Today, 12 December 2023, in the building of the National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan, on the eve of the celebration of Independence Day of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the RSE “State Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve ‘Botai’” of the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Kazakhstan held a scientific and practical conference on the topic: “Ancient Botai: at the Origins of Steppe Civilization and Kazakh Statehood.”

The event was attended by scientists, historians, researchers, public figures, and representatives of the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The opening address to the participants of the scientific and practical conference was delivered by the Director of the State Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve “Botai,” K.G. Shakshakov.

The central event of the conference was the presentation of the monograph “Botai Culture, Man and Society: A Civilizational Discourse,” prepared as the result of a three-year project. Doctor of Philosophical Sciences S. Sh. Ayazbekova, one of the authors of the monograph, delivered an interesting and substantive report. In this scholarly work, through the application of an interdisciplinary approach, several new hypotheses were proposed regarding the contribution of the Botai culture to the civilizational development of world history. In particular, these include the shared roots of the Botai language with the Altaic language group, as well as the assumed emergence of proto-state structures on the territory of ancient Botai settlements.

At the conference, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Honored Worker of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Corresponding Member of the German Archaeological Institute Z. S. Samashev, spoke about the current stages of studying the history of Kazakhstan and the scientific development of aspects of the Botai culture.

A hypothesis on the commonality of the Tersek and Botai archaeological cultures was presented in a report by senior researcher of the Botai Museum-Reserve K. K. Abilmalikov. He also shared archaeological research findings on the Botai culture obtained over the past three years.

The participants of the scientific and practical conference reached a consensus on the importance of further comprehensive study of the Botai culture, the museification of archaeological sites, and the preservation of the historical and cultural heritage of the Republic of Kazakhstan.