Sergej Bolelov, who is currently in charge of the excavation, has considered the implications of the above observations [1]. He considers the possibility that the generalization of small residential structures within micro-neighborhoods would express "the ultimate stage in the break-up of patriarchal families ", but this idea clashes, on the one hand, with the absence of reception rooms that would have been an obligatory element of "patriarchal" residences at the earlier stage, and, on the other, with the fact that the town only lived for two generations. He therefore comes to assume a homogeneous, modest class of military dependents living in families. This is consistent with the perceptible absence of an urban elite (none of the premises are decorated with wall paintings), the artistic mediocrity of the objects and the relative abundance of military equipment in the finds. This leads us to assume that the Kushan power was engaged in a planned strategic urbanization operation, designed to guard the northern route (which would ultimately prevent the Sassanids from delivering the fatal blow to the empire). Kampyrtepa would therefore be part of a defensive chain comprising, to the north, the fortified lock of the "Iron Gates" of Derbent, the empire's northern frontier, and to the south, the military colony of Zadiyan protecting Bactres (see below). Similar hypotheses as to the voluntarist nature of the urban settlement have been put forward for Termez, which took over the functions of Kampyrtepa after its abandonment [2].
14:30 - 15:30
Lecture
The urban phenomenon in pre-Islamic Central Asia : diachronic and synchronic approaches (10)
Frantz Grenet
