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Home , Bactria, Bactrian language, Grumbates, Hephthalites, Huvishka, Surkh Kotal

12 Reveal ’s Past New Documents in Ancient Bactrian On Kings and : from AD 560 Sasanians and Turks AD 492-527 = years 260-295 Documents on taxes paid to AD 471 = year 239 emperor Document mentions the Sasanian ca. AD 460 Hephthalites AD 389 = year 157 Document on a gift at the city of Rob from ca. AD 375 Chionite and Kidarite ‘’ AD 342 = year 110 Bactrian First dated legal documents in AD 233 = year 1 (local era) Sasanians and Kushano-Sasanians 2 and Inscriptions from Rabatak from 2 Yüeh-chih and Kushanas from 3 Bactrian from 6 Achaemenids AD from 6th century BC to AD 781 = year 549 Last dated document in Bactrian from early 8 Arabs AD 710 = year 478 princess’ Document mentions a ‘Turkish AD 639 = year 407 Document mentions Turkish titles Afghanistan Research >

Courtesy of Ellen Raven nd century AD th nd th century BC century BC > Timeline century BC th century AD IIAS Newsletter | #27 | March 2002 March | #27 | Newsletter IIAS undeciphered for lack of comparative material. which naturally contain very limited data, while the later cursive script — a local development of the — remaine ian languages. During the first half of the 20th century, the was known only from legends on coins and seals, Until very recently, Bactrian, the ancient language of northern Afghanistan, had been one of the least known of the Middle- I h cru o Bcra txs has texts Bactrian of corpus the Bactrian documents. mentioned in the the principal places Afghanistan showing of northern A sketch map knowledge of the Bactrian language. our to significantly contribute to ble but none sufficiently extensive or legi- Bactrian. More inscriptions were found, most important source for the study of Surkh Kotal inscription remained the discovery,its the after years Forforty successor AD). century second his (early of reign the in early is, that , of era the of ty-one of a well, which was dug in the year thir- inscription deals with the construction the that established Henning W.B. Kanishka. Emperor, Kushana the of words and phrases, including the name important some identified who icq, The text was published by André Mar- inscription at Surkh Kotal near . Bactrian substantial first the covered 1957, when French archaeologists dis- This state of affairs began to change in By Nicholas Sims-Williams Manuscripts nscriptions and During the last ten years, however,

Courtesy of Dr D.N. Khalili territories was divided between Sasanians and Turks, though Hephthalites and other local rulers may have retained control here Iran by the Sasanians and, within a few years, the viceroy known as the trian sacred book, and in the sixth-century inscription of Darius at Bisitun, where Bactria is mentioned as a province of the lar Greek letters of the Kushana coins, however, the Kushano-Sasanian coins use a cursive form of the script. Yüeh-chih of Bactria the Romans at the siege of Amida in AD 360. of the name “Huns”. Under their chief, , they soon reached an understanding with the Sasanians and fought on the Persi the fourth century the was overwhelmed by the armies of the first century AD, their extended far beyond Bactria and across much of northern and Central . the great success in their wars against the Persians; however, just after the middle of the sixth century they too were swept aside the Hephthalites entered Bactria from the north in the fifth century and drove the south of the Hindukush. The Hephth ceeded Marv as the of the Arab province of Khurasan (in AD 736), the whole area was probably largely subdued. - The conquest of Bactria took much longer, although the city of was first raided by the Arabs as early as AD 653. By the t the exclusive language of culture and administration. ed in Bactria. Great cities were built in Greek style, with temples, theatres, and gymnasia, and the , written in Sasanians One further episode in the turbulent history of Bactria is the coming of and the In the middle of the fourth century, Bactria was again invaded from the North by nomads referred to as “ Thereafter, control of Bactria passed to a people known as the The rule of the Kushanas was roughly contemporary with that of the Parthian Arsacids in Iran. In about AD 224, the Due to a lack of native sources, our knowledge of the ancient history of Bactria is sketchy. The region is first referred to in In the second century BC, Bactria was overrun from the north by nomadic peoples, including those known to the Chinese historian and to the Greeks as the Tokharoi. Amongst these new rulers, the tribe or family of the and the places which were within the jurisdic- ley in the northern Hindukush, from of the texts derive from the Khulm Val- the eighth century. It seems that many century AD and the Arab supremacy in fourth the in rule Sasanian between period whole the cover They sticks. wooden on even and cloth, leather, on written were documents These of Dr Nasser David Khalili in London. Many of these are now in the collection years. ten last the within market art of and on the international sive script that appeared in the bazaar a hundred documents in Bactrian cur- edge of the Bactrian language are over first regnal year. his of events the of some describes and Kanishka of predecessors the of great historical value, as it mentions Bactrian language and Greek script, is Cribb and myself. The inscription, in Joe by 1995-1996 in published and 1993 in discovered stone was inscription a Baghlan) of province the increased dramatically. At Rabatak (in Afghanistan > Kushan-shah Even more important for our knowl- Turks , who had recently established their empire in the lands beyond the Oxus. The overlordship of the former Hephthalite (“King of the Kushans”). These rulers continued to issue coins with Bactrian inscriptions. In place of the angu- Sasanians had also conquered Bactria, which they ruled thereafter, either directly or through a the Great upss Sc dcmns contain documents Such purposes. accounting for recorded presumably amounts, and commodities, names, personal of lists of consist uments wheat and onions. Other economic doc- tally for deliveries of foodstuffs, such as which seem to be a kind of receipt or (with up to three short lines of writing), include texts written on wooden sticks consists of economic documents. These group larger A . of school perhaps associated with the Pure Land the new documents are Buddhist texts, which we have no knowledge. Two of of events and correspondence ous stand, since they often allude to previ- are fairly short and difficult to under- fectly preserved. However, most letters which are still sealed and therefore per- of many letters, and texts, Buddhist legal documents, economic documents, Letters and Legalities Rob”. of ruler “the as documents Bactrian tion of a ruler who is referred to in the The Bactrian documents consist of Kidarites , or “Kidarite Huns” (possibly another name for the Chionites), until

