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The Enclosure of Tchingiz-Tepe (Ancient Termez, Uzbekistan) During the Kushan and Kushan-Sassanian Periods

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The Enclosure of Tchingiz-Tepe (Ancient Termez, Uzbekistan) During the Kushan and Kushan-Sassanian Periods Iranica Antiqua, vol. XLIX, 2014 doi: 10.2143/IA.49.0.3009247 THE ENCLOSURE OF TCHINGIZ-TEPE (ANCIENT TERMEZ, UZBEKISTAN) DURING THE KUSHAN AND KUSHAN-SASSANIAN PERIODS. ARCHAEOLOGICAL STRATIGRAPHY AND 14C DATING ANALYSES BY Verònica MARTINEZ FERRERAS1, Enrique ARIÑO GIL2, Josep M. GURT ESPARRAGUERA1 & Shakir PIDAEV3 (1 University of Barcelona, ERAAUB; 2 University of Salamanca; 3 Institute of Fine Arts, Tashkent) Abstract: The walled enclosure of Tchingiz Tepe is part of the urban complex of Ancient Termez in South Uzbekistan. Situated on a hill to the north-west of the city, the archaeological remains consists of an adobe wall, a monumental building located in the centre of the enclosure, various dwellings attached to the wall, and at least one pottery kiln. The study of the stratigraphic sequence com- bined with 14C dating allows the reconstruction of the successive occupations of the enclosure which began with the building of the wall during the Early Kushan or Yuezhi periods (between the mid-second century BC and the mid-first century BC). Later, during the Kushan period (from the mid-first century BC to the mid- third century AD), it was used as a Buddhist place of worship, and then reverted to military use during the Kushan-Sassanian period (mid-third century AD to early fifth century AD). Key-words: Yuezhi, Kushan, Sassanian, Buddhist monastic centre, Stratigraphic record, Radiocarbon dates. 1. Introduction The site of Ancient Termez is located in the arid region of southern Uzbekistan, in the Afghan-Tajik Depression, on the banks of the Amu Darya (the ancient Oxus River), close to the mouth of its tributary, the Surkhan Darya (fig. 1). Alexandria Oxiana has been suggested as the ancient name of the city, but this attribution remains controversial (Ler- iche & Pidaev 2007: 181; Rtweladse 2009: 217, 2010). In the seventh century the town was called Ta-mi by the Chinese traveller Zhang Qian, and in the following centuries Arabic authors referred to the city as Tirmiz 96550.indb 413 25/02/14 13:49 414 V. MARTINEZ FERRERAS — E. ARIÑO GIL — J.M. GURT ESPARRAGUERA — S. PIDAEV Fig. 1. Location of Termez (Rapin, C. 2007: 30, fig. 1). or Tarmiz, the name which survives today (Leriche 2001: 79-80; Leriche & Pidaev 2007: 181-182). In any case, current research recognises Ancient Termez as one of the great centres of Ancient Bactria after its conquest by Alexander the Great and then during the Greco-Bactrian period (between 246 and c. 150 BC) (Bernard 1994: 103; Pugachenkova et. al. 1994: 331- 336; Rtweladse 2009: 217). The city has been considered by some schol- ars as the capital of the Kushan kingdom in northern Bactria or Tokharestan during the Kushan period (around 50 BC-250 AD) (Leriche 2001: 75, 2010: 170; Leriche & Pidaev 2007: 210) and it occupied a large urban site during the Kushan-Sassanian (third to sixth centuries AD) and Islamic 96550.indb 414 25/02/14 13:49 THE ENCLOSURE OF TCHINGIZ-TEPE 415 periods (seventh/eighth to thirteenth centuries AD) (Litvinsky 1996: 149; Bosworth & Bolshakoz 1998; Negmatov 1998). The significance of Termez as a human settlement and a religious and trade centre was due to its exceptional location in a strategically important section of the river, at the intersection of many intercontinental routes along the Silk Road. Ancient Termez was destroyed in 1220-21 by the Mongols, but after this invasion the town was rebuilt to the north-east towards the Surkhan Darya valley; the land occupied by the old city has remained uninhabited (Pidaev 2001; Leriche 2001; Leriche & Pidaev 2007, 2008). The archaeological site of Ancient Termez is composed of a large forti- fied urban complex that includes other walled enclosures inside it (fig. 2). Archaeological excavations conducted at the site have demonstrated the existence of a Citadel overlooking the Amu Darya dating to the Greco- Bactrian period. This fortress was enlarged to 10ha under Kushan rule and remained fortified until the seventeenth century (Leriche & Pidaev 2007: 187). Most of the area of Ancient Termez seems to have been occupied at the time. A second fortress called Tchingiz Tepe, less than 1km away to the north-west, together with the main city and the suburbs located in the eastern area, is believed to have been settled during the Kushan period. It is also assumed that Termez has been one of the most important sites of Buddhist worship in ancient Bactria, and a place which developed a sym- biotic religious art. This is evidenced by the cultic complex, the stupa and the various centres of Buddhist worship such as caves corresponding to monastic cells made of stone, clay and gypsum, located between the Cita- del and the Tchingiz Tepe enclosures (Leriche & Pidaev 2007: 188-200). Apart from