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Home , Bactria

GREEK - AI KHANUM (Dolphi Burkens)

1) I am going to say something about the Greek presence in Central - that is the settlements and cities of , and then particularly in Bactria, in NE . And then I'll add as well as a bit about the cultural heritage left by the Greeks, taking its part in the mixture of cultures Hellenistic-Buddhist-Hindu that followed. After all, artistic expressions show with what images people felt comfortable: and that included Buddha next to some Greek friend like Bacchus in the same piece of decorated object.

With I mean the area where the ex-Soviet republics are: , , Tajikstan, and especially Afghanistan and the north tip of Pakistan.

2) I picked out Bactria as in the early 1960s archeological digs revealed a strong Greek presence, at least in urban locations (outside urban areas nothing has survived or has not yet been located). Moreover I was very impressed by the exhibition about these finds, called “Afghanistan” which I saw in Amsterdam in 2007 and which 4 years later came to the British Library.

2)- To talk about the Greeks you have to go back to the Great, which is not that far back: Alex. started his conquests in 334 BC, but left only a few years later, in 327 BC for – he died 4 years later in 323 B.C.

He was not the first to colonise the area or to worry about the way to administer a growing empire. The Achaemenid Persian empire of ruled these parts of Central Asia, but did not give control to the territories: he ran a system that secured the ability to extract tribute, and that established a hierarchy of power from small to regional capitals ( in the case of Bactria) to the imperial capital Persepolis. Paying tribute kept invading nomads at bay. But the extraction of tribute did not imply day-to-day control. Subject territories were largely self-governing.. Thanks to the distances involved, governors or appointed to rule the , were easily tempted to pocket payments meant for the capital Persepolis.

Alexander destroyed Persepolis, swept into Central Asia and fought a bloody 3-year war against the indigenous peoples of the (Bactrians, Sogdians and Margianans) and colonised West & East Bactria, , North Pakistan and bits of N. India.

He left much of the existing social structure and administration as it was, probably because it was the only way to maintain such a vast area under his control. The system of local governors worked well. The of Bactria, called Bessos, had served under Darius I, and when Darius was defeated by Alexander, he stayed on in the city of Ai Khanum – as good civil servants do, outliving their employer. Alexander tried to work with the people, securing the co-operation of the locals. There is an interesting account of Alexander either ignoring or probably being ignorant of a political arrangement between local settlements on both sides of a particular river ((the river Syrdarya)), where he built/tried to build fortifications on one side rather than the other. Without the necessary „public consultation‟ he operated against local organizational arrangements, leading to a major rebellion. Obviously it was not worth the trouble going it alone.

When he left Bactria for India in 327, he left behind numerous cities and military outposts, helpfully for me often called Alexandria: one in Tajikstan and 4 Alexandrias in Afghanist.- in , , Begram etc. (oddly Begram near Kabul was called Alexandria of the )

Alexander has been so important in creating a Greek empire so far away, that I was tempted to talk about the different dates with Alexander rather than Christ as reference point = so-many-years B.A. = before Alexander or A.A. = after Alexander. Referring to Christ makes so little sense. But perhaps this history is chaotic enough as it stands.

After Alex death in 323 B.C. (after his India campaign), his generals divided his territory among themselves, with one of them, Seleucus, and his son Antiochus, gaining control of the vast territories stretching from Mesopotamia to India. The Greek rulers of the kingdom of Bactria with its capital at Balkh (or Baktra in the area towards Uzbekistan) founded new cities such as Ai Khanum. Greek fought Greek, or general fought general. The rulers of ~Bactria were initially subordinated to the , but they quickly realised that Seleucus and his heirs in Babylon had no power to enforce their demands for tribute (the customary long-distance control mechanism). The Bactrian Greeks claimed de facto independence around 250BC and began minting their own beautiful gold coins. Its army successfully invaded India in 180 B.C. – so that is the 2nd Indian invasion, being first, but as the different powers in the region did little else than invading e.o. territories, this second Greek presence in India/Pakistan was not exceptional.

What seems not exceptional either is the short lifespan of the different empires. The Greek kingdom of Bactria, under Diodotus, was created around 325 BC and was gone by about 125 BC. But their great cities and even greater art survived much longer. The was used for formal purposes at least: on coins, in administration, and as lingua franca between the people from the wide area of the Empire – and kept being used long after the Greeks themselves were gone.

An unsatisfactory aspect of is that it doesn't give much idea how people lived, how they worked together, how the mixture of cultures came about. I didn't get very far with that, but looked at the city of Ai Khanum with the help of a book Mark pirated for me and sent its 400plus pages as an email attachment.

Then I'll also say something about the who acquired or commissioned extraordinary collections of art of several cultures, incl. Hellenistic.

