The Archaeology of Sogdiana

Volume 1 Number 2 “The Bridge between Eastern and Western cultures” December 2003 In This Issue • The Archaeology of Sogdiana FROM THE EDITOR • Returning to Varakhsha • Sogdians in China: A Short History It is my pleasure to introduce the sec- remains of Sogdian culture. To the and Some New Discoveries ond issue of the Silkroad Foundation’s casual visitor, the dusty mounds of • Pre-Islamic Civilization of the Newsletter which contains a range of Afrasiab or Panjikent or even the dark- Sogdians (seventh c. BCE to articles that should interest general ened and damaged originals of their eighth c. CE): A Bibliographic reader and specialist alike. I respond murals barely speak, but they come Essay to these essays on both a personal and alive through the expertise of scholars a professional level. On the one hand, such as those whose essays on the • Bamiyan: Professor Tarzi’s Survey the Silk Road embodies a kind of ro- Sogdians occupy the largest part of this and Excavation Archaeological mantic and romanticizing vision of a issue of our Newsletter. I have had Mission, 2003 past which may come alive when I visit the personal pleasure of hearing Boris • “Knowing the Road That Leads You the locations where history unfolded. Marshak lecture for our Silk Road Se- Home”: Family, Genealogy, and On the other hand the historian in me attle events back in 2002 and witness- keeps whispering that I should beware ing how his gentle erudition charmed Migration in Post-Soviet of reading too much into the past from all who met him. For half a century he Kazakhstan its remains that have survived to the has been one of the giants of Sogdian • Among the Kazakhs of Xinjiang present. studies. More recently, in conjunction with the stunning exhibit of Silk Road Next Issue It has been my privilege to have seen art at the Dayton (Ohio) Art Institute the Sogdian murals at Afrasiab on the (in which many of the objects spoke to • On the Antiquity of the Yurt by outskirts of Samarkand, to have vis- the importance of the Sogdians) I Professor David Stronach ited, however briefly, the famous shared the stage with Aleksandr Sogdian town of Panjikent, to have Naymark and heard first-hand his dis- seen Sogdian petroglyphs in the Hunza cussion of the remarkable Varakhsha • Dr. John Sommer on Klavdiya Valley in northern Pakistan, and to have palace which he has now written up for Antipina, Ethnographer of the Kyrgyz driven out to the Dunhuang “limes” in these pages. His essay offers an ex- the area not far from where Aurel Stein cellent example of historical detection, • Professor Al Dien on Palmyra discovered the famous “ancient where the written sources and mate- Sogdian letters.” In fact, almost any- rial remains can be brought together • Stride, Padwa and Kansa on the where we might step along the vari- into a narrative that questions accepted ous paths of the ancient Silk Roads, wisdom in attempting to make sense GIS Atlas of Ancient Bactria we can imagine we are following in the of events which occurred some 1200- footsteps of the Sogdians, who played 1300 years ago. Étienne de la And more... such an important role in the Inner Vaissière’s elegant summary about Asian trade for a major part of the first what we are learning on the lively fron- millennium CE. Similarly, visiting the tier of the study of the Sogdians in About Kazakhs or (in my case) the Kyrgyz in China should encourage everyone to their Central Asian mountain pastures The Silk Road is a publication of the read his book, the first major synthe- Silkroad Foundation. The Silk Road can brings to life the remarkable, centu- sis of all that is known about the also be viewed online at ries-old, descriptive accounts we are Sogdian merchants and one which de- http://www.silkroadfoundation.org fortunate to have regarding the tradi- serves to be translated for those who tional culture of the pastoral nomads cannot read the French. Everywhere Please feel free to contact us with any who contributed so significantly to the one turns in the literature on Sogdiana, questions or contributions. movement of peoples and goods across one encounters the name of Frantz historic Eurasia. Grenet, who is Director of the Franco- The Silkroad Foundation P.O. Box 2275 Uzbek Archaeological Mission that has Saratoga, CA 95070 As a historian interested in periods for been continuing the excavations at [email protected] which the archaeological record pro- Afrasiab and at other sites nearby. We vides essential source material, I am can be much encouraged by the way in Editor: Daniel C. Waugh with the assis- especially intrigued by the material which international participation in Cen- tance of Heather Salfrank ©2003 Silkroad Foundation tral Asian