Ai Khanoum After 145 Bc the Post-Palatial Occupation*

Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia 24 (2018) 354-419 brill.com/acss

Ai Khanoum after 145 bc The Post-Palatial Occupation*

Laurianne Martinez-Sève** University of Lille [email protected]

Abstract

The attack that caused the ruin of Ai Khanoum around 145 BC was a key event of its history. This was the beginning of the so-called post-palatial period, which is often considered of short duration. The article intends to provide a general study of this last stage of the history of the city, taking into account the information already published, but also the new evidence resulting from the ongoing study of its main sanctuary (henceforth the Sanctuary). The few inhabitants of Ai Khanoum still living in the city after 145 BC reoccupied its private and public buildings and were engaged in the recovering of all the riches of the former Graeco-Bactrian capital. They exploited the stone materials, the metallic objects, the furniture and even reused the ceramics abandoned in the town. The Sanctuary remained in activity for a while, under the control of an authority who undertook maintenance operations, but the religious conceptions of the population underwent some major changes. This study also enables to review the common assumptions regarding the role played by nomadic people during this period.

Keywords

Hellenistic Bactria – Ai Khanoum – Post-palatial period – the Temple with Indented Niches – cults – recovering activities – Yuezhi – Sakā

* I wish to thank F. Grenet, G. Lecuyot, B. Lyonnet, M. Minardi, C. Rapin and S. Watson for their accurate assistance and comments. But I alone am responsible for the opinions expressed in the paper. ** Domaine du Pont de Bois, BP 60149, 59653 Villeneuve d’Ascq Cedex, France.

1 Introduction

It is a well-known fact that critical events happened at Ai Khanoum (fig. 1) around 145 BC which caused the disappearance of the Greek elites, who either fled or were killed. The Graeco-Bactrian kings, who had made the city one of the major centres of Bactria, and perhaps their main capital under Eucratides I, lost it at the same time they were deprived of eastern Bactria. However, these events did not lead to an abrupt demise of the city (figs. 2, 3): the remains of a later occupation were brought to light all throughout the archaeological excavations achieved under the direction of the late Paul Bernard. There is a general consensus about the fact that the city underwent deep changes during that time. It was no longer a political centre, and its inhabitants are described as squatters because they reoccupied the Graeco-Bactrian buildings, exploited them and scavenge for metals and building materials. Greek culture no longer played any role in the lives of this population, which had given up the key practices, institutions and probably also the values of Hellenism that had previously represented the basis of the identity of the local elites. Much about this period is still unclear, and any estimation on its duration is difficult to asses. Variable data have been published, especially because the estimates of the archaeologists involved in the DAFA excavations formed gradually after the completion of each new fieldwork season and in some cases it changed. For instance, while examining the first findings from the excavations, P. Bernard had thought that the final stage of the history of the city lasted about one century, until the 1st century BC.1 He reached this conclusion after finding (in 1966 and 1967) a residential quarter extending between the Heroon of Kineas and the entrance of the Palace, and then after he excavated (in 1967) the remains of the last stage of the Gymnasium and of the Temple with Indented Niches (in 1968 – temple aux niches indentées). These were the most densely populated areas of the town at the end of its history. P. Bernard’s opinion changed thereafter. In one of his final articles summariz- ing the findings of Ai Khanoum, he wrote that the city was abandoned around 140 BC, which would reduce the duration of the post-palatial period to only five years.2 The members of his archaeological team followed this evolution of his thought. In 1983 O. Guillaume had considered that the reoccupation of the

1 Bernard 1968, 279 (he even wrote in this paper that the town was definitively abandoned only at the end of the 1st century BC “aux environs de notre ère”); Bernard 1969, 354; 1970, 301; Bernard 1973, 110-111. 2 Bernard 2006, 66.

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figure 1 Map of Bactria (drawing by B. Leguyot and L. Martinez-Sève). monumental Propylaea – through which one passed to reach the Palace area from the street – had a long duration.3 But in 1987 S. Veuve estimated that the same stage had lasted twenty years at the Gymnasium,4 whereas according to C. Rapin (1992) it could not have lasted for more than five years at the Treasury

3 Guillaume 1983, 27. 4 Veuve 1987, 109.

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figure 2 Plan of Ai Khanoum (drawing by J.-C. Liger and G. Lecuyot). of the Palace.5 This latter assumption has finally prevailed. Moreover, it seems supported by the fact that the same pottery types remained in use after 145 BC, without undergoing significant transformation since the Graeco-Bactrian period. According to B. Lyonnet, this strong continuity implies that the last period of the city was short-lived, with an estimated range going from some months to a few years.6 By contrast, if this state of affairs had lasted longer, the shapes and techniques of the vases would have changed. Her assumption concerns the city as a whole, whereas the other assessments had been given for only some of its quarters. Thus it could have been hypothesised that the

5 Rapin 1992, 295 (see also 32-35, 287-294). 6 Lyonnet 2013, 183.

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figure 3 Ai Khanoum. Plan of the central area (drawing by J.-C. Liger).

Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to DownloadedSiberia 24from (2018) Brill.com10/10/2021 354-419 02:10:27PM via free access Ai Khanoum after 145 bc 359 reoccupation of the Treasury had a shorter duration than that of the Gymnasium or the Propylaea. Nobody has since then questioned these conclusions except for J.D. Lerner, who recently suggested placing the desertion of the town at the end of the 1st century BC.7 However, P. Bernard himself revisited this issue in the final publication of the residential quarter extending between the Heroon of Kineas and the entrance of the Palace in the last volume of the series Fouilles d’Aï Khanoum. He thought necessary to reconsider the length of the last period of life of the city, for which he might have given too short an estimate, as well as the characteristics of its last inhabitants, who may have been too rashly described as “squatters”. Since this last period of the history of Ai Khanoum started after the destruction of its Palace, he also recommended to employ the term “post-palatial”, which has a less negative connotation than the French “tardif” (i.e. late).8 This was by no means a novelty, since he had already used this expression in his first preliminary reports.9 Thus we need to reconsider this post-palatial period, taking into account the evidence recorded in previous publications, but also the new and rich information provided by the ongoing study of the Sanctuary. The aim of this paper is to contribute to this work, without pretending to be exhaustive.

2 The Characteristics of the Post-Palatial Occupation at Ai Khanoum

Ai Khanoum’s post-palatial period differs considerably from the previous Graeco-Bactrian period, both in relation to private dwellings and to the activities of the inhabitants of the town. The latter were apparently of local origin and modest in their social background. The only available archaeological evidence points at the absence of any permanently residing elite which would have held political and military power.10

7 Lerner 2010; 2011. Using epigraphic and numismatic arguments, J.D. Lerner concludes that the Greek elites remained at Ai Khanoum until the middle of the 1st century BC. For critical remarks, see Holt 2012. 8 Bernard 2013, 147 (footnote no. 313), 151. 9 Bernard 1968, 179 (“post-palatial occupation”). 10 Contrary to Lerner 2011. An inscription engraved on a silver ingot found in the treasury is assigned to a nomad power (Rapin 1992, 34-35, 288). However, no evidence indicates that representatives of this power had been appointed in the city on an ongoing base.

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2.1 Private Dwellings Broadly speaking, one of the main remarkable features of the post-palatial period at Ai Khanoum is the phenomenon which saw the reoccupation and change of use of the Graeco-Bactrian buildings. This explains why the inhabitants of the town were seen as squatters. They settled both in private properties and public buildings, which were privatised and divided into distinct units. In several areas of the lower town, two different stages of this reoccupation period were detected, with similar characteristics. The first one began immediately after the dramatic events that impacted the city around 145 BC. In most cases, the last Graeco-Bactrian floor surfaces were reused, but in some occasions they were overlain by new ones built few centimetres higher. The remains of the second stage are generally less substantial and they mainly consist in a stratum between 50 and 70 cm formed above the older floors, overlay by the destruction layers formed after the ruin of the buildings and the collapse of their roofs.

2.1.1 The Reoccupation of the Private Residences Two of the larger aristocratic houses of the city were particularly affected by this reoccupation: the “residence of the south-western quarter” and the “extramural residence”.11 The remains discovered belonging to the post-palatial stage consisted of rudimentary installations, low mud brick walls, benches and pedestals. Some new fireplaces were also built, sometimes even in the corridors now converted into living places. These hearths were simply dug into the floor or into the walls of the houses, sometimes built in a more sophisticated way, or arranged in recuperated jars. They were designed for heating or cooking pur- poses, including bread baking (tandoor). The bathrooms of the residences lost their function as implied by the destruction of the equipment providing heating and supplying water. Several doorways were closed off, sometimes only partially (with screen walls that did not go all the way up to their top), sometimes entirely (with solid dividing walls filling the whole gateway or with narrower ones built on only one side),12 fact that led to a remapping of the circulation routes. However, it is difficult to be sure that all these new partitions were made during the post-palatial period; some of them may have been done earlier. Most of the rooms of the south-western quarter residence were reoccupied (fig. 4). Nothing indicates, however, that the house was divided and shared

11 Lecuyot 2013, 37-44 for the residence of the south-western quarter; 104, 133 and more generally 109-134 for the extramural residence. 12 Lecuyot 2013, 17, 107.

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figure 4 Residence of the south-western quarter. Plan of the post-palatial stage (drawing by G. Lecuyot). between several households, as can be seen in other buildings. Some rubbish deposited by people living nearby and accumulated in the street flanking the northern side of the courtyard of the house, shows a lack of interest for the maintenance of public spaces. The second reoccupation of the residence was less significant than the first one and mainly localized in the southern part of the house, where several rooms may have formed a single housing unit (fig. 4, nos. 15-18). Their equipment was now less elaborate, especially fireplaces and ovens.

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figure 5 Extramural residence. Plan of the post-palatial stage (drawing by G. Lecuyot).

In the extramural residence (fig. 5), the remains of the first reoccupation only seem concentrated in certain areas. The house was devastated by a fire in its northern half. According to the excavators, it occurred in 145 BC, at the same time as the large fire that destroyed the Palace, marking the end of the Graeco- Bactrian era and the beginning of the post-palatial one.13 But nothing supports the hypothesis of a coincidence of these two destructive events, which may have been unrelated. The archaeologists who dug the extramural residence thought that it had undergone a major reorganisation throughout the Graeco-Bactrian

13 Lecuyot 2013, 133.

Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to DownloadedSiberia 24from (2018) Brill.com10/10/2021 354-419 02:10:27PM via free access Ai Khanoum after 145 bc 363 period, with ten of its doors being walled off. Thus, they have distinguished two Graeco-Bactrian stages: the first one corresponding to the initial layout of the house (II/1), and the second one dating back to its reorganisation after the walling of its doors (II/2). The fire only occurred after this reorganisation. If we accept that it was during the post-palatial period, and not at the end of the Graeco-Bactrian one, at least some of the doors were closed off during the earlier part of the post-palatial reoccupation and not before. This assumption will be favoured here.14 The change in circulation allowed two units of independent housing to be created in the north-western part of the house (rooms nos. 6 and 8; rooms nos. 7, 9 and 10). In this scenario, the first reoccupation of the residence would have been more significant than previously imagined. The fire only affected the northern rooms and caused the destruction of part of its roof, especially above the reception hall that subsequently remained an open area.15 The rooms were then abandoned, and the stone elements of the colonnades were dismantled and crushed into pieces to recover their metal dowels.16 Moreover, the fire may have been voluntarily lit to facilitate the deconstruction of the upper parts of the building. After the fire, the north-western rooms were no longer habitable and their reoccupation ceased. The second reoccupation seems to have been more sporadic and mainly localised in the southern part of the house and in the older kitchen (room no. 18) where traces of the first reoccupation were also abundant.

2.1.2 The Reoccupation of the Public Buildings Most of the city’s public buildings were also reoccupied. This led to their pri- vatisation and to the disappearance of the activities that had previously taken place within their walls and that were typical of a Hellenic way of life and allowed the elites to mark their specificity. As previously noted, this reoccupation brought to the closing or, on the contrary, to the opening of doors and passageways which caused a shift in circulation patterns. Some new installations, generally of poor quality, were also built (fireplaces, benches, pedestals, enclosures). The Gymnasium provides a good example of this shift (fig. 6). The rooms set all around its courtyard were transformed in domestic dwellings, working areas or storage spaces containing sometimes a considerable amount of storage

14 The fire was ignited after the construction in the main reception room (no. 3) of a fireplace. It was set on a mud brick pedestal and near a low wall that obstructed the door opening from the entrance hall. In the Sanctuary area, several post-palatial fireplaces looked similarly. 15 Lecuyot 2013, 115. 16 Lecuyot 2013, 110, 134.

