BAR S2196 2011 MAIRS The Archaeology of the Hellenistic Far East: A Survey THE AR Rachel Mairs CHAEOLOGY OF THE HELLENISTIC FAR EAST BAR International Series 2196 2011 Mairs 2196 cover.indd 1 11/02/2011 14:04:55 CONTENTS CONTENTS 1 PREFACE 3 FIGURES 4 Figure 1: The Hellenistic East 5 Figure 2: Hellenistic Bactria-Sogdiana 6 Figure 3: Ai Khanoum 7 CHAPTER 1: THE HELLENISTIC FAR EAST 8 1.1 Scope 8 1.2 Chronological and Geographical Parameters 9 1.3 Resources, Limitations and Future Publications 10 CHAPTER 2: THE HISTORICAL TRADITION 12 2.1 Modern Histories of the Hellenistic Far East 12 2.2 Greek and Latin Sources 12 2.3 Indian and Chinese Sources 12 2.4 A Medieval European Tradition? 12 2.5 Early Modern Historical Studies 12 2.6 Historical Fiction 13 2.7 Cinema 13 CHAPTER 3: CULTURE AND IDENTITY IN THE HELLENISTIC FAR EAST 14 3.1 The Hellenistic Far East: Cultural Custody Battles 14 3.2 Theory and Archaeological Practice 15 3.2.1 The Colonial Hellenistic Far East 15 3.2.2 Ethnicity 15 3.2.3 Movement of Objects and Transformations in Meaning 16 3.2.4 Space and Landscape 17 3.2.5 Places in Between: The Postcolonial Hellenistic Far East 17 3.2.6 Multilingualism and Administration 18 CHAPTER 4: GENERAL PUBLICATIONS 20 4.1 Introduction 20 4.2 Synthetic Historical Studies 20 4.3 Edited Volumes 21 4.4 Exhibition Catalogues 21 4.4.1 The National Museum, Kabul 21 4.4.2 Loans from the National Museum, Kabul 21 4.4.3 Other Exhibitions of Central Asian Material 22 4.5 Numismatics 22 CHAPTER 5: ARCHAEOLOGY 23 5.1 Introduction 23 5.1.1 History of Archaeological Research 23 5.1.2 Problems and Methodologies 23 5.1.3 Research Tools and Thematic Studies 23 5.2 Sites: Bactria, Sogdiana, Margiana, Chorasmia 24 1 5.2.1 Takht-i Sangin and the North-East 24 5.2.2 Ai Khanoum and its Hinterland 26 5.2.3 Bactra and its Oasis 29 5.2.4 Termez, the Surkhan-darya and the North-West 30 5.2.5 Derbent – The ‘Iron Gates’ 32 5.2.6 Maracanda – Samarkand – Afrasiab 33 5.2.7 Alexandria Eschate – Khujand 33 5.2.8 Herat and Areia 34 5.2.9 Merv and Margiana 34 5.2.10 Chorasmia 34 5.3 South of the Hindu Kush: The Kabul Region, Arachosia and India 34 5.3.1 Begram 34 5.3.2 Old Kandahar – Alexandria in Arachosia 35 5.3.3 Gandh!ra and Northwestern India 35 5.3.4 India 37 CHAPTER 6: LANGUAGES AND TEXTS 38 6.1 Overview 38 6.2 Greek 38 6.2.1 Corpora, Bibliographies and General Works 38 6.2.2 Stone Inscriptions 38 6.2.3 Texts on Durable Materials (Ceramics, Bricks, etc.) and Graffiti 39 6.2.4 Texts on Papyrus and Skin 40 6.3 Aramaic 41 6.3.1 Stone Inscriptions 41 6.3.2 Texts on Durable Materials (Ceramics, Bricks, Seals, etc.) and Graffiti 42 6.3.3 Texts on Papyrus and Skin 42 6.4 Other Languages (Pr!kit, Bactrian, Unidentified) 42 6.4.1 Unidentified 42 6.4.2 Pr!kit / Middle Indo-Aryan 42 6.4.3 From Greek to Bactrian 42 CHAPTER 7: ONLINE RESOURCES 44 7.1 Updates to the Hellenistic Far East Bibliography 44 7.2 Portals and Collections of Material 44 7.3 Publications 44 7.3 Field Projects 44 7.3.1 Afghanistan 44 7.3.2 Uzbekistan 44 7.3.4 Turkmenistan 45 7.3.5 Pakistan 45 7.4 Field Archaeologists’ Webpages 45 7.5 Museum Collections and Exhibitions 45 7.6 Other Relevant Sites 45 7.7 Texts 46 BIBLIOGRAPHY 47 2 PREFACE This book has its origins in a PhD thesis completed at the than I could reasonably have hoped for. Among others, I University of Cambridge (Ethnic Identity in the Hellenistic have benefited greatly from discussions with Drs. Alice Far East, Mairs 2006a), or rather in the formidable Stevenson (Oxford), Jennifer Gates-Foster (Texas) and information-gathering exercise which had to be Matthew Canepa (Minnesota), and on Chinese matters, undertaken before that thesis could be written. My thesis Dr. Rod Campbell (Oxford). Dr. Omar Coloru (Paris) very was written under the supervision of Dr. Dorothy J. kindly sent me a PDF of his 2009 monograph on the Thompson, to whom I am extremely grateful for her Greek kingdom of Bactria, when it was not yet available guidance and support, and examined by Professors Robin in the library at Oxford. The Directors and staff of the Osborne and Simon Hornblower. Turkmen-Italian Archaeological Map of the Murghab Delta project (I owe especial thanks to Lynne Rouse) and My thanks also go to Professor Roger Bagnall of the of the Minaret of Jam Archaeological Project made it Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York possible for me to do fieldwork in Central Asia. University, and the Warden, Professor Dame Jessica Rawson, and Fellows of Merton College, Oxford, for Love and thanks go, as ever, to my parents, grandparents giving me the luxury of more years of full-time research and sisters. 3 FIGURES 1. The Hellenistic East. (Adapted from F. L. Holt 1999.) 