The urban fact in pre-Islamic Central Asia : diachronic and synchronic approaches (8)

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The period following the Greek colonial period, at least as far as Tokharestan is concerned - a country now encompassing Bactria and the south of ancient Sogdiana - is conventionally divided into several phases: the "invasion period" or "pre-Kushan" (from c. 145 BC to c. 50 AD); the period of the Great Kushans, named after the nomadic dynasty (Yuezhi) which reconstituted an empire that also extended to northern India (c. 50-230 AD); and the period of the Great Kushans, named after the nomadic dynasty (Yuezhi) that also extended to northern India (c. 50-230 AD).); the period of the Great Kushans, named after the dynasty of nomadic origin (Yuezhi) which reconstituted an empire that also extended to northern India (c. 50-230); a period of direct Sassanid domination (c. 230-280), followed by the period of the Kushano-Sassanid viceroyalty (c. 280-375); then came new invasions from the steppe, known as "Chionites", followed by an imperial reconstitution under the Kidarites and Hephtalites (c. 420-550). The chronology had long been the subject of great uncertainty, with, for the period of the Great Kushans, a wavering over two centuries in numismatic publications, which affected the conclusions of several Soviet excavators who dated the levels according to the coins, but it is now much more assured (a symposium was held in Berlin on December 5-7, 2013, which will lead to a book edited by Harry Falk).

The presentation temporarily abandons the big cities. They continue to exist (Bactria, Samarkand, Merv, Begram) or develop further (Termez), but the examples excavated do not offer as many possibilities as Nisa and Aï Khanoum for grasping the workings of urban organisms: these are all very long-lived sites, right up to the Islamic period, and for this reason the various periods, except for the last ones, are only partially known. Richer in cumulative information are the medium-sized cities, all of which developed from earlier sites (Achaemenid or Greek) and all of which suffered a major decline from the invasions of the 4th^centuryonwards, or even earlier.

Kampyrtepa

Kampyrtepa city map

Kampyrtepa, in Uzbekistan, 30 km west of Termez on the north bank of the Amu-darya (Oxus), was chosen in 1982 by the Tokharestân expedition (based in Tashkent, heir to JuTAKÈ and led by Èduar Rtveladze) for an in-depth study of urban conditions in Kushan Bactria, due to the absence of post-Kushan levels and its small size, perhaps twenty hectares at its greatest extent. Almost the entire remaining surface has been excavated. A special series of reports is devoted to the site [1]. Information is still lacking in the form of syntheses, but a number of articles devoted to a particular district manage to introduce a genuine anthropological dimension, by linking mobile material and architectural structures, which are all too often dissociated in excavation publications. This approach is made possible by the abrupt abandonment of the site, which was moved at the end of Kanishka's reign (127-153) when a large part of it collapsed into the river.

External historical information on the city is very limited. The first settlement dates from shortly after Alexander's conquest, and the initial intention was to identify it with the Alexandria of the Oxus mentioned by Ptolemy, but the modesty of the site during the Hellenistic period, when it was not even fortified, led the team to abandon this proposal. Retrospective information is provided by the Timurid historian Hâfez-e Abru, using 10th^c.sources, who mentions an abandoned site with a name derived from the Greek pandocheion, "hostelry", the main river crossing point after Alexander, and where the inhabitants competed with each other for travellers' business and with Termez.

In Hellenistic times, it was a small pottery settlement, then an unfortified emporium. The first development effort came in the pre-Kushan period, with a 4-hectare fortified citadel planned in six quarters. The ceramic material bears the strong imprint of the new invaders, and the initiative for the fortification must undoubtedly be attributed to one of the five yabghu, chiefs of the Yuezhi clans, later unified by one of them, the Kushan yabghu.

References

[1] Materialy Tokharistanskoj Èkspeditsii, Tashkent then Elets, 8 volumes, 2000-2011 (volumes 1 to 3 devoted entirely to Kampyrtepa, volumes 5 to 8 partially).