The main places of settlement of the Greeks were in N. Afghanistan, esp. the territory of Bactria and one of the most strategic points was on the river Oxus near the border with Tajikstan. That was where an important city was created by Seleucus I : Ai Khanum – the most eastern outpost of the Hellenistic world known. Its local name means ”Lady Moon” in Uzbek.

Nothing was known about the city until 1961 when Afghan King Zahir Shah on a hunting trip was shown a piece of a Corinthian column by the local villagers. As he was really knowledgeable of Afghan antiquities, he approached the French archeological mission which had been active in Afghanistan for decades. They couldn‟t believe their luck, started escavations in ‟64 and have been busy ever since, although with some difficulties, as the city of Ai Khanum which they found was at the time on the Soviet border. (now Tajikstan).

Quite unexpectedly the first complete Greek city was discovered., with city walls, an Acropolis, a Palace, a Gymnasium, a Theatre (somewhat pompously it seated 6000 people), a Citadel, temples and other cult sites, burial places, large buildings with courtyards - some residential, some office buildings – so there must have been numerous civil servants at work. The Upper part of the city contained the Arsenal and other military buildings, and the residential quarters of the working class - one room dwellings. All the exciting buildings were in the Lower part of the city where the Greeks lived, as well as the local Persian elite and civil servants (in fact local authority employees, but that doesn't sound terribly elite); There were many workshops of craftsmen in precious metals and stones, as well as stone masons to produce or repair Hellenistic architecture including Doric but especially Corinthian columns. For example: that 450 page book describes a forecourt of 135 by 110 metres surrounded by four Corinthian colonnades of 108 pillars. It illustrates the magnitude of the place.

Interestingly some skilled craftsmen were imported from Greece itself, reinforcing the “Greekness” of the city. There is evidence that the large workforce consisted also of star craftsmen from areas which had a quite different culture – from northern Pakistan and Northern India. There was enough work to do maintaining a city so large, esp. as the entire city was made of unbaked mud brick, which deteriorates quickly – an uphill struggle, I think, in a city covering an area of 2 ½ km by 1 ½ km. The Greeks had to adapt to local custom.

The local Bactrian way to make statues, was the same: using rather impractical material like unfired clay or stucco formed around wooden frames with arms and hands built up around lead sticks (for the hands) or terracotta (baked at low temperature). Bits would fall off easily –, and had then to be patched up. Remember the .

There are also limestone statues. It seems odd to me that they did not make cement as done back home in Greece; one of the materials that were used for cement was precisely limestone

Ai Khanum and surroundings had a sophisticated water system for inside the city (running water, fountains etc.) with canals and ceramic water pipes, There was also an extensive irrigation system with locks, valves gates and dams for the fertile but otherwise dry surrounding fields – the soil was rich, and so was therefore the city. The choice of this site for the foundation of a city was not original. When escavating Ai Khanum it was discovered that there was an enormous time-depth of settlement way back to the first part of the 3rd millennium BC with a continuity of irrigation works from the river Oxus. The region had a rich agricultural potential and mineral resources were abundant in the area towards the Hindu Kush, especially gem stones and gold..

So it was no wonder that the Greco-Bactrians made an impressive, important administrative and commercial centre. One branch of the Silk Road passed by Ai Khanum and that allowed it to control the trade in all sorts of goods passing through or on their way to and from the ever expanding territories of the Bactrian empire. There was also a busy market in lapis lazuli & other semi precious stones many from the mines in this north- eastern corner th Afghanistan and there was plenty of gold from the gold mines direct north of the city. Imported olive oil came from back home – the nearest olives were in Syria, so trade with the Mediterranean was brisk.

When the city was overrun by the nomads around 145 BC, the Treasury of the city had hidden 75kg. of unworked blocks of lapis lazuli. When the city was abandoned, there were vast amounts of requisitioned gold objects from elsewhere in the empire, ready to be melted down and use for coins or new jewelry. But as such an important centre of this export-driven economy, the city stored cash as well as traded goods. There are many documents on skin/leather referring to heavy buying and selling, listing the contents of vessels, all noted down in Greek, the lingua franca. There are some tax receipt relating to commercial transactions in “Mediterranean script (majuscule cursive script…) displayed in the Ashmolean Museum: the names on it are Greek or local/Persian names which are Hellinified : Oxybazos.

The Greeks in Ai Khanum as well as those who left for the Indo-Greek regions in northern India seemed to remain attached to their Greekness, expressed in language as well as art but they happily mixed it with other cultures and mythologies. There is no contradiction feeling Greek in one setting and feeling Bactrian in another, or be appreciative of . Some decorated objects showed classical Greek motives or faces, next to Bactrian river gods or Budddhist ethical terms, or coins with Indian emperors and Greek descriptions – or alternatively Greek kings appear on coins in Indian script. Jewellery made locally in Ai Khanum has Greek signatures and weight marks.