and, under his successors, Courtesy of Dr D.N. Khalili (ruled 459-484). of Iran, probably ring to a Shahanshah (= AD 471?) and refer- in the year 239 Bactrian letter dated Arabs . The Arab conquest of Iran was completed in AD.651. Kushanas d - achieved supremacy and, by the end of istrative language of the area. over the role of Bactrian as the admin- Islamic times, when Arabic finally took into well rule, Turkish and thalite, od through the years of Kidarite, Heph- thus from the Kushano-Sasanian peri- ments between AD 342 and 781, and docu- Bactrian dated the put would This 233. AD in began probably era , it has been deduced that this Tochi,in at found inscriptions trian 549 of an unspecified era. From Bac- ments range between the year 110 and of a judge in case of a dispute. copy could be opened in the presence format was employed so that the sealed holes for the seal-strings. Probably this the beside document the of reverse names are sometimes written on the Their witnesses. and parties tracting or fingernail impressions of the con- clay sealings impressed with the seals string, and authenticated with up to six with tied rolled, tightly is other the One copy is left open to be read, while copies written on the same parchment. two in exist documents such Many pens to be the earliest dated document. even a marriage contract, which hap- is There disputes. of settlement the es, gifts, the manumission of a slave, or legal contracts dealing with sales, leas- Rui), apparently the administrative cen- refers to it as “the city of Rob” (modern document was written. The closed copy the where place the to names ferent open to be read. The two copies give dif- leftother the sealed, one copies: two on the more usual leather. It exists in (= AD 389) written on cloth, rather than is a deed of a gift dated in the year 157 Sealed Legal Contracts Sasanian Presence the dates in many documents. is important for the interpretation of many numerals, whose correct reading Chionites Greek h dts tetd n hs docu- these in attested dates The are documents dated the of Most One of the earliest dated documents culture became strongly root- Parthians ”, apparently a variant form NSW the Greek script, became the by an alliance between alites often achieved < ime that Balkh suc- Avesta were ousted from and there. an side against , the Zoroas- s as the . In > Afghanistan tre of the region, whose ruler is known are specifically described as locally cur- only been able to hint at the contents References Salter (eds), Coins, Art and Chronology: as the ‘khar of Rob’. The open copy rent. A further stage in Arab economic and importance of an immense new - Sims-Williams, Nicholas and Joe Cribb, “A Essays on the Pre-IslamicHistory of the Indo- refers to “the city of Kandban”. This domination is revealed in a document body of material. The new documents New Bactrian Inscription of Kanishka the Iranian Borderlands, Wien: Denkschriften seems to be an earlier name for the from the year 525 (= AD 757), which cover a period of more than four cen- Great” in Art and Archaeology 4 der Österreichischen Akademie der Wis- same , which is found only in the refers to the payment of taxes to the turies, including some periods for (1995-1996):75-142. senschaften, Philosophisch-Historische earliest documents. Arabs. In a document of two years later, which we have hardly any authentic - Sims-Williams, Nicholas, “Nouveaux doc- Klasse 280 (1999); 244-258. A letter dated in the year 239 refers a son of the local landowner bears the sources. The publication of these texts uments sur l’histoire et la langue de la explicitly to the Sasanian emperor, the name “Khamir”, probably a local form will soon be completed with the appear- Bactriane” in Comptes rendus de l’A- Professor Nicholas Sims-Williams of the Shahan-shah. The writer identifies of the Arabic title amir. Soon after- ance of the second volume of my Bac- cadémie des Inscriptions & Belles-lettres SOAS in London is an expert on Sogdian and himself as “Meyam, the steward (and) wards, Arabic would replace Bactrian trian Documents from Northern (1996 [1997]):633-654. Bactrian languages. Together with Joe Cribb ruler of the houses of the illustrious, as the language of the local adminis- Afghanistan, which will include the let- - ——- , NewLight on Ancient Afghanistan: of the , he deciphered and successful Peroz Shahanshah”. If the tration, as is clear from a group of Ara- ters and Buddhist texts. Then the whole The Decipherment of Bactrian, London: interpreted the newly discovered Rabatak era indeed began in AD 233, the year bic tax records which appear to have of the material will be available to stu- SOAS (1997). inscription in northern Afghanistan. 239 should correspond to AD 471, come to light together with the Bactri- dents of many disciplines, to be com- - ——- , Bactrian Documents from Northern E-mail: [email protected] during the reign of the Sasanian ruler an documents. pared with Chinese and Arabic sources Afghanistan, Vol. I: Legal and Economic Peroz. The apparent reference to his The documents described above have and confronted with archaeological and Documents, Oxford: Oxford University name, therefore, seems to confirm already made it possible to decipher ethnographic data. I confidently expect Press (2000 [2001]). More info > the chronological framework which Bactrian script, revealing a previously that the result will be to cast new light - ——- , “From the Kushan-shahs to the See also http://www.gengo.l.u- had been deduced from the inscrip- unknown tongue which, in its heyday, on many aspects of the history and cul- Arabs: New Bactrian Documents Dated in tokyo.ac.jp/~hkum/bactrian.html tions of Tochi. However, “peroz” may was one of the world’s most important ture of ancient Bactria and modern the Era of the Tochi Inscriptions” in (in English and Japanese). also have been intended as a mere epi- languages. In this brief survey, I have Afghanistan. < Michael Alram and Deborah E. Klimburg- thet meaning “victorious”. Similar formulae in later documents suggest that this may, in fact, be the correct interpretation. Hephthalite Arrivals The Destruction of Afghanistan’s A later group of documents reveals the presence of the Hephthalites as a new political power. Three documents, dated in the years 260 (= AD 492) to Cultural Heritage 295 (= AD 527) refer to a property tax Afghanistan’s civil war, raging between rival groups fighting for political power, gave birth payable to the Hephthalites or to “the to the systematic looting of archaeological sites, such as Aï Khanum, Begram, and Hadda. Hephthalite lords”. The vendors are Their willful destruction, coupled with illicit diggings and vandalism in pursuit of material referred to as servants of the king gain, obliterated the ancient heritage of sculptures and paintings. On 22 March 2001, three (“shah”) and the purchasers as servants weeks after decreeing that all the statues of Afghanistan should be destroyed, the Taleban of a lord with the Persian name briefly opened the National Museum to journalists. They revealed a gloomy, near-empty “Shabur Shaburan”. The persistence of labyrinth of rooms missing virtually all of its treasures. a Persian aristocracy suggests that there was no abrupt break whereby the rule By Osmund Bopearachchi of the Hephthalites succeeded and Forum > replaced that of the Sasanians. On the Afghanistan ot a single coin is now left in the cabinets where once contrary, it is likely that the local N over 30,000 coins were stored; among them were coins dynasty of the “khars of Rob”, at whose from hoards recovered at Mir Zakah, Chaman-i-Hazuri court this contract was drawn up, con- (), Qunduz, and from the excavations at Aï Khanum

