The Archaeological Map of Murghab and Tedjen Deltas (AMMTD), initiated in 1990 on a proposition by G.A. Koshelenko and R.M. Munchaev of the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IARAN), as a co-operative effort of Italian, Russian and Turkmen specialists has represented one of the first of these long-delayed regional studies.
Afterwards the geographic limits of the research project included also the northernmost section of the early delta, some 50 km to the north of the present boundary of the alluvial plan oasis.
In the Tedjen delta the archaeological research mainly concerns the systematic GPS survey of Chalcolithic and Bronze Age settlements.
Lastly, the Tedjen and Murghab delta areas have recently yielded archaeological information about early settlements and the important changes associated with the progression of Bronze Age cultures when large scale sophisticated irrigation agriculture was first successfully practiced.
At one site in the serakhs sub-delta of the Tedjen River, the possibility of advanced irrigation techniques has been verified and now, in fact, a difference in technological development between the sites of the western piedmont and that farther east became evident.
Of additional interest and importance is the continued occupation of the Tedjen river delta area that occurred during this time period.
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