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BACTRIA BEFORE ALEXANDER Ancient Bactria1 and The PART TWO BACTRIA BEFORE ALEXANDER Land and People Ancient Bactria1 and the surrounding regions of Sogdiana, Margiana, Aria, Drangiana, Arachosia, and 'India' lay within the heartland of con­ tinental Eurasia in an area which now extends across the disputed borders of six modern nations. 2 The entire region is part of the vast and varied geological system identified with Central Asia. Although best known for its open steppe, the principal feature of this system is the wide range of mountains descending in a diagonal line from Lake Baykal in the northeast to the Hindu Kush in the southwest. Historically, this great divide has defined the cultural limits of three very important civilizations: the Chinese, Iranian, and Indian. 3 But, like the Alps, this formidable 'barrier' is breached in numerous places and thus allows access along certain routes from one cultural center to the next, as the existence of the famous Silk Road attests. 4 The central loca­ tion of ancient Bactria within the larger system of Central Asia explains its special significance as a cultural and commercial crossroads. The geologic history of the mountains dominating this region has not been fully investigated, but their development is part of the same tectonic process which produced the massive belt beginning in the Pyrenees and stretching by way of the Pamirs to the Himalayas. 5 From the so-called 1 'Bactria' is used in most books to denote the combined region of Bactria-Sogdiana, but I shall endeavor ( except where style dictates otherwise) to distinguish between Bactria proper and Sogdiana. While it is true that the Persian satrapy of 'Bactria' included Sog­ diana, it is shown below that the two regions often had quite different histories. 2 These are Afghanistan, the U.S.S.R., Iran, Pakistan, China, and India. Much of this region appears on the satellite-based map ONC-G6 (1:1,000,000) produced by the Defense Mapping Agency. Since this serves as an aviation chart, attention to topography and elevation is extremely detailed. 3 The legacy of Alexander adds, of course, a fourth: the Graeco-Macedonian. Consult K. De B. Codrington, "A Geographical Introduction to the History of Central Asia," CJ 104(1944): 27-40, and 73-91. Although hopelessly out-dated on many historical mat­ ters, this essay is an informative geographical guide which offers helpful criticisms of overly-simplified views regarding steppe nomads, 'Scythia', and so forth. 4 The long and legendary history of this trade-route has been nicely summarized by Luce Boulnois, The Silk Road, trans. Dennis Chamberlain (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1966). 5 For details consult the pioneering works of H. H. Hayden, "The Geology of North­ ern Afghanistan,"Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India 39(1911): 1-97; Sir T. H. Holdich, "An Orographic Map of Afghanistan and Baluchistan," CJ 16( 1900): 527-531, 12 BACTRIA BEFORE ALEXANDER Pamir Knot, a tangle of over one hundred peaks reaching to some 25,000 feet, the Northern Pamirs fan out across Soviet Turkestan while another chain sweeps southwest across Afghanistan. This latter group forms the central spine (Koh-i-Baba) of the Hindu Kush, ranging from 14,000 to 17,000 feet. These ridges gradually give way to the Iranian Plateau as the land levels out into the dry western and southwestern sectors of Afghanistan. 6 Here the stony 'desert of death' (Dasht-i-Margo) and sandy deserts of Registan lie between Baluchistan and the Seistan basin. The soaring ranges of the Pamirs and Hindu Kush therefore surround the heartland of ancient Bactria on all sides except the west- north­ western. In that direction stretch the deserts of Turkestan through which the Amu Darya (ancient Oxus) River now finds its way across the Rus­ sian steppes to the Aral Sea. 7 As in the south, relatively fertile soils along the rivers become mere rock and sand in some parched areas of arid desert, although this inhospitable environment is relieved by oases and occasional grasslands suitable for pasturage. The Amu Darya is the largest of four principal river systems in present-day Afghanistan; the others are the Hari Rud, Helmand­ Arghandab, and Kabul. All, of course, flow out of the Pamirs and Hindu Kush and experience the same seasonal variations since they share a common source of water from rainfall and melting snows. Although most of this water is lost into the deserts lying beyond the mountains, rivers provide adequate irrigation if carefully controlled. Unfortunately, during the period of maximum flow between February and July, flash-floods still cause considerable property damage and loss of life. 8 To this list of rivers should be added two others north of modern Afghanistan: the Zeravshan (ancient Polytimetus) and Syr Darya (ancient Jaxartes). The former disappears into the desert sands before reaching the Amu Darya, while map on p. 596; H. deCizancourt, "Remarque sur la structure de l'Hindou-Kouch," Bulletin de la Sociiti Giologique de France 7(1938): 377-400; and Raymond Furon, L 'Hindou-Kouch el la Kaboulistan, Contribution a l'itude giologique et giomorphoginique de !'Afghanistan (Paris: Albert Blanchard, 1927). Short but useful surveys of this subject are contained in Sophia R. Bowlby's Chapter I, "The Geographical Background", pp. 9-12 of Allchin and Hammond, eds. The Archaeology of Afghanistan from the Earliest Times to the Timurid Period (London: Academic Press, 1978); and J. Humlum, La Giographie de !'Afghanistan (Copenhagen, 1959), pp. 22-37. 6 Dupree, Afghanistan (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980), p. I. 7 The problem of the ancient course of the Oxus River, a sore point in the Alexander source tradition, has been revived by J. R. Hamilton, "Alexander and the Aral," CQ 21(1971): 106-111, and by A. B. Bosworth, A Historical Commentary on Arrian's History of Alexander (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980), Vol. I, pp. 373-374. Tarn, GB/, Appendices 14 and 15, pp. 488-493, had insisted prematurely that the question was settled. 8 Dupree, Afghanistan, p. 33; Humlum, Giographie, p. 43, n. 4 for severe Badakhshan floods. .
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