2. Hellenistic Bactria-Sogdiana. (Adapted from F. L. Holt 1999.) 3. Ai Khanoum. 4 Figure 1: The Hellenistic East (Adapted from F. L. Holt 1999.) 5 Figure 2: Hellenistic Bactria-Sogdiana (Adapted from F. L. Holt 1999.) 6 Figure 3: Ai Khanoum 7 CHAPTER 1 THE HELLENISTIC FAR EAST 1.1 Scope fundamentally historical or numismatic, and it is intended that the present work will provide a complement to these This book is intended as an introduction to the (see further Chapter 4, Section 4.2). In addition, there are archaeology of the easternmost regions of Greek very few publications on the archaeology of the HFE in settlement in the Hellenistic period, from the conquests of English: French predominates for Afghanistan and Iran, Alexander the Great in the late fourth century BC, through and – a far greater barrier to accessibility for European to the last Greek-named kings of north-western India and North American readerships – almost all the primary somewhere around the late first century BC, or even early archaeological publications on the states of former-Soviet first century AD. The geographical and chronological Central Asia are in Russian and have not been translated parameters of this handbook are not stringently defined. into western European languages. (There are some notable The deficiencies of our evidence, and geo-political exceptions among synthetic studies, such as Staviskij 1986 realities, make any attempt at such precision unwise and, on Kushan Bactria, a French translation and revision of indeed, potentially misleading. Staviskii 1977.) Although this language barrier will continue to prevent those without a knowledge of Russian The ‘Far East’ of the Hellenistic world – a region from undertaking extensive research into the Hellenistic comprising areas of what is now Afghanistan, Pakistan, states of Central Asia, it is hoped that the present work Iran and the former-Soviet Central Asian Republics – is will provide sufficient basic information and best known from the archaeological remains of sites such bibliographical references on current archaeological as Ai Khanoum, which attest the endurance of Greek activities in the region for European and American cultural and political presence in the region in the three scholars to make productive use of and reference to centuries following the conquests of Alexander the Great. developments in Central Asian archaeology. Russian The ‘Hellenistic Far East’ (HFE) has become the standard works are cited in the Bibliography along with an English catch-all term for a network of autonomous and semi- translation of the title. autonomous Greek-ruled states in the region east of the Iranian Plateau, which remained in only intermittent The model for this project – although the present work is political contact with the rest of the Hellenistic world to on a much more modest scale – is the Bulletin d’Histoire the west – although cultural and commercial contacts Achéménide (BHAch), a structured reference guide to the could at times be very direct. These states, their rulers and history and archaeology of the Achaemenid Empire, populations, feature only occasionally in Greek and Latin which summarises current research and provides a historical sources. The two great challenges of HFE comprehensive bibliography of recent works relevant to studies lie in integrating scholarship on this region into Achaemenid studies (‘Outils de la recherche’ > work on the Hellenistic world as a whole in a more than ‘Bibliographies’ at <http://www.achemenet.com/>, superficial way; and in understanding the complex cultural accessed 16 November 2010; its genesis is discussed in and ethnic relationships between the dominant Greek Briant 2002, xv-xviii). As well as providing a elites of the region and their neighbours, both within the comprehensive and user-friendly resource on the current Greek kingdom of Bactria and in its Central Asian state of historical and archaeological scholarship on the hinterland. Achaemenid Empire, a great virtue of the BHAch is its structure. The information presented is clearly organised A third problem in studies of the Hellenistic Far East – into numbered sections and sub-sections, arranging and one which is intimately connected to the two material thematically according to the basic structure of methodological issues already outlined – is the lack of a Pierre Briant’s Histoire de l’Empire Perse (Briant 1996; ‘go-to’ reference work which might make the region and English translation: Briant 2002). Subsequent updates its archaeology accessible both to archaeologists and contain material ordered into sections numbered in the historians who work on other regions of the Hellenistic same way.