tinued to wield power at a local level, and Begram. Most of the artefacts stolen from the Kabul 1994. February 119, no. Delle’Arte, Giornale Il acknowledging the long-established Museum surfaced a few days later in the Peshawar bazaar Kabul Museum after its destruction overlordship of the Sasanians, but also and, from there, found their way to private collections. paying tribute to the Hephthalites, who Among them are the invaluable ivory plaques excavated at also contained more than 300 kilograms of silver and gold had more recently arrived in the region. Begram by French archaeologists in 1937. objects. Of course, such second-hand information should be Unfortunately, the references to the handled with care, as informers tend either to exaggerate or Hephthalites do not indicate even Hoards of Ancient Coins to romanticize the event. approximately the date of their arrival The ancient site of Aï Khanum, before the illicit The Mir Zakah II hoard was the largest ancient coin deposit Among the artefacts were gold and silver vessels: for exam- in the northern Hindukush. They pro- diggings. ever attested in the history of mankind. It was named after ple, a gold censer in the shape of a high beaker on a round vide only a terminus post quem: by the Mir Zakah, the village where it was found in 1992, 53 km base from which thin trails imitating wisps of incense twist year 260 (= AD 492) at the latest, the north-east of the city of . The hoard must have con- upwards. Another piece among them was a squat silver bowl Hephthalites had arrived and estab- sisted of approximately 550,000 gold, silver, and bronze with an out-turned rim, with, on the inside of the base, the lished themselves in sufficient strength coins. Of these, I managed rapidly to examine six sacks full impressed image of a sea-horse or Hippocampus, its curled to be able to exact the payment of taxes of coins, each weighing at least fifty kilos, in February 1994 tail terminating in a crescent-shaped curve. or tribute from the local population. in the Peshawar bazaar. We still do not know under what cir- Among the sculptures from the deposit, many depict cumstances the Mir Zakah deposit was found. According to Zoroastrian priests, figurines, gold plaques, rings, and The Turks as Overlords witnesses who visited the findspot, the Mir Zakah II hoard intaglios from the . A repoussé intaglio