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figure 6 Gymnasium. General plan, without the post-palatial remains (drawing by J.-C. Liger). vessels. The two successive stages of reoccupation previously mentioned were identified, separated from one another by a 20-70 cm thick layer of rubble.17 During the first of these stages, the monument underwent an overall reorganisation of its entries and exits. Previously to enter the Gymnasium stricto sensu (the northern part of the complex) one had to cross the southern Palaestra communicating with the courtyard through a main gateway flanked by two lateral doors (fig. 3). These three entrances were now closed and the Gymnasium was therefore isolated from the Palaestra. New passages for a more direct

17 Veuve 1987, 67-73 (pl. XI) and 73-79 (pl. XII).

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figure 7 Reoccupation of the east exedra of the Gymnasium, rooms 8a, 8b and 9 (DAFA). access were opened into the walls of the northern and eastern sides.18 During the same period, other doors were closed off to transform some of the rooms into independent single residential units or to create slightly bigger houses with living and working areas. Five examples of such units have been identified: in place of the former east exedra, which was divided in three rooms (nos. 8a, 8b, 9, fig. 7); on the location of the former main gate, also divided in three rooms (nos. 12, 23, 17, fig. 8); in the northeast corner of the courtyard (two rooms: nos. 5 and 6); and on the location of the former large south-eastern (no. 24) and south-western (no. 25) rooms flanking the Palaestra. Three other large rooms were equipped with fireplaces and used not necessarily as living units (nos. 3, 7, 11). Thus, although most of the rooms of the Gymnasium were reoccupied, only four or five families were there living, which is a small number given the large space available.19 According to S. Veuve, the second reoccupation stage of the Gymnasium occurred after a brief hiatus, at a time when some of the walls of the complex

18 These passages were not excavated, but their existence is inferred given the fact that new doors were opened in the back wall of the east exedra (no. 8) and in the large northeast room (no. 5) to give access to the exit points of the building. 19 If we consider that these people were living in family units, which remains to be proved.

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figure 8 Gymnasium. Plan of the main entrance during the post-palatial stage (drawing by J.-C. Liger). were covered with rubble and no longer visible. Only the rooms opening onto the courtyard remained habitable.20 S. Veuve considered that the interruption lasted only a short period of time, since both the material culture of the new inhabitants and their activities remained unchanged. These persons settled

20 Veuve 1987, 73.

Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to DownloadedSiberia 24from (2018) Brill.com10/10/2021 354-419 02:10:27PM via free access Ai Khanoum after 145 bc 367 directly on the top of the destruction layers formed by the ruins of the walls. This second reoccupation was less significant than the first one, and the related vestiges found are of less importance. Only two small rooms were inhabited: the small rectangular one located in the northwest corner (no. 2) and the circular southeast exedra (no. 10), the opening of which was enclosed by a wall. Both rooms communicated with a large rectangular room, probably used as a workspace or as an annexe (nos. 3 and 9). The other public buildings of the city underwent similar changes. One of the exedrae of the south public courtyard adjoining the main street of the town21 was enclosed by a wall and transformed into a house. Two rooms of the large storage building located close to the river Kokcha, to the south of the town, were divided in order to create a four-room unit (fig. 9).22 A small room was created in the northern wing of the Arsenal.23 The post-palatial reoccupation left numerous traces at the Propylaea, where two houses were built in the two rooms located at the north of the structure (nos. 3 and 9) and perhaps a third one south of it. This latter was deserted after the digging of a canal that cut across the area, before continuing to an unknown location. Interestingly, the Propylaea were not reoccupied immediately at the beginning of the post-palatial period, but only after the formation of a 50 cm-thick layer of rubble deposit on the original Graeco-Bactrian floor levels. According to O. Guillaume, the successive reshaping that occurred in the rooms, the digging of the canal and the presence of two fireplaces built at its bottom (after that the water ceased to flow) suggest that the reoccupation lasted a long time and extended beyond the time necessary to the sole pillag- ing of the building.24 Even the Theatre seems to have been occupied by dwellings, but only in a second time, after being reused as a graveyard. Over one hundred corpses were discovered accumulated in its orchestra, on the first steps of the koilon and even inside the central loggia. The excavators advanced the hypothesis

21 Lecuyot 2013, 77. The public function of this courtyard seems likely, but the excavators also considered the possibility that it could have been a private dwelling. 22 This reconstitution seems more plausible than the one advanced by Lecuyot (2013, 94-95) who dates this partition in the Graeco-Bactrian period. Workshops or warehouses located in the immediate vicinity of the Sanctuary evolved in the same way, being transformed into residential units, but during the post-palatial period (see below). The rest of the building was swept away by the Kokcha, and we do not know whether the other rooms were likewise reoccupied. This is unlikely because the majority of the finds were concentrated in the four-room units. 23 Grenet et alii 1980, 53. A construction, of which two walls were found in the courtyard, was also standing against the west side of the arsenal, but the excavation did not extend there. 24 Guillaume 1983, 25-27.

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figure 9 Building of the south-eastern quarter. Plan of the post-palatial stage (drawing by G. Lecuyot).

Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to DownloadedSiberia 24from (2018) Brill.com10/10/2021 354-419 02:10:27PM via free access Ai Khanoum after 145 bc 369 that the building was used for Zoroastrian rites, as a dakhma for excarnation of the bones of deceased people. But they now assume that these remains were more probably those of the former residents of the city who were killed during the attack in 145 BC and whose bodies were there placed after the event.25 They were found covered with a thin layer of soil, which may have formed after heavy rains causing the erosion of the building.26 After some time, a small room was built over the human remains inside the orchestra. It was apparently related to a pottery kiln and it may have been the potter’s house. The town’s water supply channel passing through the Theatre was also re-dug, next to its former obstructed bed.27 Few rooms of the main part of the Palace (fig. 10) were transformed into living quarters, and the monument became mainly a space for artisanal activities. Only the western corridor flanking the hypostyle hall (no. 2) was divided into two rooms, and the smaller one was provided with a fireplace and changed in a living space.28 However, the Treasury and the rooms of the monumental entrance giving access to the large peristyle courtyard were left inhabited. The Treasury became place of intense activity related to the recovery of architectural materials and especially of the riches once contained there. Five or six rooms at least became dwellings equipped with fireplaces and ovens, and probably inhabited by craftsmen working nearby. Sometimes, the rooms were at first used as working stations and then transformed into living quarters or they could have also fulfilled both functions at the same time.29

2.1.3 A New Residential Area The Heroon of Kineas and the rooms relative to the main entrance of the Palace were privatised as well, and incorporated into a larger residential area extending between them (fig. 11). This area is the only newly built housing estate that we know of in the whole post-palatial town. The cella of the Heroon was transformed into a habitation, which communicated with its pronaos through a door that was narrowed. On its front façade, the entablature of the monument showed its fragility and so it needed to be strengthened by wooden pillars.

25 Grenet in Lecuyot 2014, 66. 26 Author’s hypothesis. 27 Bernard 1978, 439-441. 28 Bernard 1973, 59. Other dwellings may have existed, but they are not mentioned in the preliminary reports. 29 Rooms nos. 108 and perhaps 118 (dwellings); nos. 111, 112 and 115 (workshops and later dwellings); no. 117 (workshop and dwelling at the same time) – see Rapin 1992, 53-77.

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figure 10 Plan of the Palace (drawing by C. Rapin).

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figure 11 Plan of the new residential area (drawing by G. Lecuyot).

Six external rooms without a detectable clear function were arranged all around the building.30 The rooms of the entrance of the Palace underwent reorganisation as well. The closure of several doors and the opening of new ones allowed the creation of several domestic units furnished with various equipment and provided with new floors.31 About twenty rooms were built between the Heroon and the entrance of the Palace, but only few have been precisely described in the reports of the excavations, fact which explains why there living quarters are difficult to distinguish from workshops, especially since they were sometimes combined. One of these constructions may have been used as a bathroom

30 Bernard 2013, 145-147. These rooms had probably no front wall or were widely opened. 31 Bernard 2013, 147-150. The exact position of the doors and the organisation of the inner circulation of the buildings remain unclear, as the precise function of the rooms.

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(no. 27) and another one as a kitchen (no. 20). These spaces sometimes underwent reshaping and some of their doors were closed off during a second stage.32 Hence, our evidence show that at Ai Khanoum the vestiges of the post- palatial period are present everywhere, even though the city was not intensely reoccupied by numerous people. Only the “new quarter” was a little more densely populated than the other parts of the town, but we are unable to evaluate how far it extended. The other dwellings (excluding those of the Sanctuary area) could only accommodate a maximum of about twenty families. Admittedly, other residential areas may have existed in unexcavated areas, north or/and south of the city. But it is interesting to note that only a few people lived in the Gymnasium, although its courtyard offered a large area where one could have built numerous houses.

2.1.4 The Upper City A similar situation to that we have seen up to this point applies to the upper city of Ai Khanoum. There the post-palatial stage remains identified during its excavation only consisted of contexts of rubble, rubbish, and debris created by fire, which were not associated with any building, except perhaps to a wood fence standing in front of the northern defensive wall.33 However, the situation is complicated by the fact that the upper city knew other rhythms of fruition and it remained occupied after the lower one was abandoned. In the upper city P. Leriche identified a post-Greek stage (that is post- palatial), a pre-Kushan stage, and a Kushan stage. This latter, contemporaneous with the “Great Kushans”, is dated to the 1st-3rd centuries AD. The dating of the other two stages is unclear. The pre-Kushan stage is dated either to the 1st century BC or only to the end of the 1st century BC. Sometimes it is thought that it replaced the post-Greek period without interruption, or nearly without interruption,34 sometimes after an abandonment phase.35 The excavations were never extended over large areas, which increases the incertitude. In addition, the dedicated publications do not specify which kind of ceramic material and other finds enable the identification of this pre-Kushan stage or its differentiation from the post-Greek/

32 Bernard 2013, 151-156. 33 Leriche 1986, 25. 34 Leriche 1986, 69. 35 Leriche 1986, 25, 99. In the table at page 69, this abandonment stage is not mentioned, which may be a simple omission.

Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to DownloadedSiberia 24from (2018) Brill.com10/10/2021 354-419 02:10:27PM via free access Ai Khanoum after 145 bc 373 post-palatial phase.36 The only available data on this regard concern five “pre- Kushan” graves found near the Timurid rampart built across the acropolis. They contained characteristic pottery shapes as the stemmed beakers (gobelets sur piédouche) and vases of lagynos type, dated to the 1st century BC. This category of ceramics is unknown elsewhere in the city and enables us to isolate a specific group of nomadic people.37 But we know nothing regarding the other pre-Kushan vestiges, although they are numerous: at that time, the upper city underwent the restoration of the north defensive wall, the construction of a new wall on the eastern side of the acropolis and the rebuilding of the citadel, including now a rampart with a gallery.38 We would like to know why the small nomadic cemetery and these reconstructions are attributed to the same period and dated to the pre-Kushan stage rather than to the post-palatial one. The latter is particularly difficult to identify since P. Leriche always makes a distinction between a ceramic phase typical of the end of the Graeco-Bactrian period (Phase VII) and another one that should be characteristic of the post-palatial period (Phase VIII). However, we now know that these two successive phases cannot be distinguished merely through the analysis of ceramic assemblages. Thus, the possibility that some vestiges dated to the end of the Graeco- Bactrian period or to the pre-Kushan period are in fact post-palatial must be taken into account.39

2.2 Appropriation and Craft Activities Aside from reoccupying the public monuments of the town, the inhabitants also started to exploit them. The appropriation activity which they engaged in is another phenomenon typical of the post-palatial period.

2.2.1 The Recovering of Stone Materials Most of the stone elements of the Graeco-Bactrian monuments were dismantled (fig. 12). Even if the Palace has not yet been comprehensively analysed, the available information is sufficient to show that its colonnades were methodically destroyed. At the end of the first excavation season devoted to the clearing of the large peristyle courtyard, it was still not possible to reconstitute even one of the columns belonging to the north, west and east colonnades, and none

36 We cannot be sure that this pre-Kushan stage coincides with the Yuezhi/Kushan stage identified in Lyonnet 1997. 37 Lyonnet 1997, 162. The graves are described in Leriche 1986, 109-111; see also Bernard 1980, 458 and Leriche et alii 1980, 71-72. 38 Leriche 1986, 25-26, 69, 99. 39 Despite the unfounded tendency to see the inhabitants of the post-palatial city as unable to build large constructions.

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figure 12 Heap of broken stone blocks as discovered in the Palace (DAFA). of their bases was intact.40 The remains of the south portico, more extensively excavated, are more significant on this regard: from the thirty-four columns located in the east and central parts of this colonnade, only a few plinths, one intact base, about thirty drums, three capitals (of which two were in very bad condition) and some other fragments were uncovered. The columns from the west side were shattered into pieces forming impressive accumulations, which were not collected.41 A more precise investigation of the columns once located in the hypostyle hall has shown that they were thrown down as one cuts down a tree: their lower section was sectioned off and then smashed with a sledgehammer. This colonnade had three rows of eighteen columns each. The columns of the outer row almost completely disappeared after being knocked down. The others broke into pieces after they hit the ground or while collapsing hitting one against the other, probably because already weakened by the fire that destroyed the roof they used to sustain. The vestiges remained on the ground in a chaotic accumulations of blocks.42

40 Bernard 1973, 25-27. These colonnades were only partially excavated. 41 Bernard 1973, 28, pl. 41. 42 Bernard 1973, 38-40, pl. 44, 50, 51; Bernard 2001, 1000-1002.