(((But the whole region of Afghan. And Central Asia as well as NW Pakistan/India had for very long been ethnically and culturally diverse, with many languages spoken and practicing a variety of religions – influences from the Mediterranean, , Central Asia and Pakistan/India.))) Ai-Khanoum was at the doorstep of India, and there was a strong reciprocal awareness between the two areas.

The problem with ancient history is that it is short on personal information about people. esp. those who are not famous, or make themselves king, such as Seleucus. It was difficult to find out any indication of more personal contact between the local people working with the Greeks – an overload of commercial or book-keeping documents, and hardly anything else.

There are short snippets of information about people arriving from India. One ambassador from India hasn‟t got a Greek name but writes Greek verse. Another ambassador of an Indian king does have a Greek name, but is apparently quite fond of Indian gods, and especially attached to a particular appealing Indian deity.

Some quite poetic – and therefore personal – Greek inscriptions were found. Here is one which has, I think, the Greek spirit and way of thinking (and feeling); it was found at the tomb of Kineas, the founder of Ai Khanum: '"Païs ôn kosmios ginou (As children, learn good manners) hèbôn enkratès, (as young men, learn to control the passions) mesos dikaios (in middle age, be just) presbutès euboulos (in old age, give good advice) teleutôn alupos. (then die, without regret.)"

Another quite personal Greek message (carved in stone)is a epigram of a man called Sophytos who died in Kandahar, which at the time fell under the administration of an Indian king Asoka. Sophytos‟ life is described in an autobiographic poem: (I copied this, somewhat shortened) His name is Indian but it is transcribed in Greek. He tells us that he was educated into the art of Apollo and the Muses. A family disaster left him destitute, so he emigrated to work abroad and returned many years later immensely rich. He restored his family home and, of course, built an ancestral mausoleum where his pulled-up-by-his boot-straps story is there to be read as a model for his heirs (they probably hated the moral tone).

Then there is Heliodoros in Indo-Greek India, of whom a text exists in Prakrit (whatever language that is, it isn‟t Greek). He has a Greek name and has a political role as ambassador/negotiator on behalf of his king, and comes from , near Islamabad. He is sent to the court of another Indian king, in a place of Hindu fame, where there was an important temple of Visnu. He lived there for some time and seems to have received some Indian literary and cultural education. Heliodoros dedication of a pillar (customary to have that instead of a tomb) with inscriptions is at the site of the local cult.

So why did Greek Bactria collapse?

- Disputes of entitlement as ruler and serious fights – actually blatant wars – weakened Greek dominance and grip on the area, and territories were split up, giving new opportunities to start an unproductive war.

- Between Alexander(326BC) and 130BC only once were there 2 Greek rulers at the same time (for West and East Bactria); Between 130BC and 10 AD only once was there one ruler – in 90BC there were 8

- Additionally there were numerous nomad incursions and the Greeks probably scattered and abandoned cities such as Ai Khanum. During the Kushan era the Greeks probably took their place among those whose turn had passed or went to areas around Peshawar or Indian Kushan areas.

((When you see Afghans with green eyes and brown hair, ask them if they are related to Iskander)).

The Kushan

The reason I introduce the Kushans, and in particular their most famous ruler Kanishka is that they left more art work than any other peoples, either acquired or commissioned, and incorporated Greek art in their own. They were instrumental in spreading the influence of Greek art in Central Asia which then survived the Greek physical presence by 300 years.

There is so much disagreement when the Kushan settled in Bactria, that I have jumped to an era one can safely say that the Kushans had settled in Bactria and that is “somewhere at the beginning” of the 1st century AD. But it might be earlier than that, or later.

The Kushan came from but were driven out, and conquered large stretches of land from Khurasan () Afghanistan to the . As all nomadic tribes they were fierce fighters and could overrun large areas on horseback, able to destroy irrigation systems and threaten cities, like Ai Khanum. I find it difficult to comprehend that these murderous barbarians had or developed such refined artistic taste, so I start with a report how terrible they were - a racy, almost romantic report by an old archaeologist, appropriately the son of a Greek immigrant to Taskent (who was looking for a more meaningful life in the Soviet republic of Tajikstan) He writes: ”an aggressive group of nomads called Kushan was pushed west by the Huns into the bleak and limitless expanse of southern . There they encountered the Scythians, another nomadic tribe that had coveted the flourishing oasis cities on the trade routes but dare not act alone (that is a bit of a supposition). United, the horde gathered courage and raged across the Central Asian steppes 2,130 years ago, leaving charred fields and human suffering. When they crossed the river Oxus they lay waste the Greco-Bactrian lands.”

