CHAPTER 5
CENTRAL ASIA AND THE STEPPE
Sören Stark
A BRIEF CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE NORTHERN FRONTIER
The following short remarks on the cultural geography of the various oasis regions
and the steppe lands north of Bactria during the Hellenistic and post-Hellenistic
period (3rd century BCE to 1st century CE) attempt to set the spatial stage for the
present chapter. One needs to bear in mind that they are necessarily brief and some-
what schematic. Also, I should indicate here that I partially draw for this geographi-
cal overview from later, better attested periods (on this method see the next section
‘Sources and methodological problems’). My main aim is to briefy fesh-out the
character of the regions north of Bactria as an extensive and heterogeneous frontier
closely connected with the vast Central Eurasian steppe lands.
Bactria’s closest northern neighbour, beyond the offshoots of the Hissar range to
the northwest, was the historical region of Sogdiana (Lyonnet this volume),1 sub-
divided into several oasis territories along the Zerafshan and Kashka-Darya rivers:
Maracanda (Samarqand) along the middle course of the Zerafshan, Bukhara in the
delta area of the river, Nakhshab (Qarshi) at the lower reaches and Kesh (Shahri-
Sabz/Kitab) at the upper reaches of the Kashka-Darya. Enclosed by the Zerafshan
in the north and the Kashka-Darya to the south lies an extensive desert-steppe (ft-
tingly called ūrta chūl – ‘inner steppe’ – in Late Medieval times). The northern and
northeastern borders of Bactria were framed by a vast high-mountain zone. Beyond
we fnd a series of oasis-steppe regions belonging to the catchment area of the upper
and middle Syr-Darya (known to the Greeks as Iaxartes and, erroneously, identifed
with the European Tanaïs, the Don river), called Fergana, Ilaq, and Chach during
Medieval times. North of the Turkestan Range several small alluvial fans emptying
into the Hunger steppe form a region known as Ustrushana during the Early Middle
Ages.
Further to the northwest, beyond the Kyzyl-kum desert (where one fnds impor-
tant turquoise deposits) and downstream along the Oxus/Amu Darya, lay the region
of Chorasmia, extending over most parts of the delta area of the Oxus/Amu Darya.
This region provided an important gateway to the nomadic world of the Ustyurt
plateau and the southern Urals, as well as – via the then still functioning Uzboi river
– to the Caspian shores and beyond (the southern Caucasus and the northern Pontic
regions). Nearby, a similar delta region is formed by the Syr-Darya further to the
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northeast – a stepping-stone into the vast expanse of the Dasht-i Qipchaq. In a simi-
lar way, the plains north of the western Tianshan, watered by the Talas, the Chu,
the Ili, and a multitude of smaller mountain rivers, appear tightly connected with the
pastoral world of Central Eurasia.
During the Hellenistic and post-Hellenistic period – as in previous and later centu-
ries – the inhabitants of all these regions relied on complex agro-pastoral subsistence
strategies, employing irrigation and rain-fed farming – the former mostly (but not
only) in the lower altitude river plains, the latter mostly in the piedmonts – as well
as various forms of mobile husbandry. In addition, hunting and fshing (the latter
mostly in the river deltas) constituted important additional subsistence strategies.
The composition of all these elements varied greatly from region to region, and even
from microregion to microregion. Especially important for mobile horse breeders
were the excellent summer pasture grounds in some high-mountains areas, such as
above Kesh and in the northern fank of the Turkestan range. On the other hand,
the delta marshlands of the Syr-Darya and the Amu-Darya, and perhaps also of the
Zerafshan, attracted pastoral groups from the open Central Eurasian steppe lands,
especially during the winter months – as did the agricultural produce and craft prod-
ucts (including prestige goods) from the river oases or regions further to the south
and southwest (including, of course, Bactria). Needless to say, the procurement of
products from the oasis territories by pastoral groups to the north and northeast
could take both the form of peaceful trade transactions and of raids – both phenom-
ena are amply attested throughout the history of this frontier zone.
Thus, the inhabitants of the various frontier regions north of Bactria were in
contact not only with the Greeks in Bactria, but also – and probably much more
intensively – with groups primarily or originally based in the vast steppe lands of
Central Eurasia further to the north and northeast: in the Southern Urals, the Dasht-i
Qipchaq, north of the Tianshan – up to the highlands of the Altai in southern Siberia
and even to the Mongolian plateau. Not surprisingly, these contacts were also mir-
rored in the formation of close sociopolitical ties between both spheres: the oasis
regions were repeatedly the target of nomadic conquerors, resulting in the establish-
ment of local dynasties of steppic origin or other, less direct forms of nomadic suze-
rainty, including patron-client networks. In addition, there were always numerous
kinship ties, such as marriage alliances, spanning both spheres. Finally, there surely
was, from very early on, also a population infux from the steppes, although it seems
that the scale and impact of sedentarization processes has often been exaggerated or
at least perceived in simplistic ways on the part of modern historians, notably for the
period under consideration in the present volume.