The next new arrivals, the Turks, are 1978. Bernard, Paul Professor depicts a galloping biga; two repoussés show the Greek god first attested in the year 407 (= AD Hermes wearing a conical helmet; two carnelian intaglios 639). The khar of Rob now has Turkish depict a standing helmeted Athena holding a long spear and instead of Hephthalite titles, but his a shield in typical Greek style. The jewelery in the hoard, in name and patronymic in the texts show particular pendants, earrings, and bracelets, amounted to that he is no Turk. In the year 478 (= several kilograms in weight! AD 710), a Turkish ruler is named in a The numerous coins in the Mir Zakah II hoard were main- deed recording a donation by “Bag- ly early Indian bent-bar and punch-marked coins from Greek, aziyas, the great Turkish princess ...”. Graeco-Bactrian, Indo-Greek, Indo-Scythian, Indo-Parthian,

Although she is described as a princess 1993. May Hin-Ichi-Ono, and Kushana origins. Coins of the Indo-Scythian King, Azes of the Turkish tribe of the Khalach, her The ancient site of Aï Khanum, after the illicit II, and posthumous imitations of coins of com- name is evidently Bactrian. She belongs diggings. prise the largest portion. The hoard also brought to light an to the Bredagan family, which is attest- unprecedented number of new varieties, such as a tetradrach- ed as far back as the year 247 (= AD ma of Attic weight standard struck for King I with 479) as the ruling family of the other- unknown type and legend arrangement. wise unknown city of Lan. Probably The most sensational numismatic discovery was a coin of Bag-aziyas was the daughter of a local Nasten, a hitherto unknown Iranian ruler in India. On the ruler, who had been given in marriage obverse, within a bead-and-reel border, the coin carries a bust to a Turkish qaghan. of the diademed king to right wearing a helmet with a long, flowing crest and a mantle. The reverse shows the king on a Increasing Arab Domination prancing horse riding to the right. He wears a helmet with a The Arabs are named in two of the long, flowing crest. The Greek legend reads Nastenes / latest texts. The first of these is a pur- Xatrannou, “Nasten, son of Xatran”. Judging by his name, chase contract dated in the year 507 Nasten was presumably not a Greek, but an Iranian, proba- (AD 739). While earlier texts had bly a Bactrian Iranian. expressed prices in gold dinars or in Faïence head of a The reconstruction of the history of the Greeks and their Persian silver dirhams, here they are Graeco-Bactrian king nomadic successors in Bactria and India depends mainly on given in “Arab silver dirhams”, which from Aï Khanum. 1999. Bopearachchi, Osmund the evidence offered by numismatic finds such as these. continued on page 14 > IIAS Newsletter | #27 | March 2002 13