From 1971 onwards archeological teams did discoveries that reveal the importance of this area as a possible fifth center of ancient civilization, next to Mesopotamia, Egypt, India and China.

Research established that in the II millennium BC the center of population drifts away from the oases of the Kopetdag plains in Southern Turkmenistan, to the Murghab River delta oasis. Gonur Depe was the center of “Margush’ , and had direct relations with Bactria in Northern Afghanistan.