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The pilasters of the ceremonial rooms nos. 6 and 9 had a similar fate,43 as the colonnades of the Doric Courtyard that were completely shattered,44 as well as the columns of the residential area of the Palace.45 The Doric colonnade of the northern exedra of the Gymnasium was entirely sectioned and removed during the first reoccupation stage of the post-palatial period. The appropriation of materials went on during the second phase, and the remaining colonnades of the east and south exedrae were despoiled. Of the east exedra only the plinths of the columns and a single drum escaped destruction, while of the south exedra even less: a Doric capital and six column drums.46 Both colonnades of the Propylaea were likewise brought down and sliced into fragments, of which more than 800 were recorded.47 The stone architectural elements of the extramural residence were also looted,48 as those of the Stone-vault Mausoleum (mausolée au caveau de pierre): the front colonnade, the bases of its peripteral colonnade, the vault and at least one of the sarcophagi.49 The inhabitants of the city were no more respectful of funerary monuments than of public ones. If the columns of the exedra of the south public courtyard flanking the main street kept their bases, in the southern adjacent private house the stone pavement of its bathroom was removed.50 The stone material was thus systematically despoiled, probably by the inhabitants living near or inside the same monuments. Their principal aim was to recover the metallic elements, especially the bronze cramps and the lead fastenings.51 P. Bernard was of this advice and he thought that this was shown by the mass of neglected crushed stone fragments abandoned and not afterwards reused.52 However, there is no need to crush a whole stone element

43 Bernard 1973, 65, 73, pl. 65, 66a, 73, 76a; Bernard 2001, 1004-1005. 44 Bernard 1978, 446; Garczynski 1980. Only 37 drums remained of its 56 columns, insuf- ficient to restore their original height. It was possible to reconstruct only one of the capitals. The angle pilasters were only preserved in crushed fragments. 45 Bernard 1975, 168-169. 46 Veuve 1987, 24, 27, 29, 72, 73, pls. 18f, 20a, 37a, 38a. 47 Guillaume 1983, 12, 18, pls. 22A, B and E. 48 Lecuyot 2013, 110, 127, pl. XXIII, 4: in particular the pavement slabs of the bathroom and numerous elements of the colonnade of the porch. On the contrary, the bases from the central room colonnade were undamaged and still in situ. The columns themselves used to be of wood or baked bricks. 49 Francfort & Liger 1976, 25, 33-34, 36-37. 50 Lecuyot 2013, 77, 78. 51 But it seems that lead was not always collected from the remains of the Palace (Bernard 1973, 3). 52 Bernard 2001, 1000.

Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia 24Downloaded (2018) 354-419 from Brill.com10/10/2021 02:10:27PM via free access 376 Martinez-Sève to retrieve its binding elements, and his assumption is not fully convincing. The fragments also served as raw materials for lime kilns. Only one lime kiln was excavated at Ai Khanoum, more precisely in the Gymnasium. It was built inside the walls of one of the northern rooms and dated to the second stage of reoccupation.53 The kiln was rectangular in shape, approximately 5 m long, and belonged to the category of short flames and peri- odic kilns. At the time of S. Veuve’s publication no other kiln of this type was known in the ancient world.54 He cautiously wrote that the evidence was too scarce for any interesting interpretation. A more accurate research on lime technology in Central Asia is required to date the kiln more precisely, which cannot be done here. Nevertheless, it should be noted that lime kilns function in the same fashion as pottery kilns, which in Central Asia became rectangular- shaped only during the Kushan period.55 We also need to consider the fact that the kiln was built inside the walls of the Gymnasium when these were already in an advanced state of decay which suggests a late date. Another evidence regarding lime work at Ai Khanoum is given by the workshop of a so-called plasterer discovered in the quarter extending between the Heroon of Kineas and the entrance of the Palace.56 Numerous small pellets of what was thought to be plaster are also mentioned in the unpublished archaeological diaries of the DAFA and were apparently abundant in the post-palatial archaeological layers of the site.57 When diluted with water, this material was the main ingre- dient to make the coating used to protect wall surfaces. It could also be used as mortar for masonry. However, the amount of stone fragments left abandoned in the Palace or at the Propylaea seems to be disproportionate in comparison with the needs of the people living in the city at that time. Why employ so much energy to bring down and crush stone columns if the stone was not afterwards used? The way of proceeding at the Gymnasium, where the elements of the colonnades were gradually shattered into pieces when they were needed appears to be more rational. P. Bernard thought that the Palace colonnades were crushed not because they had been voluntary sectioned off, but because they fell to the

53 Veuve 1987, 76-78, pl. 10 (room no 3). 54 Veuve 1987, 77 who refers to Adam 1984, 74. Ancient lime kilns are generally circular and were heating according to the long flame process. 55 Pugachenkova 1973, 214-215; Pugachenkova & Rtveladze, 1978, 120, 122, 124 (no. 6). 56 Bernard 2013, 152-153: room no. 11, in its second phase of occupation. Plaster is produced from gypsum and should be distinguished from lime, which is made from limestone. However, the excavators did not always make this distinction. 57 See also Lecuyot 2013, 90. Several clusters were found in the Sanctuary, and a vase stored in the temple was full of this kind of small pellets.

Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to DownloadedSiberia 24from (2018) Brill.com10/10/2021 354-419 02:10:27PM via free access Ai Khanoum after 145 bc 377 ground while their structure had been weakened by the fire.58 This factor probably played a role, but it does not explain everything.59 Reused whole architectonic stone elements are also recorded at Ai Khanoum. The practice of reusing and re-shape former construction blocks was usual at the site, and these blocks were transformed into bases of new columns and pilasters, as well as for elements of thresholds.60 This practice has continued since the excavations of Ai Khanoum began after that a Corinthian capital from the ancient city had been brought to King Mohammed Zaher Shah.61 Some capitals and elements of the city’s colonnades were also reused in modern constructions after the Soviet invasion and ensuing war. Corinthian capitals supported the roof of a tea house in the village of Khwaja Bahauddin, 25 km upstream from Ai Khanoum, where Commander Massud was killed in 2001.62 However, none of the post-palatial buildings of the town were monumental enough to include the use of stone architectonic elements. In consequence, those who were taken at that time were used somewhere else. This is perhaps indicated by a pit with a sloping side of 10 m and a depth of 2,10 m dug in the entryway of the entrance of the Palace. Twelve blocks coming from a threshold had been abandoned at the bottom of the pit. This inclined surface probably enabled workers to load the blocks in carriages more easily.

2.2.2 The Recovering of Other Kinds of Building Material The recovering of stone architectural elements has left the most visible traces, but other classes of building material were sought after, especially wood and baked bricks. This is understandable since they were easier and lighter to trans- port. In general, wood was methodically taken from the remains of abandoned buildings and traces of it are rarely found.63 In Ai Khanoum it was used for roofs, entablatures, columns,64 capitals, mural decorations and doors. These elements have not survived.65

58 Bernard 1973, 79; 2001, 1000. 59 The columns of the extramural residence were in a much better state of conservation, although this building was also destroyed by fire. 60 E.g. in the Palace: Bernard 1973, 19, 67. Several examples are recorded for the Sanctuary. 61 Schlumberger 1965, 590. 62 Bernard 2001, 994-997, 1005. 63 This material decay rapidly, on the contrary of stone and baked bricks, which also explains its complete disappearance. 64 Lecuyot 2013, 80, 116. 65 Excluding a wood capital and several boards of a door found inside the Temple with Indented Niches (Bernard 1969, 349-352).

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Only very few pieces remained of the rich decor applied to the walls of the large reception hall of the Palace, originally composed of thirty-six half-columns with a height of 4,50 m.66 Terracotta tiles and antefixes were removed67 likewise baked bricks systematically robbed. As many mud-brick walls of the Palace were standing upon bases made of four layers of baked bricks, the walls were methodically destroyed to reach these baked bricks, tens of thousands of which were carried away. This explains why the walls were so badly preserved at the moment of their discovery and sometimes almost non-existent.68 One of the rooms of the Palace was even used to store the pillaged baked bricks,69 and in the Treasury another space was assigned to the cleaning of the plaster or lime mortar that covered their surface.70 Similarly, the baked bricks of one of the sarcophagi buried in the Stone-vault Mausoleum was entirely looted. The baked bricks that composed both the platform on which the monument was standing and the base of one its walls were also attractive targets.71 The 6 m high columns forming its peripteros were built with baked bricks, which explains their disappearance.72 Even the mud bricks were perhaps recovered too, at least partially, since the excavators have never mentioned in their reports having found any kind of accumulation from the destruction of the Palace walls, whereas they were 2,50 m to 3,20 m thick and probably 10 m high. All of this constitutes a considerable amounts of material that disappeared completely.

2.2.3 Metal Looting and Smelting The inhabitants of Ai Khanoum were also involved in the recovery and transformation of metal objects. Work stations for recasting were excavated in the Palace and the Treasury, as well as in the Gymnasium and the Sanctuary (see below). By contrast, they were few in the dwellings located in the ancient aristocratic residences or in the new quarter extending between the Heroon of Kineas and the Palace. This activity implies a technical know-how and was performed by skilled workers active near the spots where high concentrations

66 Bernard 1973, 50-53. 67 In a proportion difficult to quantify. A place where tiles were cut was discovered in the Sanctuary (see below). 68 A situation well illustrated in Bernard 1973 (see for example pls. 54, 65b, 67, 73). 69 Bernard 1970, 305 (room no. 14, whose accesses were changed to facilitate the moves from the neighbouring rooms). 70 Rapin 1992, 71. 71 Bernard 1975, 180, 185; Francfort & Liger 1976, 25, 26-27, 28, 30. 72 Francfort & Liger 1976, 37.

Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to DownloadedSiberia 24from (2018) Brill.com10/10/2021 354-419 02:10:27PM via free access Ai Khanoum after 145 bc 379 of metal artefacts were located. For obvious reasons, the Treasury was one of these places. Precious metals were stored in the Treasury, both as coins and as different types of objects, which were then recast. These intensive labour occurred only for a short period of time. C. Rapin has thoroughly described the working installations built in the courtyard of the Treasury and surrounding rooms.73 They included numerous cupellation furnaces, which took the form of small pits (10-20 cm in diameter) with burnt walls, simply dug into the ground and linked to ventilation pipe. Each workshop was used by only one craftsperson, but always included several pits, since each pit could only be used once or twice. These furnaces were sometimes used to recast non-precious metallic objects made of iron or, secondarily, of bronze and copper, which were collected from the vicinities, such as nails for instance. Of course the gold and silver treasures once held in the building were recast first. This work did not seem to have begun immediately however, since the objects were stored in rooms that remained locked for a while. Precious metals were changed into ingots, several of which were found in a cache dug under the floor of room no. 115. There a goldsmith hidden four gold and height silver ingots of a very pure metal, along with a lead weight and a bronze bal- ance pan, which he did not manage to recover afterwards.74 One of the silver ingots was engraved with an inscription in runic script, which may transcribe a Sakā language spoken by nomadic people.75 To the west of the hypostyle hall of the Palace (fig. 10), room no. 20 was another place dedicated to metalworking. Since the roof was missing, a small awning was built against the north, west and south walls. Two small cupellation furnaces were used to melt nails and iron fragments, which were found in large quantities all around the area.76 Similar activities took place in the Gymnasium (fig. 6), where large quantities of metallic objects were prepared for recasting. The large north-western room no. 3 included two furnaces, near which about sixty fragments of a life-size bronze statue were found, along with nails and iron plaques.77 One of the two furnaces was very badly preserved; the other one was built rather than dug into the terrain, and it looked more elaborate than the simple cupellation pits set into the floors of the Palace.

73 Rapin 1992, 31-90, 144-147. 74 Rapin 1992, 70-71. 75 Rapin 1992, 141-142. 76 Bernard 1970, 304-305. 77 Including two eyes, the fragment of a hand, the fragment of an ear and two fragments of scalp with hair (Veuve 1987, 70-71).

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This recasting activity took place during the first reoccupation phase of the Gymnasium, and it became secondary afterwards.78

2.2.4 The Recovering of Precious Objects and Furniture The inhabitants of the town also recuperated tableware, which explains the large quantities of ceramics found in the post-palatial layers. P. Leriche inferred from their number that the last occupiers of the city were very numerous.79 However, the evidence does not support this assumption. If the local population owned many more vases than required, it was probably because they looted them in abandoned buildings. For example, two rooms of the Gymnasium were used to store hundreds of vases: 361 were housed in the west large room no. 1, and another 566 in the east room no. 9.80 The vessels belonged to all categories of ceramics known in the city and were found along with metallic objects gathered for recasting. Rooms nos. 1 and 9 were not only utility spaces used to store all the material collected in the city, but also used for cooking. G. Lecuyot has made similar observations for one of the rooms adjacent to the south public courtyard flanking the main street of the city, where numerous vases were accumulated without any semblance of order.81 The continuity of forms and production techniques, if a significant part of the vases utilised during the post-palatial period was manufactured during the preceding Graeco-Bactrian one, is easily explained. However, some ceramics were also produced during the post-palatial period, since three pottery kilns were found: one located in the northwest corner of the Gymnasium courtyard,82 a second in the Theatre,83 and a third one inside the “Oxus Rampart”, next to an ancient postern situated at a short distance from the Palaestra.84 The first two were probably in use at the end of the post-palatial period.85 The precious objects abandoned in the aristocratic residences or stored in the Treasury were also plundered. C. Rapin gave a detailed record of the

78 Veuve 1987, 109. 79 Leriche 1974, 259. 80 Veuve 1987, 71. 81 Lecuyot 2013, 98. Room no. 7; about 15 amphorae, one crater, dishes and bowls are mentioned, along with grindstones. 82 Veuve 1987, 78-79. 83 Bernard 1978, 439. 84 Leriche 1986, 29, 32, fig. 10 bis, pls. 53 and 55. This is a conventional designation (“Oxus Rampart”) since it appears now that this river was not the ancient Oxus, but the Ochus (Grenet & Rapin 2001). 85 According to S. Veuve, a pottery kiln excavated in Dal’verzin and dated to the 1st century AD at the earlier gives the closest parallel for the Gymnasium kiln (Veuve 1987, 79).

Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to DownloadedSiberia 24from (2018) Brill.com10/10/2021 354-419 02:10:27PM via free access Ai Khanoum after 145 bc 381 latter and he was able to reconstruct the whole contents of the royal Treasury:86 in addition to silver coins, food products (olive oil) and incense, the store- rooms contained raw materials such as semi-precious stones (lapis-lazuli, turquoise, beryl, garnet, amethyst and rock crystal), glass, obsidian, asbestos, orpiment; there were also precious tableware made of metal, glass or soft and semi-precious stones (schist, alabaster, agate etc.), jewellery, toilet accessories, decorative plates and items from a treasure brought back from India after a military success. All of this was robbed shortly after the events happened around 145 BC, but the people who lived and worked in the rooms of the Treasury probably continued to use what was left after the first looting. The artefacts were found scattered everywhere, while the riches were initially stored in only three rooms.87 This implies successive handlings and a progres- sive dispersion of the remaining items. The inhabitants who reoccupied the aristocratic residences also engaged in the appropriation of their furniture and equipment. Once gathered, these objects were stored in some rooms of the houses or nearby, where they were found. Four adjacent rooms built against the west wall of the residence located in the south-western quarter housed for example great quantities of furniture originating from the surroundings.88 The people living close to the Kokcha in the ancient storage building had also accumulated large amounts of sometimes high-quality objects, which were found dispersed in the building, especially in the living rooms where this material may have been concentrated.89 These objects displayed the great wealth of the former Graeco-Bactrian population. It seems that they were pillaged once again and displaced when the city was definitively abandoned. The extramural residence did not contain such a large quantity of items, perhaps because it was located a little away. This was also the case for the rooms of the new living quarter, those of the Gymnasium and Propylaea, where such objects were probably rare.

86 Rapin 1992, 143-247. 87 Rapin 1992, 21. 88 Lecuyot 2013, 61-68. Similar finds were made in the house built against the south public courtyard (room no. 7), along with the vases mentioned in footnote no. 81. 89 Lecuyot 2013, 97-101. This material included toilet accessories, jewellery, boxes made of schist and adorned with incrustations, perfume bottles, numerous metallic objects (weights, balances, handles, decorative items), and five small stone pedestals of the same kind of the numerous ones found in the Sanctuary.

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3 The Sanctuary of the Temple with Indented Niches during the Post- Palatial Period90

The Sanctuary and its surroundings were excavated between 1968 and 1973. This area constitutes one of the city areas where the remains of the post-palatial period were particularly numerous.91 At the time of the events that befell the city in 145 BC, the Sanctuary included public spaces organised around a large courtyard and private spaces extending northwards, accessible only to priests (fig. 13). This layout resulted from a complete reconstruction of the original complex, which took place under Eucratides I. The Sanctuary was surrounded by a living quarter comprised of simple houses and a larger villa, three rooms of which were excavated to the northwest. This neighbourhood had expanded on both sides of the Sanctuary from the beginning of the 2nd century onwards and tended to encroach upon its properties.92 The courtyard of the Sanctuary was enclosed on the southern side by a large portico and thus separated from the houses. The main entrance was accessible from the street and located to the east. It was flanked by rooms of different sizes and to the south by a large portico that may have reached 6 m in height (fig. 13, no. 2.05). To the north, according to the original plan, the courtyard should have been enclosed by another long portico extending on both sides of a chapel. However, the plan changed along the way and only the chapel was built. This explains why this area remained unfinished, so the chapel coexisted westwards with other sometimes very mediocre constructions. Some of them belonged to the Sanctuary, an annex (no. 2.19) opening into the cella of the chapel and a small courtyard nearby (no. 2.20) for instance, but others were private dwellings. The Sanctuary’s private spaces extended from the chapel to an enclosure wall bordering them to the north and gave onto the street on the east side. They included light constructions and open-space areas equipped with fireplaces. A group of buildings whose function remains unclear (they might have been warehouses) probably belonging to the Sanctuary was located northwards, beyond the enclosure wall (nos. 2.22-2.28). The Temple was the main place of worship of the complex. At that time, it stood on a simple platform and access was provided by a ramp (fig. 14). The only known altar was located in the courtyard, closed to the entrance. Both

90 This section is a summary of one chapter of Martinez-Sève forthcoming b, where one will find detailed descriptions and argumentations. 91 For now, only the finds have been published: Francfort 1984. 92 Martinez-Sève 2013.

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figure 13 Sanctuary. General plan of the Sanctuary under Eucratides I (drawing by A.-B. Pimpaud). the Temple, and the Chapel (fig. 19, no. 2.11) housed one larger-than-life cult statue, which stood on reinforced mud-brick bases built against the rear wall of the cellae. The two statues were acroliths, which explains why very few remains were found: several fingers and part of a foot for the Temple statue93 and eventually a finger for the statue in the Chapel. The possibility that royal cults may have been accommodated in these buildings must be taken into account, at least for the temple. The contrary would be surprising, since the Graeco- Bactrian Kingdom operated as the other Hellenistic Kingdoms where royal cults are well evidenced.94 The base on which the temple cult statue stood included a zone reinforced by pebbles, which supported most of the weight of the statue and its centre of gravity.95 Yet this reinforced structure was shifted to the south, leaving space on the side perhaps for a second smaller statue, since it does not seem to have been provided with the same type of reinforcement.

93 Bernard 1969, 337-341. Curls of hair made of golden stucco may have belonged to this statue too (Francfort 1984, 109). 94 Martinez-Sève 2010. 95 Bernard 1969, 329, fig. 14.

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figure 14 Plan of the Temple during the post-palatial period (drawing by J.-C. Liger).

If this interpretation is correct, it might be imagined that this space held a statue of Eucratides, as synnaos of the temple divinity.

3.1 A Sanctuary Remaining Operational P. Bernard has concluded that the building was desacralized during the post- palatial period and converted into a farm after noticing that the Temple cult statue was deliberately destroyed in 145 BC, the courtyard altar razed, and especially because the temple included large storage jars with numerous mill- stones. It would have shared the same fate as the other public buildings of the

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figure 15 Sanctuary. Plan of the north-eastern side of the courtyard during the post-palatial period (the rebuilt walls are of purple color) (drawing by A.-B. Pimpaud). town, which lost their initial function and were reoccupied.96 H.-P. Francfort has put forward a more nuanced interpretation and accepted the possibility that the cult was maintained after 145 BC, in a form which better fit Bactrian traditions.97 Several pieces of evidence converge to strongly weigh in favour of this latter hypothesis.

3.1.1 The Buildings of the Courtyard The archaeological data show that several walls of the buildings set up on the east side of the courtyard were rebuilt, without any modification compared to the original layout and apparently very soon after the events that occurred in 145 BC. These works concerned the four rooms located to the north of the entrance (fig. 15) and the square one located at the southern extremity (fig. 16), which was totally rebuilt. At both extremities, it was even necessary to replace the front wall of the Sanctuary flanking the street despite its substantial thickness (more than 2 m wide). By contrast, the entrance remained intact. These reconstructions were not a response to the normal degradation process of

96 Bernard 1969, 352-354. 97 Francfort 1984, 125.

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figure 16 Sanctuary. Plan of the south-eastern side of the courtyard during the post-palatial period (the rebuilt walls are of purple color) (drawing by A.-B. Pimpaud). the walls, given that they concerned only some of them, which besides were not very old since they had been built only 15 or 20 years before. Thus, it is tempting to suppose that they were damaged after an attack carried out on the Sanctuary in 145 BC. In any case, these works are indicative of the ability of the priests to order a renovation of the Sanctuary and to find the financial resources to pay the necessary workers. The construction techniques that were used were slightly different from those previously implemented during the Graeco-Bactrian period: several walls had a composite structure combin- ing layers of mud bricks and adobe. But the post-palatial masons showed as much skill as the ones who had worked in previous times at the Sanctuary. Moreover, it would be amazing to think that all the craftsmen and workmen of the town and its surroundings – and they were very numerous at the time of Eucratides I – suddenly ceased all activity in 145 BC. The reconstruction of the south wall of the east portico (no. 2.05, fig. 16) does not seem to have caused significant problems while, as we saw, it could have reached 6 m of height. This portico remained in place until the Sanctuary was abandoned, and kept its roof adorned with tiles and antefixes. Thus, important efforts were made to ensure that the Sanctuary retained its appearance. These observations must steer us away from the rash conclusion that the inhabitants of post-palatial Ai Khanoum were unable to engage in architectural works. Therefore, we may assign to them some operations of renovation regarding the ramparts that were originally dated to the end of the Graeco-Bactrian period, the reconstruction of the section of the “Oxus

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Rampart” located next to the Palaestra for instance: the related stratigraphy shows that this reconstruction took place only after the erection of the Gymnasium, which however remained unfinished at the end of the reign of Eucratides I. Here too, the reconstruction works may have been undertaken after destructions caused by an attack against this section of the rampart during the events of 145 BC.98 The Sanctuary entrance was then renovated in its turn and its layout was simplified (fig. 16). The front colonnade was removed and the vestibule, through which one passed to enter the courtyard, was transformed in a mere open space. These works led to closing the access for a time and the creation of a new entrance through the south square room (no. 2.06), where the Sanctuary front wall was carved out to create a large door, then carefully filled in. In a third stage, this front wall was also renovated at various points of its length, and adorned with niches with indented recesses recalling those of the temple. The north side of the courtyard, left incomplete under Eucratides I, after the simplification of the original layout underwent some additional developments. However, we are unfortunately unable to connect them to the stratigraphy of the east side of the courtyard and to link them to the works successively done in that area. The courtyard was extended northwards and the whole area located to the west of the Chapel was cleared out after the removal of the ramshackle constructions standing there, including the annex of the Chapel (fig. 17). Their remnants were buried under a thick earth fill intended to elevate the floor of this area to the level of the courtyard floor. This fill also overlay the rooms of the northwest villa which also disappeared. Finally, the borders of the courtyard were clearly marked with enclosure walls. These works were combined with the installation of a new duct to ensure proper drainage and drive water out of the Sanctuary. A sinkhole was also dug at about 10 meters to the west of the chapel to discharge wastewaters. The other elements of the complex network system dedicated to water supply and evacuation were maintained: water came from the main canal of the town, which flowed along the street, through a secondary canal entering the southeast corner of the courtyard (fig. 16). After that, it was distributed through underground water pipes, of which only some pieces have been identified. This network remained

98 Leriche 1986, 27-41. Close to the fountain, the inner face of the defensive wall were also renovated and this seems to be contemporaneous with the reconstruction of the section wall of the Palaestra. These operations are dated thanks to ceramic finds in the period VIII – which corresponds to the post-palatial stage – whereas they are assigned to the last Greek inhabitants of the town. The mentioned pottery kiln was built in that section of the rampart, when the wall was already quite eroded (Leriche 1986, 29), conse- quently after a long period of time.

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figure 17 Sanctuary. General plan of the Sanctuary during the post-palatial period (drawing by A.-B. Pimpaud). operational during the largest part of the post-palatial period. The inlet and the outlet canals, the latter one located in the southwest corner of the courtyard, were eventually filled with rubbish, but this evolution only happened in the end.

3.1.2 The Cult Buildings The Temple (fig. 14) and the Chapel (fig. 19) were also maintained, which is another proof of the continuation of religious activities. However, they were not looked after in the same way. The maintenance of the Temple was restricted to the outer platform, which was very damaged in some places,99 where some interventions enabled the containment of the impact of erosion. Baked bricks and reused tiles were used to protect the top of the upper edge of the platform. In addition to this, the base of the entire south side was reconstituted with brick veneers (fig. 18), and covered with a protective layer hiding the marks of the intervention. However, the interior of the building remained untouched.

99 Bernard 1970, 325, footnote no. 1. P. Bernard concluded that the platform remained in use and was exposed to weathering for a long period of time. As it was built at the time of Eucratides I, this helps us to estimate the duration of the post-palatial period.

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figure 18 Reparation of the temple platform on the south side (DAFA).

At the time of excavations, it appeared in considerable disarray. Looters dug several tunnels and stirred large quantities of earth with the objects it contained. However, a large part of the content was still there: the furniture (precious chests and seats, decorative plates, schist tableware, small limestone bases), the offerings including some statuettes and clay statues standing on pedestals on both sides of the entrance of the cella, and other equipment such as lime small pellets, rope and terracotta lamps.100 The comparison with the chapel that was spared any incursion by robbers is very instructive: there was practically nothing inside. It seems that the building was intentionally emptied, probably in an effort of cleaning it. The objects stored within its walls had been previously buried inside the fill under the floor of the new courtyard’s extension and covering the ancient constructions west to the chapel (fig. 17). Numerous metallic objects were found in the fill, among which utilitar- ian objects such as nails or plates, but also more exceptional pieces: a statuette of Herakles, a strigil, a kalam, an elephant hook, a crescent moon-shaped plate adorned with a head, decorative plates for pieces of furniture. Other objects were made of ivory or schist, tableware for instance. This material is

100 Francfort 1984, 107-111.

Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia 24Downloaded (2018) 354-419 from Brill.com10/10/2021 02:10:27PM via free access 390 Martinez-Sève thus entirely comparable to the contents of the temple.101 The overwhelming impression is that the chapel remained in use while the interior of the temple was abandoned.102

3.2 The Surrounding Residential Area and the Reoccupation Process 3.2.1 The Reoccupation of the Spaces Closed to the Sanctuary Courtyard The private dwellings located in the periphery of the Sanctuary remained inhabited after 145 BC and the quarter underwent the same changes as those observed in the other parts of the town. Since the information collected from the excavations is quite accurate, we can retrace the way in which the quarter evolved through time. At first, the authorities of the Sanctuary retained full ownership on the lands bordering the courtyard to the northeast, which was only accessible to them. However, the other buildings located farthest north – which also may have belonged to the Sanctuary – were apparently reoccupied by new inhabitants very soon (fig. 19). Five domestic units were created, whereas all the rooms had previously formed a single building and communicated with each other. Two of these houses comprised two rooms (nos. 2.22/2.23 and 2.27/2.28) and three others only one (nos. 2.24, 2.25 and 2.26). Newcomers also settled in the large northwest residence, which was divided between several households.103 These three excavated rooms became a single dwelling unit (fig. 20), including a small room opening to the outside (no. 2.15), a large living room (no. 2.14)104 and perhaps a bathroom (no. 2.16), but we are not sure the latter retained this function. The re-occupation was therefore characterised by the closure of ancient doors, the opening of new ones, a reorganisation of the circulations, and the creation of smaller housing units, all this phenomena being typical of the post- palatial period.

