The urban fact in pre-Islamic Central Asia : diachronic and synchronic approaches (5)

Aï Khanoum

Map of the town of Aï Khanoum

The town of Aï Khanoum, on the border between Afghanistan and Tajikistan, is better known to Western audiences, and its documentation is certainly more accessible [1]. It was excavated from 1964 to 1978 by the DAFA (Délégation archéologique française en Afghanistan) under the direction of Paul Bernard. After excavation was interrupted by events in Afghanistan, the site was completely looted. Some of the objects that most probably originated there have appeared on the antiquities market and have been published. Assuming that excavation can be resumed one day, it could only concern small sectors.

The chronology now accepted by the team responsible for the publication places the foundation around 290-280, probably on the initiative of Antiochos ^I, co-regent of his father Seleucus, and the end of Greek occupation at the time of the assassination of the Greco-Bactrian king Eucratide ^I (c. 171-144), who had refounded the city under the name of Eucratidia, no doubt to make it his principal capital. During this last phase, the city underwent major rebuilding, some of which remained unfinished; in particular, the palace area, whose previous appearance is poorly known, was built. These major developments were therefore more or less contemporaneous with Nisa's great building period. For this reason, and because the excavators' thinking was nourished by the experience of those in the Parthian city, it seems justified to approach the study of Aï Khanoum after it. Admittedly, Old Nisa and Aï Khanoum are on a completely different scale (the intramural surface area is nine times greater), but we shall see in the following lectures that certain problems arise in a similar way, notably the dual nature of the urban ensemble.

The foundation was the brainchild of a far-sighted first generation of colonialists. There are several reasons for establishing a major city in this area, which on the map may appear to be a cul-de-sac at the north-eastern end of Bactria: the existence of a large plain already well developed by irrigation, the relative proximity of Badakhshan's mineral resources (in particular lapis lazuli, exported throughout the ancient world and worked at Aï Khanoum), the presence to the north of a possible invasion corridor, and finally a huge hunting ground along the river, a major asset for the maintenance of both Macedonian and local cavalry. The site itself, which the founders found virtually unoccupied, presented great potential for fortification (a barred spur dominated by an acropolis).

Here we review the main monuments: (i) the massive mud-brick rampart, adapted to siege warfare; (ii) the intramural temple (see the seminars of February 20 and 27); (iii) the palace, occupying 9 ha and planned as early as the first urban plan. In its surviving state, the palace combines duplicated modular courtyards and blocks dedicated to the functions of audience, administration, treasury and residence, with interminable corridors, all of which evoke the atmosphere of Achaemenid palaces. But the monumental decor is Greek, in stone, which has not been disdained as in Nisa. The courtyard, with no water supply, was not a garden in the Iranian style either, but rather a space for ostentatious gatherings.

References

[1] Well-illustrated overview by P. Bernard, "La colonie grecque d'Aï Khanoum et l'hellénisme en Asie centrale", in Afghanistan. Les trésors retrouvés, Paris, Musée national des Arts asiatiques / Guimet, 2007, p. 55-67. For the state of thinking at the end of the excavation, see P. Bernard, "Problèmes d'histoire coloniale grecque à travers l'urbanisme d'une cité hellénistique d'Asie centrale", 150 Jahre Deutsches Archäologisches Institut 1829-1979, Mainz, 1981, pp. 108-120, pls. 43-48. For an up-to-date bibliography and an account of the current views of the team members, which diverge on certain points, see the latest volume of the publication: G. Lecuyot, with contributions from P. Bernard, H.-P. Francfort, B. Lyonnet and L. Martinez Sève, Fouilles d'Aï Khanoum IX. L'habitat, MDAFA XXXIV, Paris, 2013.