The secrets of Karakoum

For the past four years, in the back sand desert of Karakoum, close to Merv in Turkmenistan, a team of Italian and Turkmen archaeologists has been excavating and exploring the largest necropolis of the Bronze Age in Central Asia. 1500 well preserved tombs revealed their precious treasures, attesting the fruitful trade which flourished in the region 4,000 years ago and the complex evolution of this civilisation of the oases, at the crossroad between Mesopotamia, China, Afghanistan and India.