SOURCES AND METHODOLOGICAL PROBLEMS
The earliest written sources indisputably referring to some of the regions north
of Bactria date back to the Achaemenid period. They are continued by reports of
authors writing in Greek and Latin about the same regions for the time of Alexander,
the Seleukids, and the independent Greek kingdom in Bactria. Substantial Chinese-
language historiographical evidence starts to become frst available with events
related to the political rise of the Xiongnu 匈奴 during the last decades of the 3rd
century BCE (Di Cosmo 2002) and somewhat later – since the 120s BCE – for the
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various ‘Western regions’ as a result of Zhang Qian’s 張騫 diplomatic mission to the
Da Yuezhi 大月氏 (Hulsewé and Loewe 1979; Posch 1995, 53–80; Nickel and Yang
this volume). However, inquiries into the history of Central Asia north of Bactria
during the Hellenistic and post-Hellenistic periods remain in many ways a ‘prehis-
toric’ enterprise: truly historiographical narratives are extremely rare, laconic, and
heavily distorted by the outsider perspectives of the Graeco-Roman and Chinese lit-
erary traditions. In addition, substantial epigraphic materials from the regions north
of Bactria are, for the period under consideration, practically missing2 – and even for
neighbouring regions, such as Bactria itself (starting with the Aramaic documents
from Bactria: Naveh and Shaked 2012) or northwestern Gansu (such as the wooden
slips from Xuanquan 懸泉 : Yang 2015), they remain few and far between.
This has grave consequences for our historical understanding of the regions of
Central Asia north and northeast of Bactria during the Hellenistic and post-Hellen-
istic period: we know next to nothing about historical events, individual actors and
their personal agency. The only notable exception to this is the two-year period of
Alexander’s campaigns in Sogdiana (spring 329–spring 327 BCE),3 making it pain-
fully clear what we are missing for the following decades and centuries. Essentially,
this lack of detailed historiographical narratives plagues our understanding of the his-
tory of most of Central Asia north of Bactria all the way to the decades of the Islamic
conquest of Transoxania, starting in the second half of the 7th century CE. For most
of these c. 1000 years the written sources at our disposal limit us heuristically to a
more ‘structural’ level (as opposed to an ‘individual’ level) of historical understand-
ing – exemplifed (and shaped) by the often highly standardized summary statements
about the various ‘Western regions’ found in Chinese dynastical histories (Yang this
volume).4 The problem that this creates for the framework of our interpretations of
historiographical data – apart from the basic questions of quellenkritik – becomes
clear if we look at much later periods in the history of the regions under considera-
tion here: for example, one of the aspects largely missing from our written record
is detailed information on the spatial and political mobility of elites, so well known
in the region from the post-Mongol period – a famous (but by no means unique)
example being the twisted biography of Zahir ad-Din Muhammad Babur (A.D.
1483–1530; Thackston 1993), a scion of Tamerlane and the founder of the Moghul
dynasty, who was born in Andijan, successively ruled over Fergana, Samarqand, and
Kabul, and fnally died in Agra as ruler over large parts of northwestern and central
India. A similar mobility of elite individuals is not at all excluded – perhaps even
likely – also for earlier periods, especially during the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE – yet,
we know next to nothing about this. At the very least, the example of Babur may
serve as a poignant reminder of the limits of our knowledge about historical events
and the very actors driving them, as well as of the limited potential of concepts like
‘tribe’ or ‘migration,’ frequently employed by modern historians, to describe and
explain historical developments in Hellenistic and post-Hellenistic Central Asia.
Consequently, as in other ‘prehistoric’ contexts, archaeology constitutes a major
source of historical information. However, it must be remembered that archaeologi-
cal data have their own limitations. While archaeological data, for example, may
provide us with relatively straight-forward access to subsistence-related aspects such
as dwelling, production, consumption, and exchange, they are usually much more
diffcult to interpret when it comes to aspects such as political or ethnic identities.
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Equally problematic is in many cases their relationship with the history of events as
they are known to us.
