The urban fact in pre-Islamic Central Asia : diachronic and synchronic approaches (11)

Dal'verzintepe

Dal'verzintepe, also in Uzbekistan, on the foothills of the Surkhan-darya, the tributary of the Amu-darya that flows into Termez and forms the main valley of northern Tokharestân, was excavated mainly between 1962 and 1974 by the JuTAKÈ team [1]. The evolutionary pattern is similar to that of Kampyrtepa, except that the stages were completed earlier: a 4-hectare citadel as early as the Graeco-Bactrian period, then a lower town that would have received its first fortification in the ^1stc. AD, i.e. before the Great Kampyrtepa. è., i.e. before the Great Kushans or at the beginning of this period. The scale is also different: the fortified site covers 31 ha, making it the most important site in northern Tokharestân after Termez, and it has a sizeable suburb and irrigated agricultural belt. Its end was slower: a gradual desertion in the ^3rd and 4th^centuries, a process completed by the nomadic invasions. The social facies appears much more diversified than at Kampyrtepa. There is little evidence of a military population (but the citadel has been little excavated), and the street network is not determined by access to the towers. Commercial activities are represented by a potters' quarter and a wine stall. The general artistic ambience is quite different from that of Kampyrtepa: several houses and even the small Buddhist potters' shrine feature high-quality wall paintings [2]. Two large houses follow the basic plan of the Aï Khanoum houses, but with an amplification and heightening of the reception room, a bipartition of the other rooms for which several explanations can be offered (public and private areas, men's wing and women's wing?), but at the same time an atrophy of the bathrooms that were present in all Greek residences.

Several clues suggest the presence of large families linked to Kushan power. In one of the dwellings was buried a treasure trove of 115 gold objects, including jewels in the Steppic tradition, others similar to those worn by aristocratic figures in Gandhara art, and 55 gold ingots whose Indian inscriptions indicate that they had belonged to one or more Buddhist monasteries in the second half of the ^1stcentury BC. è.; it is probable that their ultimate owner had taken part in the conquest campaigns and obtained booty. In the domestic Buddhist sanctuary outside the walls, the portrait of the owner as a donor stands next to a figure wearing the same tiara as King Vāsudeva (c. 192-230): this may be him. The owner of another house displayed Greek literary tastes, or at least certain memories, as he had a cycle painted in which we recognize the birth of the Dioscuri and the sacrifice of Iphigenia [3].

Buddhism is much more present than at Kampyrtepa, but the funeral practices revealed by the excavation are the same, either because the Buddhists practiced cremation, which leaves no trace, or because they retained local customs.

References

[1] G.A. Pugachenkova, È.V. Rtveladze (eds.), Dal'verzintepe, Tashkent, 1978; P. Bernard, "Une nouvelle contribution soviétique à l'histoire des Kushans", art. cité; B.A. Turgunov, "Excavations of a Buddhist temple at Dal'verzin-tepe", East &West, 42, 1992, pp. 131-153.

[2] The potters' shrine was published as being dedicated to a Zoroastrian or "local" goddess, but Kazim Abdullaev (unpublished contribution) has since established its Buddhist character by identifying the painted decoration as depicting the Great Departure of Kapilavastu.

[3] The subject has been identified by the author of these lines, see F. Grenet, "Between written texts, oral performances and mural paintings: illustrated scrolls in pre-Islamic Central Asia", in J. Rubanovich (ed.), Orality and textuality in the Iranian world, Leiden, 2015, pp. 422-445.