And then this archaeologist and his colleagues found tonnes of stunning, elaborately decorated objects and statues within the palaces they excavated. Such a change of heart of the Kushans is the good fortune of archeologists and, of course, us.

The Kushan settled in Bactria around 125 BC and made their summer capital in Begram, north of Kabul with another capital in the region of (NE Afghanistan and N. Pakistan) later extending to the region of Peshawar. The Gandhara region was home to a multiethnic, multi-cultural society surprisingly tolerant of different religions. And it also had a strategic position: not only near the Silk Road but also with links to the Arabian Sea.

This was the first time these nomads settled into urban life, but they certainly took to it. Under their rule new cities were built on the Hellenistic model of planning which they had found. They also modernised and expanded the irrigation systems, and developed a stable currency – I have read that in their heyday they pegged it to the Roman “aureus”. Their currency was much in use by all traders along the Silk Roads and they had commercial links with where they sold silks to Roman senators and jewellery for their wives. The Kushan dynasty had diplomatic contacts with the Roman Empire, Sasanian Persia, and Han China. They adopted the Greek alphabet and had gold coins with Kushan royal portraits and Greek mottos and symbols.

During the economic boom that followed, they amassed huge amounts of stunning golden jewellery, sculptures, ornaments from the areas they controlled, which made archeological finds in the 1930s and 60s so spectacular - the best known discoveries were in and Begram and there may be numerous similar sites, which have been looted during the endless wars in the 2nd half of the 20c or which remain to be located.

Begram was the Kushan summer capital - later King Kanishka had his summer palace there. It has become well known because of the thousands of pieces of art excavated there. Opinions vary what such a vast collection of objects was doing there. The pieces include Chinese lacquered boxes, Roman glass and bronzes, Greek figurines, Indian ivory carvings of well proportioned bosomy ladies and mythical creatures.

There are several similar sites, and some objects have a mixture of cultural influences: one piece of gold pendant shows a little man wearing a felt hat type Siberia, a nomadic kaftan, with an Indian style dot on his forehead. Whoever you try to sell it to on the Silk Road will find something to remind him of back home. The Begram Treasure is a vast collection which you could expect from commercial traders, or else it could have been hidden away during feuds over succession after Kanishka‟s death. But when did King Kanishka die – or live, for that matter?

While much art, and science was created within its borders, the only textual record of the empire's history today comes from coins and inscriptions, and accounts in other languages

Kanishka was an extraordinary man, but the trouble is that he was so important not just in relation to culture, but also consolidating the Kushan Empire, that in his time Kanishka himself was the point of reference – he was Ground Zero. When Ground Zero was, is an ongoing dispute. Many scholarly books and two conferences in London (1913 and 1960) could not come to a definite conclusion when he lived. So Kanishka rules from 57BC or alternatively from 57AD, or perhaps 78 AD or else 128 AD. The Begram Treasure can have been started before Kanishka, or things were added a century after Kanishka. So please use your imagination when I say that:

- Buddhist texts of around 100A.D. are full of praise for him, probably because he convened the 4th Buddhist Council in Kashmir in that year, and encouraged the Gandhara school of Greco-Buddhist art and the Mathura school of Hindu art. That places Kanishka‟s reign between 78 and 101, but that comes from a Buddhist website, perhaps a bit partisan. I am sure it is safe to say that by the time Kanishka was in charge, the Kushan were not known for their barbarism, and were more than willing to add other people‟s treasures to their own collection.

- Kanishka who might have been Buddhist, was also a devotee and patron of other religons: bears representations of Buddha as well as non-Buddhist gods and goddesses, of Greek, Persian and Hindu origin. One coin has on one side an Iranian god and Greek letters, on the other Buddha and south Indian script.

- Even in death he continued this multi-cultural approach: Kanishka‟s Casket which is gold on bronze, found in his massive stuppa, has a representation of Buddha together with Hindu deities Brahma and Indra, Persian sun and moon gods and garlands with cherubs in Hellenistic style. It was created by a Greek artist, Agesilas, foreman of all the works dedicated to Kanishka in death, and that illustrates the direct connection of Greek artists with Buddhist artwork.

So whatever period we choose after the First Century, we can include Kanishka, Great Patron of Arts – place him in any period you want, , Byzantine period or why not: well after that in the 18trh century, our next project

Historians have based their theories on very different assumptions (or certainties based on divergent, or totally different conclusions) so that history can only be painted in vast lines, so general that there is little to make you identify with what happened. Or you just go with one theory and two fingers up to other theories. Otherwise you can never give a talk.