evidence: The Kazakh territory was a key constituent of the Eurasian trading Steppe Route, the ancestor of the terrestrial Silk Roads. Archaeologists believe that humans first domesticated the horse in the region's vast steppes. During recent prehistoric times, Central Asia was inhabited by groups such as the possibly Indo-European Afanasievo culture,[29] later early Indo-Iranian cultures such as Andronovo,[30] and later Indo-Iranians such as the Saka and Massagetae.[31][32] Other groups included the nomadic Scythians and the Persian Achaemenid Empire in the southern territory of the modern country. The Andronovo and Srubnaya cultures, precursors to the peoples of the Scythian cultures, were found to harbor mixed ancestry from the Yamnaya Steppe herders and peoples of the Central European Middle Neolithic.[33] [...] - ^ a b "On Administrative-Territorial Division of the Republic of Kazakhstan, The Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated 8 December 1993". Adilet. Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan Republican Center of Legal Information. Archived from the original on 7 February 2018. Retrieved 7 February 2018.