The earliest chessmen found are the Afrasiab collection. In 1977 the Uzbekistan Academy of Archaeology conducted a dig at Afrasiab, near Samarkand. Samarkand is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world, and at times it has been one of the greatest cities of Central Asia. Samarkand is on the trade route between China and the Mediterranean (the Silk Road), and so it is a logical place for a trader to store some of his precious goods.