these discoveries, the significant role of Buddhism at Termez is demonstrated by the presence of three Buddhist sites—Kara Tepe to the north, Fayaz Tepe to the north-east and Zurmala to the south-east— situated around the city, outside the fortified area but very close to the ancient town (Puri 1994; Dani & Litvinsky 1996: 117-118; Litvinsky & Vorobyova-Desyatovskaya 1996: 439; Stavisky 2001; Mkrtyschew 2007, 2010). Excavations at Termez have provided little evidence from the fifth to the seventh centuries except for the remains of the 6km-long mediaeval wall encircling an area of 70ha which is itself divided into two walled areas. The lower town or shahristan was a rectangular fortified city (with a surface area of approximately 10ha) while the large suburb or rabat occupied the eastern area of the town (Litvinsky 1996: 149; Leriche & Pidaev 2007: 182ff). 96550.indb 415 25/02/14 13:49 416 V. MARTINEZ FERRERAS — E. ARIÑO GIL — J.M. GURT ESPARRAGUERA — S. PIDAEV Fig. 2. Termez. General map of the site with the location of the Citadel, Tchingiz Tepe, and the medieval city (the cartographic base used comes from P. Leriche & Sh. Pidaev 2007: 183, fig. 2, 203, fig. 20). All the historical data currently available on Termez come from written sources of various origins and from the archaeological excavations con- ducted at the site. Archaeological work in Ancient Termez did not begin until the early twentieth century. A first scientific survey of the site was conducted in 1926-28 by B.P. Denike of the Museum of Eastern Cultures of Moscow, and the first archaeological excavations started in 1936 under the direction of M.E. Masson of the University of Tashkent (Leriche 2001: 77-79; Pugachenkova 2001). Since 1979 excavations in Ancient Termez have been led by S. Pidaev, and in the 1990s several collaborative pro- grams with foreign archaeological teams were undertaken. The current Mission Archéologique Franco-Ouzbèque de Bactriane Septentrionale (MAFOuz-Bactriane) directed by P. Leriche and S. Pidaev began work in 1993 in the Citadel and Tchingiz Tepe enclosures and in the lower town of Termez. The mission has focused on the study of the settlement patterns and building characteristics rather than on the analysis of the stratigraphic 96550.indb 416 25/02/14 13:49 THE ENCLOSURE OF TCHINGIZ-TEPE 417 sequence preserved or of the associated artefacts and ecofacts (Leriche 2001; Gelin & Tonnel 2001; Leriche & Pidaev 2007). Since 1998, the Japan-Uzbek Joint Research Team, headed by K. Kato and S. Pidaev, has conducted archaeological excavations on the north and central hills of the Buddhist monastery of Kara Tepe (Pidaev & Kato 2010), and since 2006 the Uzbek-Spanish mission, the International Pluridisciplinary Archaeo- logical Expedition to Bactria (IPAEB) led by J.M. Gurt and S. Pidaev, has been working in Kara Tepe and Tchingiz Tepe. This project aims to shed new light on the human settlement as well as on the production and com- mercial diffusion of ancient pottery recovered at Termez from the period spanning the Greco-Bactrian and Islamic periods, in order to create the first typological and chronological sequence of the pottery record (Gurt et al. 2007, 2008, 2009; Gurt & Pidaev 2010, 2011). Despite the large-scale archaeological activity underway at the site dur- ing recent years, most of the work offers only a partial view of the settle- ment evolution of Ancient Termez. Given the complexity and the contin- ued occupation of the site many questions remain unanswered; in particular, questions such as the date of foundation, the function and the evolution of the occupation of some of the fortified complexes within the old town. Tchingiz Tepe, for example, has been attributed a Kushan ori- gin, but the archaeological evidence presented so far to support this hypothesis is based solely on the establishment of parallel chronologies derived from the architectural features and the characteristics of the build- ing materials used rather than on an analysis of the stratigraphic sequences (Leriche & Pidaev 2007: 200-209). Prior to our study, very little was known about the development and occupation of Tchingiz Tepe. In fact, several questions concerning the Tchingiz Tepe site remained unan- swered: What is the date of the first signs of occupation of the hill? When was the defensive wall built? What was the function of this fortified site? Can we speak of a continued occupation over a long, stable period, or were there periods of turbulence associated with processes of collapse and urban rebuilding? When, and under what conditions, was Tchingiz Tepe finally abandoned? The main goal of the research conducted by the Uzbek-Spanish IPAEB team was to answer all these questions. To this end, a complete research programme combining archaeological data obtained through stratigraphic excavation and absolute dating using 14C analyses has been underway at Tchingiz Tepe since 2007. Special attention has been paid to the study of 96550.indb 417 25/02/14 13:49 418 V.
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