101 These finds are published in Francfort 1984, without being assigned to the chapel: see the objects found in the northwest villa (here rooms nos. 30 to 32, page 116), and in the area excavated between this villa and the chapel. See also table 20 no. 28, pl. 20, XX (moon crescent adorned with a head); table 37, no. 1, pl. 25, XXXI (strigil), no. 4, pl. 25, XXXI (kalam) and no. 6, pl. 25, XXXI (elephant hook). For the statuette of Herakles, Bernard 1974, 302, fig. 13. 102 This does not imply that the entire building was abandoned. Its upper part may have included an outer platform for open-air rituals, which continued to be celebrated (Martinez-Sève forthcoming b). 103 Martinez-Sève 2013. 104 This room did not have a built fireplace, which implies the use of portable heaters.

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figure 19 Sanctuary. Plan of the north-eastern area (drawing by A.-B. Pimpaud).

The houses located south of the Sanctuary may have met the same fate since two rooms previously in communication were individualised (no. 2.30 and 2.31, fig. 21). But no evidence enables us to conclude that newcomers inhabited them. The inhabitants of room no. 2.31 also privatised a section of the passage bordering the back of the long south portico and used it for domestic activities. At a hard-to-date time, this reoccupation overran the Sanctuary properties, and the enclosure wall, marking their limits northwards, was destroyed. As a result, two new courtyards were created (nos. 1.01 and 1.02), separated from each other by a new wall (M109, fig. 19). This re-organisation allowed people to circulate more easily and gave them straightforward access to their dwellings. New constructions were also built around the courtyards: a kind of shed (no. 1.06), a small house (no. 1.04) with an annex (no. 1.05), and another one at the back of the chapel (no. 1.03), but only accessible from the western area. Several of these new installations had their own floor (nos. 1.01, 1.03, 1.05 and 1.06), while the Graeco-Bactrian floors remained in use in the rooms which were reoccupied for a longer time. The stratigraphy shows that these transformations occurred before the courtyard extension. Indeed, room no. 1.03 was built at the back of the chapel at a time when the works had not been

Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia 24Downloaded (2018) 354-419 from Brill.com10/10/2021 02:10:27PM via free access 392 Martinez-Sève

figure 20 Sanctuary. Plan of the northeast villa during the post-palatial period (drawing by A.-B. Pimpaud).

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figure 21 Sanctuary. Plan of the south houses during the post- palatial period (drawing by A.-B. Pimpaud).

Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia 24Downloaded (2018) 354-419 from Brill.com10/10/2021 02:10:27PM via free access 394 Martinez-Sève completed in the courtyard yet.105 Moreover, these works may have been planned to limit the consequences of the reoccupation. The inhabitants of the quarter probably engaged in the same recovering activities than those living elsewhere in the town, but these are not always easy to comprehend. However, some rooms were found almost empty (nos. 2.23, 2.24 and 2.25) as if they had been cleaned before being abandoned during the post-palatial period. This happened for the dwelling unit including rooms nos. 2.22 and 2.23 although the first one was large and rich in finds. The inhabitants of these quarters moved away leaving behind numerous objects, perhaps following an accident since the burnt remains of the roof were recorded on the floor during its excavation.106 After that event, the room remained an open- space area, communicating with the neighbouring courtyard no. 1.01 (fig. 17) and later equipped with a fireplace arranged in a repurposed jar. Some of the finds were retrieved objects probably originated from the surrounding area,107 especially a knife and a fragment of figurine made of ivory,108 many iron objects including an elephant hook,109 a grinding stone and a small limestone pedestal that previously belonged to the Sanctuary.110 According to C. Rapin, some of these objects may have been looted in the Palace Treasury and then carried to the Sanctuary, especially agate and rock crystal fragments that may have been broken away from an Indian throne.111 An alabaster plate, halfway into the ground, and sherds of other plates made of the same material constituted another class of objects well-known in the Treasury.112 The room also contained: an entire deer antler, found a few centimetres above the floor;113 the material of a painter pressed into the floor, including a set of 13 small cups made of clay and shells, with traces of red and yellow paint, and sticks of red chalk that may have served as pigment;114 and a lot of 37 already used covering tiles, resting against the north wall.

105 After the extension works, this structure opened into the courtyard and may have replaced the former cella annex that had been razed. 106 Unless the fire had been voluntarily lit to demolish the superstructures and recover what could be retrievable. 107 Francfort 1984, 115 and 116. 108 Francfort 1984, table 5, nos. 23 and 24, pl. VI. 109 Francfort 1984, table 37, no. 5, pl. 25, XXXI. 110 Francfort 1984, table 46a, no. 1, pl. 29, XXXVII; table 50, no. 1, pl. XXXVIII. 111 Francfort 1984, table 40, nos. 23, 28, 30, 32, 69; Rapin 1992, 237. Fragment no. 69 does not belong to this group. 112 Francfort 1984, table 6, nos. 4, 8, 10, pl. 12 and IX; Rapin 1992, 159-160, pls. 74-75. These vases were however different in shape. There was also an alabaster plate (table 40, no 41). 113 Species unknown due to lack of analysis. 114 Francfort 1984, table 16, nos. 5, 7, 8, 10-12.

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The density of findings was stronger in the first 20 cm of layers formed by destructive events, and again in the upper part of the accumulation layers, particularly rich in potsherds as well. Whether they come from the bottom or the upper part of the filling, these objects belonged to the same categories of material yet. This is important to note because the filling was formed in two clearly distinct stages: first, the rapid destruction of the building, then an accumulation of earth over a longer period of time. Thus, the objects retrieved, gathered when the room was inhabited, were comparable to the ones deposited when it became an open-space area. The covering tiles were probably disassembled from the chapel roof, which is interesting to note. Other objects were similar to the material buried into the levelling fill of the courtyard, or found in the vicinity of the chapel, and they seem to come from this building, such as for instance some pieces of alabaster tableware belonging to its furniture.115 One of the sherds found in room no. 2.22 could join another one found just west to the chapel in the fill spilled over the former courtyard no. 2.20.116 The deer antler had probably been kept inside the chapel too since some fragments of an antler were found in the same fill. Another fragment was lying on the floor of the neighbouring room no. 2.26. This also applies for the painter’s material, since a stick of chalk was also found in the filling of the courtyard no. 2.20.117 Thus, all these objects may have been retrieved and carried in room no. 2.22 at the time when the Chapel was being cleaned and emptied. This also shows that the abandonment of rooms no. 2.22 and 2.23 occurred later during the post-palatial period, after the cleaning of the Chapel and the beginning of the courtyard extension works.118 However, other objects coming from the higher levels of room no. 2.22 also originated from the Chapel, but were deposited at an even later date, for example a fragment of an arm from a stone statuette depicting a woman wearing a himation, who had been originally set up inside the building. The rest of its body was found in the courtyard no. 1.01, closer to the Chapel. A second statuette depicting a figure with a cap was in the same area. The head, detached from the body, was lying 4m away and a fragment of its base much further. According to H.-P. Francfort, it had been carved during the Bronze Age, and

115 Francfort 1984, pl. 2, 7. The places of finding are the following: courtyard 1.01 (table 40, no. 40); room 1.06 (table 6, no. 11 and table 40, nos. 35 and 36), the fill in room 2.17 (21, 116), in the annex 2.19 (table 6, no. 7) and in the courtyard 2.20 (table 6, nos. 8 and 9). 116 Francfort 1984, table 6, no 8. 117 Francfort 1984, table 16, no 11. 118 This does not imply that the neighbouring rooms 2.24, 2.25 and 2.26 were abandoned at the same time, but this is a possibility.

Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia 24Downloaded (2018) 354-419 from Brill.com10/10/2021 02:10:27PM via free access 396 Martinez-Sève reused to be exposed in the Chapel.119 Both statuettes were violently thrown down after having been taken from the building. Other objects met the same fate and were scattered throughout the courtyard no. 1.01 and its north extension formed by the ancient room no. 2.22.

3.2.2 The Reoccupation of the Sanctuary Courtyard and of the Adjacent Buildings In a second stage, the reoccupation process reached the buildings flanking the courtyard of the Sanctuary, which had been preserved until then, especially the rooms of the east side.120 Neither the Temple nor the Chapel were however concerned by this process. The long south portico was dismantled: only eight of the about twenty bases it originally had remained in situ. The columns had been made of semi-circular baked bricks that were totally recovered except one, found lying on the floor of the room just located north of the entrance. The roof of the portico was decorated with tiles and antefixes, of which many disappeared too. Only the rear wall was preserved and continued to separate the courtyard from the southern dwellings. We cannot specify whether the portico was removed when the Sanctuary was still operational, or later, after the beginning of the reoccupation process. By contrast, the east portico remained in place. The other eastern rooms became domestic units, workshops or storage places. These transformations occurred after a while, since several rooms had encountered structural problems, probably because their superstructures were less maintained than before, when the Sanctuary was fully active, and it appeared necessary to provide them with additional pillars to support the roof. The southern square room became a domestic unit of about 30 m2 and displayed the most visible traces of this reoccupation (fig. 16). It was provided with a new floor level and a fireplace, dug inside the north wall. The findings only comprised domestic objects (e.g. grindstones, loom-weights) and metallic objects hoarded to be recast. This recycling activity was probably performed in the room itself thanks to the fireplace.121 By contrast, the room contained few objects belonging to the furniture of the Sanctuary, especially compares to the rooms located to the north on the other side of the entrance (fig. 15). All of these northern rooms were isolated from each other after the closure of the lateral doors allowing them to communicate before. The large hall no. 2.02 located next to the entrance was divided into two small rooms forming the same dwelling unit. The southern room (no. 1.07) became a foundry equipped

119 Bernard 1972, 628-629, figs. 15 and 16; Francfort 2015. 120 Martinez-Sève 2013, 142-143. 121 Francfort 1984, 111-112. In the room there were found some scoriae.

Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to DownloadedSiberia 24from (2018) Brill.com10/10/2021 354-419 02:10:27PM via free access Ai Khanoum after 145 bc 397 with a monumental fireplace built during the Graeco-Bactrian period. The room contained a large quantity of scoriae and metallic objects, sometimes very fragmentary, made of bronze or iron.122 The northern room (no. 1.08) instead was used as a habitation provided with its own fireplace. It contained domestic objects along with numerous other items originally belonging to the furniture of the Sanctuary. They had been sorted and gathered in several heaps and were sometimes burnt. The composition of the heaps and the fact that some objects had been broken only after being burnt led H.-P. Francfort to consider the possibility that two successive pillages had occurred. A first group of looters would have taken some of the objects gathered in the room and set fire to it. Then, later, a second group sorted the remaining objects and made heaps, breaking some of the burnt ones in that occasion.123 Traces of fire were identified on the floor, but they seem too scarce to say that the room and its content were burnt. These traces of burning may have been left by a portable heater, a brazier, or by a fire directly lit on the floor surface, as hinted by the fact that they were located near a jar used to store food products. Thus, the burning here may be linked to cooking activities. We can assume that the burnt objects were carried into the room from other parts of the Sanctuary to be sorted out, and in particular from the temple. This building was burnt and the objects which it contained were likely dispersed and reused. The two next rooms nos. 2.03 and 2.04 also contained several objects originally belonging to the furniture and to the offerings of the Sanctuary. These objects, pieces of furniture made of ivory, schist or alabaster precious tableware, limestone pedestals, decorative or precious objects, elements of a gold crown, two theatre masks made of clay, were found upside down. H.-P. Francfort considered that these rooms were used as storage warehouses during the post-palatial period, and probably already during the Graeco-Bactrian period.124 However, the finds also comprised domestic objects, many vases of different categories which were found crushed on the ground, in particular storage jars, and metallic objects ready for recasting. In both rooms nos. 2.03 and 2.04 the entrances were isolated from the rest of the chamber thanks to a small barrier created in order to avoid a direct straight access, a device that seems ill suited for warehouses, where one needs to move at ease. Room 2.03 also contained a kind of mud-brick chest, against which a fireplace had been

122 Francfort 1984, 112. Melted lead was found inside the fireplace. 123 Francfort 1984, 112. 124 Francfort 1984, 112-113.

Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia 24Downloaded (2018) 354-419 from Brill.com10/10/2021 02:10:27PM via free access 398 Martinez-Sève built. All these discoveries suggest that the two rooms used to be living spaces, even if it was no longer the case at the end of the period, when the objects were gathered there and, for many of them, moved from the Temple. The courtyard of the Sanctuary also became a place for artisanal activities. These concentrated especially in its northeast corner and on both sides of the pronaos of the Chapel, where two fireplaces in repurposed jars were set. A third hearth was dug in the ground and it was found as surrounded by many metallic objects, especially made of iron, which suggests an activity of recasting. A bit farther to the east, the vicinity of the small building no. 2.13 was also rich in discoveries (fig. 15). Apparently, this building was not inhabited, since its entrance was enlarged in such a way that it was not possible to close it by a door anymore, but it served as working place. In the passageway, a large fireplace was built against a small protective wall. A 5-m long and 3-m large fence was set in front of the construction, perhaps to enclose domestic animals. Several storage jars were also found in the area. Finally, nearer the Sanctuary entrance, there was a working place for the cutting of tiles, the rims of which were removed. After the abandonment of the Sanctuary complex and of the neighbouring living quarters, the area continued to be used by people who left traces of a sporadic and temporary occupation. They were concentrated in the south side of the courtyard, against the back wall of the former south portico that constituted a shelter. Installations were visible from about 15 cm above the last floor to about 1,20 m high for the latest of them. 60 cm above the same floor, a reoccupation floor was also observed beyond the wall of the portico, where the ancient south houses, which had now totally disappeared under the rubble, had stood before. These installations mainly consisted of fireplaces, some of them in repurposed jars, others dug into the ground, or bread ovens (tandoors), along with small walls.

3.3 Religious Activities As seen, the Sanctuary remained under the control of an authority power- ful enough to undertake maintenance operations and to ensure the proper operation of religious activities. Concerning the former, no data indicate any interruption since the Graeco-Bactrian period and the buildings and the general layout of the Sanctuary inherited from the time of Eucratides were preserved. Some efforts were even made to finish the construction of the north side and to mark its limits, admittedly in a less ambitious form than expected. However, concerning the latter, sharper evolutions occurred: religious conceptions as well as rituals appear quite different from earlier times.

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3.3.1 The Removal of Cult Statues We will not examine here the issue concerning the identity of the gods worshipped in the Sanctuary, which remains object of debate.125 We know that the Graeco-Bactrian cult statues of the Sanctuary were Greek in style. But not much can be deduced from this fact. Indeed, because representing the divine in an anthropomorphic way was uncommon amongst Iranian people, they started to use Greek iconographic models when they try to do that. These statues only gave us an image of how the deities of the Sanctuary could be imagined when depict in Greek forms. Unfortunately, the cult statue of the chapel is unknown and the cult statue of the temple has been severely damaged (only some fragments remain). According to P. Bernard, the Temple cult statue was represented as Zeus, since the god wore sandals decorated with winged thunderbolts, one of his attributes, and he was probably assimilated to Ahura Mazda.126 F. Grenet preferred to recognise a Zeus assimilated to Mithra.127 More recently, H.-P. Francfort has proposed the identification of this god with Vaxšu (the Oxus), but in a feminine form inherited from the great Bactrian goddess.128 But the hypothesis of a masculine god seems more appropriate, as well as his representation in the form of Zeus,129 making of him probably one of the major figures of the Bactrian pantheon. On religious matters, the Greeks tended to comply with traditional rules; this was the sole attitude used to obtain an effective response from deities. Therefore, it is expected that they worshipped the divinities of the places in which they lived according to local rules and ritual practices, and the elites of Greek culture as well as the Seleucid and Graeco-Bactrian kings probably behaved in this way.130 However, worshipping the gods by means of cult statues was customary for them and to depict these local gods they could do little else than use Greek models. The people who caused the flight or more probably the death of these elites, those who lived in the town during the post-palatial period and the authorities of the Sanctuary behaved differently. The cult statues of the temple and the chapel were voluntarily damaged and destroyed as shown by their near complete disappearance and especially by the fact that fragments of the Temple cult statue were found in the south annex of the cella, inside a fill supporting the post-palatial floor. Other fragments were left in disarray inside

125 Most recently Francfort 2012; see also Martinez-Sève forthcoming a. 126 Bernard 1969, 337-341. 127 Grenet 1991. 128 Francfort 2012. 129 Martinez-Sève forthcoming a. 130 Martinez-Sève 2013; forthcoming a.

Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia 24Downloaded (2018) 354-419 from Brill.com10/10/2021 02:10:27PM via free access 400 Martinez-Sève the temple. Besides, the altar located near the Sanctuary entrance (fig. 13) was razed and it was no longer in use during the post-palatial period. This destruction constitutes, along with the damages done to the rooms of the east side, another proof of the fact that the Sanctuary was object of violence. The cult statues and the altar were explicit manifestations of a Greek religious practice, which probably explains their suppression. Neither the statue of the Temple, nor the one of the Chapel were replaced; their bases remained in place in both cellae, but empty. This is another proof showing that they were voluntarily destroyed, as the fact that the fragments of the cult statue of the temple had been left inside the building, without being ritually collected.131 Some evidence suggests that purification rituals may have been celebrated after these events. In the Chapel (fig. 19), the interior of the basis of the cult statue was partially dismantled to make space for a fireplace. However, this room was not reoccupied and transformed in a dwelling as this was the case for the cella of the Heroon of Kineas also equipped with a fireplace.132 Since the Chapel retained its religious function, the best interpretation we may advance is that probably a specific ritual was celebrated in its cella. On this regard, some Zoroastrian texts dating in the 6th century AD give us interesting comparative elements.133 They mention the custom of lighting an Ādurōg, a “Little Fire”, to purify the place of a temple where an image had stood after its removal. The sanctity of the fire was supposed to drive away the devil, which had formerly lived inside the statue.134 Only one archaeological example was until now known at Kara Tepe (Termez), where a fire was lighted inside the empty niche of a Buddha image.135 Nothing can be said for the base of the Ai Khanoum Temple, because it was too badly preserved. However, the larger of the two bases located in the pronaos (fig. 14), north of the door of the cella, had a depression on its upper part, where a fire seems to have burnt. Unfortunately, this observation is unreliable because the temple was set on fire before being definitively abandoned, and burnt elements fallen from

131 A cult statue is venerable and must be treated with consideration. If its destruction was unintentional, the fragments would have been considered with greater respect. 132 See supra. 133 I wish to thank F. Grenet for this suggestion and the useful information he has shared with me. 134 Boyce 1975a, 463; 1975b, 106-108; 1979, 110; Grenet 2012, 32. Two cases are reported in the Mādigān ī Hazār Dādestān, a customary law code (for a translation in French cf. Menasce 1964, 31). The first one is dated to the reign of Khosrow I (539-579) and mentions that two men owning a land where a temple with a divine image stood, were instructed by priests to remove the latter and light an Ādurōg. In the second undated one, a judge orders to remove an image from a temple, in which an Ādurōg is lighted later. 135 Staviskiï 1972, 27, fig. 9.

Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to DownloadedSiberia 24from (2018) Brill.com10/10/2021 354-419 02:10:27PM via free access Ai Khanoum after 145 bc 401 the ceilings may have caused the marks on the top of the base. However, we must consider the possibility that an Ādurōg was here lit,136 since this base supported clay statues the fragments of which were found scattered on the floor near the door, as if the statues were voluntarily thrown to the ground along with the cult statue.137 This would not be surprising, since the temple was related to the Graeco-Bactrian royal power. The sculpted figures are unidentifi- able – they wear not a diadem – but it is possible to assume that they depicted some people linked to the kings and the central power. These rites must be analysed with due caution. M. Boyce, followed by many historians, considered that tendencies towards iconoclasm among the Zoroastrians had already existed since the 4th century BC, when the Achaemenid king Artaxerxes II ordered to erect divine statues. His decision might have caused an ideological opposition, which remained as in the background for a long period of time, until it came to light under the Sassanid kings.138 Following recent works about the complexity of the phenomena related to aniconism, M. Shenkar showed, however, that the Iranians had a variety of conceptions regarding the way to represent their deities and refuted the assumption of a Sassanid iconoclasm. The gods were moreover often depicted in Sassanid art.139 But in the Iranian world, as he himself notes, the divine presence was generally embodied through the fire burning inside the temples and not through cult statues.140 The first statues only appeared in Central Asia during the Hellenistic age, which highlighted the impact of Greek conceptions on local elites. This also explains why statues were erected inside Kushan and Sogdian temples, and not inside the temples of Western Iran, where Greek influences were less significant.141 Nevertheless, materialising the divine through anthropomorphic cult statues could have been perceived as inappropriate, at least by some people and for complex reasons we are not able to understand in view of our evidence.142 Further, some images standing in the Sanctuary were not destroyed, since the two broken stone statuettes found near the chapel had remained visible in this edifice for most of the

136 In a study remained unpublished, P. Bernard wrote that a fire had burnt on the base, and that it may have been actually an altar. 137 Bernard 1969, 344, figs. 19 and 20; Francfort 1984, 110-111. 138 Boyce 1975b. 139 Shenkar 2012; 2014, 175-190; 2015. Recently colossal depictions of Avestan deities have been discovered in Chorasmia (Betts et alii 2015; 2016; see also the articles by F. Grenet and M. Minardi in this volume). 140 Shenkar 2015, 490-492. 141 Shenkar 2017. 142 The assimilation of divine entities to simple human artefacts could appear inconceivable because they were supposed to be immaterial and infinite.

Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia 24Downloaded (2018) 354-419 from Brill.com10/10/2021 02:10:27PM via free access 402 Martinez-Sève post-palatial period. The hostility against the two cult statues was probably due to reluctances towards religious practices conceived as alien, and vandal- ism targeted symbols of the Graeco-Bactrian elites and kings.143

3.3.2 The Evolution of Conceptions Regarding Rituals and Deities Other developments in the religious conceptions at Ai Khanoum may have affected the religious practices and the identity of the gods of the Sanctuary. We do not know if the only ritual clearly identified at the time of excavations was maintained. It consisted in libations of a thick and whitish liquid poured behind the temple in vases set into the ground in a upside-down position.144 This rite is attested in Bactria and more widely in Central Asia since the 2nd millennium BC and was officiated near rivers.145 As shown by H.-P. Francfort, a hint on this ritual is found in a Strabo’s passage in which he describes an Iranian cult of the waters.146 This was celebrated throughout the entire Graeco- Bactrian period, which shows that the cult had a local component already at that time. The archaeologist who discovered the vases have thought this was interrupted after 145 BC, but a review of the archives does not support this idea and the ritual may have continued. In any case, the Chapel remained the most active of the two worship buildings of the Sanctuary. Without, strictly speaking, being desacralized, the inner rooms of the Temple do not appear to have been anymore functional. This was a place where the Seleucid and Graeco-Bactrian kings had promoted their images by sumptuary offerings and perhaps royal cults, which constitutes an explanatory factor. The Chapel apparently became the main place of worship, and therefore it was cleared from the modest constructions obstructing the

143 It should also be noted that the herm Triballos and his brother Straton had erected in the Gymnasium for their father Straton, who may be on this portrayed, suffered violence too. The head was voluntarily cut down and its face was hit with an instrument, while the body remained to its place throughout much of the post-palatial period before being overturned (Veuve 1987, 72, 75). A funerary stele depicting a nude ephebe that was scattered into pieces (29 of which were found), gives us another example of such vandal- ism (Bernard 1972, 623-625). These destructions can be interpreted as the result of stone recovering activities. However, this phenomenon is clearly different, especially since the pieces of stone were not taken away. The ephebe’s stele was small (50 cm high, 26 cm large) and it would have been easier to carry it to the lime kiln in full (or just fragments in big pieces). The high number of fragments and their small size demonstrated a real relentlessness will of destruction. These two sculptures represented rich inhabitants of the town and for this reason they may have become object of anger. 144 Bernard 1970, 327-330. 145 Grenet 1991; Francfort 2012, 116-119. 146 Strabo 15.3.14; Francfort 2012, 116-117.

Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to DownloadedSiberia 24from (2018) Brill.com10/10/2021 354-419 02:10:27PM via free access Ai Khanoum after 145 bc 403 surroundings. The cult was also renovated, as shown by the removal of the cult statue and the accompanying purification rituals. The fact that the edifice was emptied and cleaned is another evidence related to these changes. The habit of dedicating offerings perhaps became less prevalent and the very nature of the offerings may have changed. We also have to consider what happened to the deer antler found in room no. 2.22. This was not the only specimen found in the Sanctuary, since another had been consecrated in the cella of the Temple.147 This is a kind of material that could have been used for local crafts,148 but the fact that both antlers found in the Sanctuary were inside the Temple and the Chapel may suggests a religious and symbolic function. A long goat horn was also on the floor of room no. 1.03, located behind the Chapel, and a fragment of another one was in the edifice no. 2.13, east of the Chapel. This set of finds is an interesting evidence for the cult of a deity who could be conceived as Artemis. Goats constitute her favourite animals for sacrifice and stags were also closely related to her. One could even sacrifice stags for her, although the offering of wild animals was uncommon in Greek religion.149 Artemis was a huntress goddess, frequently depicted with stags. Callimachus, in his Hymn wrote for her, described her as a savage and mighty goddess, roaming forests and mountains in the company of a pack of hunting dogs, gift of Pan.150 Thus, it is not insignificant that a chalcedony seal found in the temple, but out of context, was adorned with a pointing hunting dog,151 an animal symbolising this aspect of Artemis personality. Both deer antlers had probably belonged to animals killed while hunting, an activity historically performed in the vicinity of Ai Khanoum, for example by the Afghan royal family (and it was for instance during a royal hunt that aforementioned stone architectural elements coming from Ai Khanoum were brought to King Mohammed Zaher Shah, as above mentioned). Considering the well-known assimilation of Artemis with Anāhitā, these finds indicate that a cult of Anāhitā was probably celebrated in the Chapel.152 H.-P. Francfort has considered the possibility

147 Francfort 1984, 109. 148 One cannot specify if objects made of deer antler were found at Ai Khanoum. Nothing like this is mentioned in the reports, but no particular analysis has ever been conducted. 149 Hermary & Leguilloux 2004, 73-76. 150 Callim. Artem. 87-138. 151 Bernard 1969, 346, fig. 22; Francfort 1984, 78, pl. XXXV, O.397. 152 Martinez-Sève forthcoming a. Since the deity of the temple was represented in the form of Zeus, it seems difficult to localise in this building the cult of Anāhitā, even if a deer antler was there conserved and that the seal with the dog came from an undermining sapping a wall.

Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia 24Downloaded (2018) 354-419 from Brill.com10/10/2021 02:10:27PM via free access 404 Martinez-Sève that the antlers were offered to Anāhitā during the Graeco-Bactrian period. He has also wondered whether people of nomadic origin living in the town had brought them in the Sanctuary.153 However, if the antler dedicated in the Chapel was removed from this building when the edifice was emptied and abandoned in room no. 2.22, this is probably because it served no religious function any longer. Besides, stags are animals without a particular religious associa- tion with Anāhitā.154 Thus, if Artemis had been praised and assimilated to Anāhitā during the Graeco-Bactrian period, this was no longer the case during the post-palatial period and her offerings were no more sacred, which constitutes another indication of change. Anāhitā remained the only deity of the Chapel.

3.3.3 The End of the Cult Finally, some elements could suggest that as soon as the courtyard and the adjacent buildings were reoccupied, the specific religious activities of the Sanctuary progressively faded and disappeared, and the inhabitants engaged in the recovering of its riches. At least this explains why numerous offerings and elements of furniture were found in the eastern rooms. The Temple and the Chapel were also burnt. In both buildings, the fire was apparently ignited in their upper parts, as shown by the carbonized beams that had fallen on the floor amid the rubble excavated containing many charcoals.155 In the Temple, pieces of inflamed wood fell on the offerings and furniture there contained burning them, especially wooden objects.156 According to its excavators, nomadic people who attacked the city for a second time caused both fires.157 However, the traces of such an event are very scarce apart from the burnt remains. The only other available argument is the fact that the houses were abandoned without being emptied by their owners, as if this people had left in a hurry. Regardless of the interpretation given to this phenomenon – is an attack the only possibility? – nothing allows us to ascertain that the fires took place at the exact moment when the houses were abandoned by their owners. The people who had settled into the Sanctuary may have caused them, perhaps intentionally. This is a more suitable hypothesis given the way the chapel material was dispersed in the neighbouring courtyard no. 1.01, while this area was still used for domestic activities and remained occupied for a

153 Francfort 1984, 17. Two vases of nomadic tradition were found, along with the antler in room no. 2.22 (see below), which could consolidate this second hypothesis. 154 I wish to thank Frantz Grenet for this information. 155 For the chapel, see Francfort 1984, 114-115. 156 Francfort 1984, 110. 157 For example Leriche 1974, 260; Rapin 1992, 288; Lyonnet 1997, 168.

Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to DownloadedSiberia 24from (2018) Brill.com10/10/2021 354-419 02:10:27PM via free access Ai Khanoum after 145 bc 405 while after that. The aspect of the finds in the eastern rooms of the courtyard is another sign. The fires are probably related to the recovering activities of the inhabitants, as was probably the case for the fire that destroyed the extramural residence and, perhaps too, for the one that caused the destruction of the hypostyle hall of the Palace. They were all set in the upper part of the buildings, probably the better to overturn them, to facilitate this recovering activity.

4 Conclusive Remarks. The “Town” and Its Chronology

The understanding of the end of Ai Khanoum generally implies to make a link between the specific history of this city and the history of the entire Bactria.158 This link seems to be justified by the contemporaneity observed between the end of the reign of Eucratides I and the events that affected the town and led to the disappearance of the Graeco-Bactrian elites around 145 BC. However, caution is due and we should disconnect these two historical phenomena. The date 145 BC has been determined thanks to several clues, including an inscription engraved on one of the jars stored in the Treasury that recorded a transfer of oil, which took place during a year 24. This later date is related to an era or, more probably, to the reign of a king, whose name is not given.159 P. Bernard assumed that this was Eucratides, whose reign was long and particularly glorious. Since the Treasury was operating under his reign, but had been used during only a short period of time before its destruction, he concluded that Eucratides was the last king in control of the city. The fact that the most recent coins exchanged in the city were minted by Eucratides supports this hypothesis.160 Coinage and related economic and administrative practices seem to have disappeared when the Greek power vanished from the region. The synchronism mentioned by Justin between the reigns of Eucratides and the Parthian king Mithridates I allows to place the death of the former around 145 BC, even slightly earlier if we accept the other information by the same Justin that Eucratides died when Mithridates seized Media, probably by the end of 148 or the beginning of 147 BC.161 According to the current interpretation, the city was then attacked by nomadic people. Literary evidence seems to confirm this scenario, since

158 For example Martinez-Sève 2014, 94-95. 159 Rougemont 2012, no. 117, 226-228 (with earlier literature, including Rapin 1992, 96, 108, 303). 160 Bernard 1985, 97-105. For an opposite view: Lerner 2011. 161 Justin 41.6.1 and 5; Wilson & Assar 2007; Rapin 2010.

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Graeco-Roman, as well as Chinese authors, record the presence of nomadic invaders in Bactria. The western sources, in the specific, clearly record that these nomads were the cause of the collapse of the Graeco-Bactrian power.162 The Chinese ambassador Zhang Qian, who travelled across the country in 128 BC, also reported that the region was not under a central power anymore, but divided between several urban centres subjected to the nomads Yuezhi, to which the Bactrians paid a tribute.163 Thus, at that time, the Graeco-Bactrian kings had lost their supremacy. However, the Yuezhi cannot be responsible for the attack against Ai Khanoum if we accept that it occurred around 145 BC. Indeed, these nomads originated from the Gansu region were chased from their lands after being confronted since 210 BC onwards with the pres- sure and movements of the Xiongnu people, who were themselves at war with the Chinese Han dynasty. The Yuezhi reached the Ili valley only around 138 BC, thus after the events that had struck Ai Khanoum, and migrated even later to Bactria (around 135-130 BC), due to the hostility of another nomadic group, the Wusun. This is where the Chinese ambassador who wanted allies against the Xiongnu, found them.164 It is therefore assumed that other nomads attacked the city. The silver ingot engraved with runic characters found during the excavations of the Treasury could suggest they were Sakā/Sai. This inscription comprises 21 characters of a script and a language that are unknown and both attributed to nomadic people of Sakā origin, by comparison with a dozen similar inscriptions coming from an area extending from Ghazni in Afghanistan to Almaty in Kazakhstan, and dated between the 5th century BC and the 8th century AD.165 Sakā’s activity is attested in Bactria before the arrival of the Yuezhi, who forced them to leave shortly after.166 According to a careful reconstruction of events suggested by C. Rapin, the Sakā/Sai were responsible for the looting of the Treasury and, if we are to believe the inscription, would have supervised the recasting

162 For a general study: Benjamin 2007, 167-215. See also Bernard 2016. For the Chinese evidence: Thierry 2005. Strabo (11.8.2) and Pompeius Trogus (Prolog. 41) recorded the name of several groups that seized Bactria: Asians, Pasians, Tokharians, Sacaraulae/Sacaraucae, Sacae. 163 Thierry 2005, texts nos. 15-17, 497-498. This political situation does not exclude the possibility that dynasts acting as Greek kings could have stayed in power locally, while paying a tribute to the nomad conquerors. 164 Thierry 2005, 449-452. 165 Rapin 1992, 70-71, 139-142. The closest parallel is given by an inscribed bowl found near Almaty, in a kurgan of Sakā nomads dated to the 3rd century BC (Akishev 1978, 54, pl. 34, figs. 70-71, Staviskij 1986, 240). 166 Bernard 1987; Bernard & Abdullaev 1995; Abdullaev 2007; now Benjamin, 2007, 181-184, 213-214.

Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to DownloadedSiberia 24from (2018) Brill.com10/10/2021 354-419 02:10:27PM via free access Ai Khanoum after 145 bc 407 of the precious material there stored.167 C. Rapin assumes that the looting of the building and the entire Palace was very quick, and that the reoccupation of the town only lasted 5 years. Then, the city would have suffered a second attack, this time of the Yuezhi, the traces of which are only perceptible at the Sanctuary. If we wish to consider this proposal it is necessary to increase a little the time interval between the two attacks since, as we saw, the Yuezhi did not enter Bactria before 130 BC. The assumption that the destruction of the city was caused by two successive incursions of nomadic people is generally the most authoritative. This proposal has major repercussions on the matter at hand, because it implies that the post-palatial period only lasted fifteen years at the most. However, our evidence is scant and it could be differently interpreted. As previously mentioned, the fires that burnt the temple and the chapel, and which are commonly considered as caused by the Yuezhi, may rather be related to the recovering activities of the people who had reoccupied the Sanctuary.168 It is even likely that the Sanctuary remained inhabited for a while after the destruction of the two buildings. We can therefore doubt the reality of a Yuezhi’s attack. Besides, the city was not a centre of power and a source of wealth anymore and was not of special interest to invaders. Assigning the first attack to the Sakā/Sai neither appears so evident. The runic inscription only shows that they monitored the pillage of the treasury. The relentlessness with which the assailants acted towards the Graeco-Bactrian elites and the symbolic signs of their power can rather be seen as a reaction of the local populations who revolted against them and launched an assault against the town. The information coming from the survey of the territory of Ai Khanoum does not really support the traditional reconstruction of these events. In the territory of the city there is no clear evidence of the same dramatic shift as in the city, and a few sites remained occupied without major change until the Kushan period.169 Ceramic typology did not experience significant transformation and it seems to have evolved slowly towards forms that are more specific of the Kushan period. Some vases of new manufacturing were found however, in the latest archaeological layers of the town, as well as in some establishments of its territory and also in a few sites of eastern Bactria: tripod pots and handmade bottle-like pots. But they were very few compare to the

167 Rapin 1992, 32-35, 287-294. This looting probably occurred only in a second time, for the storage rooms of the treasury remained apparently untouched at first. 168 However, the last inhabitants may have fled the city for fear of threats. 169 See however Francfort 2013.

Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia 24Downloaded (2018) 354-419 from Brill.com10/10/2021 02:10:27PM via free access 408 Martinez-Sève large quantities of ceramics collected. Unfortunately we are unable to deter- mine their exact proportion.170 The handmade pots are particularly significant, since they are mostly absent outside eastern Bactria. They are mainly attested at Ksirov, a cemetery of kurgans located in the upper Kizil su valley (Dangara district, Tajikistan). B. Lyonnet considers these as markers of the presence of the Yuezhi in eastern Bactria. However, nothing allows to connect these vases with the nomadic group in a direct and explicit way. In addition, we are not able to identify in clear archaeological contexts material that would be characteristic and exclu- sively of nomadic populations. The kurgans contained the handmade pots, but these were also found in sedentary establishments, along with pottery that is usually assigned to sedentary populations. The Yuezhi were certainly newcomers and Zhang Qian’s records show that they rapidly played a dominant role. However, considering Ai Khanoum as a centre of civilization and power attacked by successive hordes of nomads does not adequately reflect the complexity of relationships between nomadic and sedentary populations. These contacts were largely based upon an economic and military partner- ship, a point recently very well described by R. Mairs.171 The Graeco-Bactrian elites of Ai Khanoum may have even concluded matrimonial unions with some nomadic leaders, if we consider the burial in the Stone-vault Mausoleum (mausolée au caveau de pierre) of a corpse showing a cranial deformation that is typical of these populations.172 This grave housed the remains of one of the most important families of the city, perhaps related to the royal dynasty. Some nomadic groups may have contributed to the collapse of the Graeco- Bactrian power as shown by the Graeco-Roman authors. But these sources must be treated with due caution, because they depend on an ideological bias which turns any nomad into an enemy of civilization. The Yuezhi probably

170 Lyonnet 1991; 1997, 159-161, fig. 48. According to Gardin 1998, 25, 114, a dozen of handmade pots and about twenty tripod vases were found during the survey of the entire eastern Bactria. Five pots from Ai Khanoum itself are explicitly mentioned in the reports: two were in room 2.22, on the floor and a few centimetres above, a third one was in a room of the unexcavated building located north of the Sanctuary area; the last two were found in one of the rooms adjacent to the east façade of the southwest residence (Lyonnet 1991; 1997, fig. 48, nos. 1-3; 2013, fig. 90 no. 7; Lecuyot 2013, 60-61). An unpublished tripod vase was also found in the Treasury (I wish to thank Claude Rapin for having shared with me this information). 171 Mairs 2013. Also Gardin 1998, 163, who emphasises the symbiotic relationships between these populations. He considers that the presence in rural sedentary settlements of tripod pots and handmade pots especially demonstrates the integration of nomadic people within the sedentary habitat, and that this phenomenon occurred on a long term basis. 172 Francfort & Liger 1976, 34.

Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to DownloadedSiberia 24from (2018) Brill.com10/10/2021 354-419 02:10:27PM via free access Ai Khanoum after 145 bc 409 took advantage of the weakening of the Graeco-Bactrian Kingdom after the murder of Eucratides I, and substituted their power to the one of the Graeco- Bactrian rulers. But this does not necessarily imply that nomadic groups were responsible for the destruction of Ai Khanoum. After the events of 145 BC, the city became a simple village inhabited by a few dozen families living on the exploitation of its materials and reserves. At first, the Sanctuary maintained a significant importance and constituted the dominant pole of the town. It was headed by an authority with sufficient means to undertake maintenance and renovation works that implied to reconstruct some buildings. This position arose from its previous preeminent role during the Graeco-Bactrian period. The close links the Sanctuary had with the Graeco-Bactrian royal power explain why it was targeted during these events. However, this did not cause its ruin. The aspects of the cult that were the most foreign to local conceptions were certainly erased, but the continuity of the cult itself implies that this was followed by the local population, probably because the Sanctuary was consecrated to Bactrian gods that were praised according to traditional rituals.173 However, even this cult was interrupted later, probably because the population living in the town and its vicinity was not enough to sustain the religious activities and maintenance of such a structure. Moreover, a phenomenon of depopulation seems to have happened during the post- palatial period in several areas of the town, for the houses were less numerous. Then, the Sanctuary was in turn reoccupied and its resources were exploited, without a preliminary celebration of desacralization rituals. Indeed, the main occupation of the population living in the town in the post-palatial period consisted in recovering every possibly reusable material from the old Graeco-Bactrian capital city. This material was so abundant that the revenues generated by it were probably substantial. Sometimes the material was collected and transformed for the own use of the inhabitants. However, the general demand for lime small pellets, baked bricks, tiles, pottery was probably limited compare to the available quantities. The hundreds of vases accumulated in two rooms of the Gymnasium were far too numerous for the simple use of the few families there living. More than 30.000 potsherds

173 The temple at Djebel Khalid, a Seleucid colony founded at the beginning of the 3rd century BC in the Euphrates valley, constitutes a similar example and probably not acci- dentally. After the abandonment of the town itself, which occurred around 75 BC, the worshippers continued during several decades to celebrate rituals inside the building (Clarke 2015). These sanctuaries were both founded by the first Seleucid kings at the two extremities of their kingdom, and their similar fate is indicative of the kings’ ability to promote local deities, to whom they were skilfully able to ideologically associate themselves (Martinez-Sève 2010; Wright 2012).

Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia 24Downloaded (2018) 354-419 from Brill.com10/10/2021 02:10:27PM via free access 410 Martinez-Sève dated to the post-palatial period were found in the entire Gymnasium. They represent at least 7.230 vases, 3.054 coming from the first stage of reoccupation and 4.176 from the second one.174 Thus, one can assume that some of these materials were sold to people living outside the city or taken by them, in their raw or processed form. It was undoubtedly useful to recover metallic, precious or semi-precious objects, whose intrinsic value was high and that could be recast. But for what purpose thousands of baked bricks were removed from the Palace and elsewhere in the town is still a puzzling question. This question is even more pressing since reused baked bricks were seldom employed in the town in the post-palatial constructions. The baked bricks were taken away rapidly, because the walls from which they were removed were destroyed in a single event. The most logical conclusion seems to be that the building materials were used very shortly after the collapse of the Graeco-Bactrian power for the construction of monuments located near Ai Khanoum, so that it would be practical to take them away from the town.175 However, the surveys directed by J.-C. Gardin in the territory never brought to light monuments that were extensively built with reused materials even if some may have been carried there.176 The only urban establishment that succeeded Ai Khanoum in eastern Bactria is located further west, at Qala-i Zal, on the bank of the Kunduz river and did not predate the Kushan period.177 Generally speaking, the post-palatial settlements in the region are rural and rather modest. Only an elite residence excavated at Saksanokhur in the Kizil su valley (fig. 1), 7 km to the present town of Parxar (Tajikistan) and about 40 km away from Ai Khanoum, constitutes a building monumental and luxurious enough to make the reuse of Ai Khanoum materials worthwhile. P. Bernard has considered that several Corinthian capitals from Saksanokhur were similar in style and size to the ones of Ai Khanoum and were coming from this town.178 The archaeologists of Sakasanokhur have also reported several times that the stone architectural elements of both sites

174 Veuve 1987, 97. 175 Already observed by Rapin 1992, 35. 176 One Ionic capital reused in the tea house of Khwaja Bahauddin is said to come from the vicinity of Ai Khanoum (Bernard 2001, 995, fig. 12). This had perhaps been recovered from the town during the post-palatial period and reused somewhere in the area. Monumental buildings may also have been built at Kohna Qala, a fortified settlement founded during the Achaemenid period, located 1.5 km north of Ai Khanoum, which was apparently still populated during the post-palatial one. However, no excavation has been undertaken there (Gardin 1998, 42, 45-46). 177 Gardin 1998, 86-88, 115-117, 136. 178 Bernard 1970, 313.

Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to DownloadedSiberia 24from (2018) Brill.com10/10/2021 354-419 02:10:27PM via free access Ai Khanoum after 145 bc 411 present similar features.179 Unfortunately, this residence is still not well known and it has never been really published. The capitals shown on illustrations are slightly different from the ones of Ai Khanoum and they seem to be slightly posterior,180 datum which suggests caution. Some building material may have been collected in Ai Khanoum (baked bricks, lime, stone elements coming from thresholds and colonnades), provided that the chronology of the residence is consistent with the one of Ai Khanoum, which remains unclear according to the publications. B. Litvinskiï and X. Mukhitdinov considered that the residence was inhabited between the 2nd century BC and the 2nd-3rd centuries AD. Excluding these stone architectural elements and the still unpublished pottery, the older date is given by an imitation of a coin of Heliocles, which they assigned to the oldest series, minted as soon as the 2nd century BC. If so, the first times of the residence could be contemporary with the ruin of Ai Khanoum. However, this coin was later published by E.V. Zeïmal’, who did not actually confirm the proposal.181 Thus, the first period of the Saksanokhur residence probably began later. Nothing in our current knowledge allows therefore to conclude that the materials of Ai Khanoum were exploited for immediate and rapid reuse. The walls which used baked bricks may have been razed shortly after the ruin of the Palace, but the bricks themselves could have been stocked and gradually reused over a longer period of time. In fact, as we have seen above, some of them were indeed stored in a room of the Palace. The same applies to the stone colonnades, which could be mined as long as their remains were accessible. A heap of stone fragments accumulated in the vestibule of the Palace to be carried away, but eventually left in loco, was overlying a thin layer of dirt formed above its floor level. The heap was therefore accumulated sometime and not immediately after the fall of the columns.182 As history shows, the recovering activity never actually ceased, since the people living near Ai Khanoum continued to supply themselves, exploiting now the remains uncovered during the excavations.183 In conclusion, it appears difficult to assign to the post-palatial period a length of only a few years. This is also what we deduce from the state of conservation of some walls of the Sanctuary that suffered a large-scale deterioration

179 Litvinskiï & Mukhitdinov 1969, 170 (basis with a torus), 172 (Corinthian capitals). 180 Litvinskiï & Mukhitdinov 1969, fig. 9-11. These capitals are currently visible in the Museum of Dushanbe. They are also illustrated in Staviskij 1986, 251, fig. 33, no. 2. 181 Zeïmal’ 1982, 114, 126, fourth period, group III, third series, no 4, pl. XIII, 4; 117-125 (on the chronology). 182 Bernard 1973, pl. 50a; 2001, 1000, note 51. 183 Bernard 2001, 993-1008.

Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia 24Downloaded (2018) 354-419 from Brill.com10/10/2021 02:10:27PM via free access 412 Martinez-Sève though they were entirely reconstructed at the beginning of the period. Major repairs were necessary and the roof of several buildings of the east wing needed to be supported by new pillars, including the one of the newly built southeast room. These constructions remained in function for a long time and they started to progressively deteriorated only once their maintenance has ceased. The fact that pottery shapes did not change is not enough to conclude that the post-palatial period was short, especially if we consider that the vases were taken from the deserted Graeco-Bactrian buildings. Ai Khanoum was facing a period of stagnation, then of decline, and was quite isolated within eastern Bactria, which explains this strong continuity. The innovations that could have led to new trends in ceramic production were thus missing. Some newly manufactured types did appear, but far in a too low quantity for their use as a convincing argument.184 Unfortunately, the systematic study of the ceramics related to the post-palatial period is still incomplete. This would necessarily provide additional information and help to identify any typological developments.185 The study of the funerary artefacts found in the graves of the upper town that were assigned to nomads and dated to the “pre-Kushan” period would also help to understand the chronology of the military constructions of the citadel. To evaluate the length of the post-palatial period, we can mainly rely on the thickness of the layers and remains it produced, which is difficult without explicit evidence as provided by coins or inscriptions. Their importance is also proportional to the density of occupation, which seems to have been relatively low. The fact that a large part of the recovered and scavenged materials was left abandoned in the town shows that few people were engaged in these looting activities, for they were not numerous enough to “consume” them in their entirety. This applies for the inhabitants of the town as well as for the villagers living in the neighbouring territory.186 We also need to consider that the various monuments of the town had different histories and rhythms of change. For instance, the Treasury was rapidly abandoned after being looted and the pillage itself happened very quickly. But this chronology cannot be extended to the other areas of the town. Unfortunately, no stratigraphic link was set between these monuments, which

184 On this regard the prudence of J.-C. Gardin seems very reasonable (Gardin 1998, 114-115). 185 A clear shift between the beginning and the very end of the post-palatial period is perceived at the Sanctuary, especially in its area south of the courtyard. An analysis of the related pottery would be very instructive. 186 B. Lyonnet concluded that a period of stagnation or even regression occurred (Lyonnet 1997, 169-172). J.-C. Gardin is more balanced and considers difficult to reach any definitive conclusion given the available evidence (Gardin 1998, 114).

Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to DownloadedSiberia 24from (2018) Brill.com10/10/2021 354-419 02:10:27PM via free access Ai Khanoum after 145 bc 413 prevents us from comparing their respective chronology. Obviously, some areas were only reoccupied in a second time, especially the Propylaea or the Theatre, while the aristocratic residences were reoccupied sooner. The presence of numerous human remains in the Theatre implies that an immediate reoccupation was unlikely, because dead people were source of impurity for Iranian people. To evaluate how much time passed between the first and second stages of reoccupation is also difficult. The second one was present at the Sanctuary only in room no. 1.04 (east side)187 and occurred obviously much later, perhaps at the same time as the sporadic reoccupation that affected the south side of the courtyard, if not after. The various sectors of the town may have been successively and repeatedly inhabited throughout several decades, as the recovering activities and the deterioration of the buildings went on. Only the newly built quarter in the centre of the city was sustainably and steadily inhabited. The available information does not allow to clarify when the post-palatial reoccupation of the lower city ended. A few late coins and several burials dug into the higher levels of the site provide a limited evidence. Five little read- able coins of the Kushan period were found in clear stratigraphic contexts, and five additional ones out of context. Four of them come from the Palace, including three minted by Kanishka and Huvishka that were lying 2,50-2,70 m above the last Graeco-Bactrian floor. The fourth one, struck by Vasudeva, was discovered in the room no. 2.04 of the Sanctuary, 1,10 m above the same Graeco-Bactrian floor.188 These coins were likely lost while the town has been already abandoned. They only give us an idea of the height the destruction layers had reached during the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. Two graves were also uncovered in the Gymnasium, including one dating to the end of the Kushan period at the earliest.189 The undated tombs of a child and a new born individual were also buried in the ruins of the Stone-vault Mausoleum.190 Another very late tomb was identified in the Treasury.191 The lower town had therefore been abandoned for some time before the 2nd century AD, unlike the upper town where Kushan installations were excavated.192

187 Two fireplaces were built against the east wall of the room, about 50 cm above the last floor level. 188 Bernard 1985, nos. 213-216, 78-79 (and for its stratigraphy idem, 120). 189 Veuve 1987, 116. Three Islamic graves were also excavated. 190 Francfort & Liger 1976, 25-26, 35. On the same spot followed an Islamic cemetery with a dozen graves. 191 Rapin 1992, 32, 81. 192 Leriche 1986, 12, 16, 19-20, 25.

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The attempt to renovate the north rampart constitutes the most recent known activity in the lower town. A massive inner talus was erected above the last Graeco-Bactrian wall, probably for supporting another wall (made of wood?). The latter was never built and the work was finally abandoned. The earth of the talus came from a moat dug in front of the rampart. None of the ceramics it contained was later than the post-palatial period, which explains some difficulties when trying to date this work. First, the possibility that the talus was built shortly after the disappearance of the Graeco-Bactrian elites had been assumed, however P. Leriche gave comparative elements dated at the earliest to the 2nd century AD and he finally expressed himself in favour of a late date.193 As he mentioned, such an undertaking was necessarily directed by an authority able to mobilise large working forces, whose origin remains largely unknown. The pottery coming from this talus has never been precisely studied. The fact that this generally matches with the pottery used during the Graeco-Bactrian and post-palatial periods confirms that the town remained occasionally occupied, without reaching a level of development important enough to cause an evolution of its pottery production. Ai Khanoum displays therefore a much-contrasted history. Once the bril- liant capital city of the Graeco-Bactrian kings, it became a poor village, whose inhabitants started to exploit its ruins. This last period has elicited little interest in scholars. However, it can be read as a fascinating example of the impoverish- ment and gradual decay of a town until complete disappearance.

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