of the Aryans, which, from the middle of the nineteenth century, is actively discussed by scientists of many different specialities. Some scientists referred the native land of the Aryan race to Northern Europe, others - to Northern Asia, and the thirds - to Central Asia. But it is necessary to note that those years the polemic around the Aryan problem had mainly scientific character and did not have that negative sense which it got subsequently by diligence of the racists of all colours.
Among those who took great interest in this problem was Rafael Pampelli (1837-1932), an American with the Italian surname who, in young years, won recognition as a leading geologist in America.
Coming back from Japan where R.Pampelli carried out geological researches, he crossed China, Mongolia and Russian Siberia having repeated as a matter of fact a route of the Great Silk Road from the East to the West.
During preparation for publication of the scientific materials collected while traveling through China and Mongolia R.Pampelli' invited three Chinese scientists for gathering the data from the ancient written sources. One of the manuscripts belonging to the pen of Konfusiy contained the map of the Chinese empire, and in the comment to the Tarim river-basin, presumably in the north of Kashgar, it is marked: «Here live the usuns, people with red hair and blue eyes». Here it was also informed about the burial of more than hundred cities under the sand during the reing of one of the dynasties of the Chinese emperors in the beginning of our era.
These data have so interested Rafael Pampelli that already a mature, professional geologist, scientist and expert, he started to study archeology and ethnography, in particular, to solve the Aryan problem, which was exciting the minds of the European and American scientists in the middle of the 19th century. Based on the comments to the book of Konfusiy, R.Pampelli made a conclusion that the ancestral home of the Aryans could be in Central Asia.
«I have read much enough about the Aryan problem of that time, - the scientist wrote, - and I knew that the majority of the European languages were related to Sanskrit and Avestian languages and that their cradle was in the mountains of Pamir or near them. Thus, hair color and eyes color of the usun, maybe, meant that they belonged to the Aryan people - the fact which was probably already known. But what struck me was rather the fast burial under the sand of lots of cities which presumably had significant history of existence ... At the same time I was amazed by numerous lakes and tittle lakes which covered the plain between the Aral Sea and Siberia».
R.Pampelli assumed that in the post-ice period a large internal sea, on whose coasts there were centers of the most ancient civilizations, was formed in deep parts of Central Asia. Later progressing drying of this sea and coming of sands transformed this favorable land into the desert. «I vaguely associated it and the buried cities with, the Aryan problem, - marked R.Pampelli. - The large internal sea probably, I thought, have created favorable climate for the extensive population».
However, these views required cheking by carrying out of investigational geologic-archeologic researches. With enthusiasm inherent in him, the scientist began looking for the funds to organize the expedition to Central Asia. Only in 1903 Carnegie's Institute gave to R.Pampelli the grant but under the condition that he personally would supervise over searches for the ancestral home of the Aryans.
The expedition consisted of Rafael Pampelli, his son - Rafael Veles Pampelli, professor M.Davis and assistant E.Hangtington. The trip began from Baku.
They crossed the Caspian Sea at night. Three hundred kilometers of their way to Ashkhabad the researchers moved on deserted
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plains and along the low naked heights. They then for the first time visited the ruins of the site of ancient settlement of Anau which is located several kilometers away to the east from Ashkhabad.
In Tashkent the expedition divided in two. The members of the expedition M.Davis and E.Hangtington went to Kashgar and to the lake Issyk Kul, and R.Pampelli with his son went through the cities of Margelan, Andizhan and Osh to Pamir. This day transition through the passes and mountain small rivers led them to «the Roof of the World» and came to the end at the lake Karakul.
«It was an amazing feeling - to stand in the middle of absolute solitude and to look afar at giants of the earth - the crests and tops covered with ice which from different directions protect the ways to «the Roof of the World», - R.Pampelli shared his impressions. - There was really eternal silence at night, among the dead nature and collapsing giants, and under the luminous heavens - all parts of the harmonious unity - a man stood as the smallest particle lost in reverential boundlessness of time and space.
As to the Aryan problem, this desert is more likely to be a tomb than a cradle; but high-mountainous valleys at the edges of Pamir are inhabited by peoples speaking Aryan languages. It seems, they are the rests of various tribes who, receding before infinite hordes, found their shelter in these mountain fortresses».
Coming back from Pamir through the Fergana valley, the scientist got interested in the ruins of the ancient city of Aksikent near Kokand and carried out the archeologic researches here. Till the 13 th century the city was a capital of Fergana and, alongside with Samarkand and Bukhara, was a large trading center on the Great Silk Road.
After a short-term rest in Samarkand, the travellers reached Bukhara. Emir - the governor of the city was away, but owing to diligence of baron Cherkezov - a representative of the Russian emperor in Bukhara, the scientist was accepted with all civil and military honours.
Within several days R.Pampelli and his co-travelers made trips to the ruins of the ancient city of Paikent which in the first centuries B.C. was one of the important places on the Great Silk Road. The barkhan sands, which covered up the caravan ways leading to the east to China and the West to Europe, put an end to well-being of the city. After downturn of the water level in the river Zarafshan, the city was destined for destruction.
The data collected during this travel proved that in Central Asia there are places which can be investigated in searches for the ancient civilizations.
Excavations on the big hill in Anau near Ashkhabad started by the scientists on their previous travel became the primary goal of the following expedition. This time the archeologist G.Schmidt, the expert on prehistoric ceramics, was included as one of the researchers. The excavations were carried out under supervision of the professor of the Petersburg University, well-known orientalist V.Bartold, and with the sanction of the Ministry of the Imperial Courtyard under the condition that all found archeologic values should remain within the limits of the Russian empire.
In the middle of March, 1904, the members of the expedition, arranging a camp in visibile limits of the monument, began archeologic works in Anau. During the excavation the researchers found both large subjects, such as fire centers, vessels, burial places, and small ones - fragments of pottery, fragments of bones of animals, beads, terracotta figurines, silicon instruments and bronze products, jewels made of copper and lazurite. The scientists found the remaining of ancient living places and discovered several burial places. It was established that people living here were fire-worshippers.
Very important discoveries were made when investigating the archeologic layers of Anau of the 4th-3rd millenia B.C.: the clay broken fragments contained the rests of grain cereals -
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