Finally, a few framing words are in order concerning numismatic evidence for
the regions and periods under consideration. Given the dearth of historiographical
evidence, coinages constitute a major source for our understanding of the chrono-
logical framework for some of the frontier regions – namely Sogdiana and, slightly
later, Chorasmia (Вайнберг 1977; Zeimal 1983; Naymark 2016). However – again
– the nature of the numismatic material in question poses a number of limitations.
Apart from basic questions concerning the geographical attribution of certain coin-
ages and their precise dating, one particularly limiting aspect is the phenomenon
of long-running imitation series with imagery and legends repeated (and gradually
deteriorating) over long periods of time. Thus, over a span of decades and sometimes
even centuries, these coinages provide us only with a handful of rulers’ names – and
none at all for the beginning of the various local ‘dynasties’ as the initial phase of
coinages in Sogdiana and Chorasmia is represented exclusively by anonymous imita-
tions of various Greek coinages (Бирюков 2002; Наймарк 2008).
ELITE NETWORKS ACROSS CENTRAL ASIA DURING THE
PRE-ACHAEMENID AND ACHAEMENID PERIOD
Many areas of the Central Eurasian steppes – with the notable exception of the
Mongolian plateau – saw between the turn of the 9th to the 8th and the 7th to the
6th century BCE (at the very latest) the emergence of powerful elites, cultivating a
military lifestyle materialized in a distinctive repertoire of horse gear and weapons,
and expressing their worldview in a distinctive artistic language (the so-called Scytho-
Siberian animal style). Little is known about why and how this phenomenon came to
spread over large parts of the Eurasian continent. It has been speculated that climatic
events might have played a role (van Geel et al. 2004). An important role in the for-
mation of this elite and the subsequent spread of its ‘cultural code’ might have been
played by the social institution of mobile warrior bands – perhaps mostly retinues
and jungmannschaften under the leadership of young aristocrats.5 What is clear is
that the earliest of a series of elite burials under monumental tumuli (so-called kur-
gans) with impressively rich inventories are attested in the southern Siberian region
of Tuva on the border between present-day Russian and Mongolia (Грязнов 1980;
Parzinger 2006, 679–692; Parzinger 2017; Caspari et al. 2018) from which the phe-
nomenon gradually spread westwards.
Bactria and the various oasis-steppe regions to the north were in close contact with
the elites in the steppes from very early on: the fnding of lapis lazuli in the inventory
of kurgan 1 in Shilikty-3 (Baigetobe kurgan) in the Tarbagatay mountains in present-
day eastern Kazakhstan, dating between 730 and 690 BCE (Stark and Rubinson
2012, 56, 116; Panyushkina et al. 2016), points to existing connections for the time
well before the Achaemenid period. Even more intensive must have been the interac-
tions with powerful nomadic elites in nearer regions, such as the ‘Land of the Seven
Rivers’ along the northern fank of the Tianshan, and the wider Syr-Darya delta (cf.
the necropoleis of Tagisken-South and Uygarak). Nomadic groups of that period are
archaeologically attested as far south as the Zerafshan valley (Мухамеджанов 1999,
36; Parzinger and Boroffka 2003, 277; Rapin 2018, 272–274).
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During the Achaemenid period interactions with the nomads at the northeastern
frontier of the Persian empire – often (but not always) summarily labelled by the
Persians as ‘Saka’ – are attested in a wide spectrum of forms: from intermarriage,
diplomacy, and gift exchange to military confrontations (Stark 2012, 111–119). On
the one hand, the founder of the Persian Empire, Cyrus the Great, lost his life in a war
against a nomadic group called Massagetai by Herodotos. On the other hand, we
regularly hear of ‘Saka’ contingents in the service of the Achaemenid Great Kings or
their satraps – which even earned them land allotments in Babylonia (Dandamayev
1992, 159–162). Occasionally, these nomadic contingents in Achaemenid ser-
vice operated under the direct command of their own leaders (Stark 2012, 112).
In addition they appear as allies with local Sogdian hyparchs. Particularly strong
ties must have existed with elite groups in the Southern Urals, as lavishly illustrated
by the many Achaemenid or Achaemenoid imports in the funeral assemblages from
Fillipovka (Treister and Yablonsky 2013; Olbrycht 2015, 260–261).6
THE COMING OF THE GREEKS:
CONSEQUENCES FOR CENTRAL ASIA
In this section I will not recount in detail the events in the course of Alexander’s
conquest of Sogdiana and his brief diplomatic entendres with the ruler(s) of
Chorasmia7 and the ‘Scythians on the Bosporus’ (the latter perhaps situated in the
Syr-Darya delta) between spring 329 and spring 328 BCE,8 nor will I detail the
(still not very numerous) archaeological complexes derictly associeted with Greek
rule in Sogdiana.9 Instead I would like to inquire into the question: what were the
immediate consequences of this conquest for the broader region of Central Asia
north of Bactria?
