Uyghur princes. Wall painting from Cave 9 of the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves. 8th–9th century / Ethnological Museum, Berlin / Wikimedia Commons

Gold buckle with a scene of boar hunting. 2nd–1st century BCE. Found at Saksanokhur, Tajikistan / National Museum of Antiquities of Tajikistan / Wikimedia Commons

Coin of Shahi Tegin (Sri Shahi), ruler of the Turk Shahi dynasty. After 679 CE / Classical Numismatic Group / Wikimedia Commons

Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky. General view of the Shah-i-Zinda complex. Samarkand, 1905–1915 / Library of Congress / Wikimedia Commons

Monuments bearing the Tonyukuk inscriptions, part of the Orkhon inscriptions complex. Mongolia / Vezirtonyukuk / Wikimedia Commons

Fragment of the Tonyukuk inscription, written in the Old Turkic runic script. 8th century / Wikimedia Commons

Manichaean priests writing at their desks. Leaf from a Manichaean manuscript from the Uyghur Kingdom of Qocho. 8th–9th century. Painting on paper / Wikimedia Commons

Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky. Turkmen woman in traditional clothing and jewelry at the entrance to a yurt. 1911 / Library of Congress / Wikimedia Commons