excavations has expanded in the continuation of major excavations cape diesel fumes, fast food and the post-Soviet era, not the least of and the study of their results should busloads of tourists, it would be a mis- the benefits being that the results are be a higher priority than the recon- take, of course, to imagine that the life becoming more widely known than they struction of the standing Buddhas of of the herding families is unchanged were in the days where so much of the Bamiyan, however important symboli- from the way it was, say, back in the important scholarship appeared mainly cally that might be. It is no small time when William of Rubruck or Marco in Russian. miracle that in current conditions in Polo travelled through Inner Asia. Afghanistan any kind of serious archae- Yet Sogdiana rarely makes the front ology can be undertaken. We need to remember that the chro- page news, whereas the tragedy of nologically most recent layer in any Bamiyan is, alas, all too fresh in the Saulesh Yessenova’s article introduces kind of excavation, be it in the ground minds of everyone. The destruction of us to another important aspect of the or in human memory, may not be a so much of value in Afghanistan’s cul- preservation and understanding of the reliable guide to the layers of earlier tural heritage and the threats from loot- past. It is at once alarming and heart- centuries. As we learn more about ing to that which remains in the ground ening to learn how Kazakh family ge- the Silk Road, on whatever level we should not obscure the fact we are also nealogies are in danger of being ig- study it, we find ourselves both over- living in a time when important new nored by the younger generation and whelmed by how much is known (and discoveries continue there. One thinks, at the same time are being actively pre- is there to be learned) and dismayed for example, of the earliest physical served by their elders. This, in a cul- by how much may never be known. To copies of Buddhist writings, which ture where memory of family and kin me the romance of the Silk Road is its somehow were spirited out of Afghani- has always been at the heart of iden- challenge to venture into what for most stan before the Taliban could destroy tity. Just as in many places we are of us is terra incognita. Just as we think them and are now being made avail- racing against time to rescue material we are beginning to identify secure able for scholars to decipher. Just as culture from the architects of modern landmarks along the way, we realize we await eagerly the appearance of development, so also is it important to that even the best experts may dis- each volume in the Early Buddhist record and preserve traditions that in- agree about what they mean. Our chal- Manuscripts Project, we wait with bated evitably change due to the realities of lenge is to overcome the limitations breath to learn the results of the con- “modernization.” imposed by our experiences in the tinuing excavations by Zemaryalai present in order to be able to recover Tarzi, in search of the reclining Bud- Bob Jones’s experience among the a past whose shards are buried in the dha at Bamiyan. If the international Kazakhs of Xinjiang serves as another sands of memory. community wishes to contribute to reminder of how rapidly tradition is projects honoring and preserving the being encroached upon by the eco- Daniel Waugh cultural heritage of this true crossroads nomic demands and temptations of Department of History of civilizations, then supporting the development. Even where one can go University of Washington (Seattle) protection of archaeological sites and high enough into the mountains to es- [email protected] 2 The Archaeology of Sogdiana Boris I. Marshak The Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg Sogdiana (or Sogd) is a region in Cen- ever, for a more complete picture we in Samarkand region and the Dashti tral Asia that was populated by need to note the monuments of earlier Kozy tomb to the east of Panjikent. Sogdians, people speaking and writing periods. These unrelated monuments do not in an Eastern Iranian language. Accord- help, however, to explain the origins ing to Greek and Roman authors, The most ancient archaeological find- of the Sogdians. Sogdiana included territories between ings on the territory of Sogdiana date two rivers, the Amu Darya and Syr to the Middle Paleolithic period. There Urban development in Sogdiana began Darya. Khoresm, which occupied the are a few Upper Paleolithic settlements sometime in the early first millennium Amu Darya delta, was not part of (in Samarkand, for example) as well; BCE, i.e., in the early Iron Age, when a Sogdiana.

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