First of all, the downfall of the Achaemenid Empire brought about a period of
prolonged upheaval and instability to the region. While nomadic raids were surely
nothing new in a region like Sogdiana, the two years of constant and extremely
bloody warfare between Alexander’s army and the Sogdian insurgents and their
nomadic allies were certainly of a very different quality. And the troubles continued
after Alexander had left the region: the mercenary uprisings of 327 and 323 BCE
(Iliakis 2013), a revolt of natives in Bactria-Sogdiana at some point prior to 315 BCE
(Mendoza 2017, 50–51), and perhaps another one around the time of Seleukos’ I
conquest of the Upper Satrapies (Mendoza 2017). Pliny mentions the destruction of
cities by “barbarians” in Margiana and Areia (Nat. Hist. VI 47–48, 93), and archae-
ological evidence suggests the same for the small fortress of Kurganzol (Сверчков
2013). In fact, the military expeditions of Demodamas and Patrokles might well
have been countermeasures to fnally stabilize the northern frontier of the nascent
Hellenistic world (Wolski 1960, 113–115).
It seems that during these years nomadic ‘freebooters’ were an omnipresent fea-
ture on the sides of all war parties – “easy to convince to enter one war after the
other” by the prospect of booty (Arr. An. 4.17.5). On the one hand, this (and other
reasons) might have induced groups of nomads from the steppes to move south-
wards. Indeed, towards the end of the 4th century BCE a part of the pastoral popula-
tion in the southern Urals seem to leave for Central Asia (Скрипкин 1990, 192–193;
Olbrycht 2015, 271). As a result, some early kurgans in the Bukhara region display
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close cultural ties with nomadic groups in the southern Urals and the periphery of
Chorasmia, perhaps identical with the Daha known from our sources (Балахванцев
2012).
On the other hand, a considerable amount of luxuries, originating predominantly
from the eastern provinces of the former Achaemenid realm, must have fowed into
the Central Asian steppes. These events stand perhaps behind some of the objects,
imported from the former Achaemenid Empire, but found in rich funeral assemblages
postdating the Achaemenid period, such as the latest Kurgans in Pazyryk in the Altai
or Kurgan 1 at Prorokhovka (Rudenko 1970; Treister and Yablonsky 2013 I, 18,
252–258). We can only speculate about the role these prestige goods might have
played in initiating social changes and processes of polity formation across Central
Eurasia.10
The funeral assemblages from Pazyryk are important for hinting at yet another
dynamic that started at around 300 BCE and had far-reaching implications across
Central Asia: fnds of objects such as Chinese silk fragments or Chinese lacquer ware
indicate the growing role of prestige goods from the northern Chinese plains for pur-
poses of elite representation in the wider region.11 Perhaps, the reason why nomadic
groups in Central Asia were brought into closer contact with Chinese polities during
the late Warring States period (c. 300–221 BCE) might be sought in the growing need
for horses in China after the military reforms in the State of Zhao 趙 in 307 BCE,
creating cavalry units on a large scale and possibly resulting in a fourishing horse
trade with nomads in the north (Stark 2012, 127).
THE INDEPENDENCE OF SOGDIANA
While Chorasmia and the regions at the upper and lower Syr-Darya had always
remained outside the sway of the Seleukid imperial project, Sogdiana seems to have
been, at least temporarily, fully integrated into the Macedonian Empire of the East.12
The end of Graeco-Macedonian rule in Sogdiana appears less clear to us (Lyonnet
this volume).13 A feeting notice in Justin (Pompeius Trogus)14 mentions defensive
battles fought by Diodotos I or II against northern tribes (scythicae gentes) named
Sa(ca)raucae and Asiani – the name of the former obviously pointing to some Saka
groupings, the name of the later clearly based on the well-known ethnonym As/Az
(see the modern Ossets). As argued long ago by Czeglédy these As (Asiani) are prob-
ably largely identical with the Kangju 康居 mentioned in slightly later Chinese texts
(see below and Yang this volume).15 Most likely they originated from the neigh-
bouring Syr-Darya zone16 – a traditional starting point for nomadic ‘invaders’ into
Transoxiana.17 The defensive battles waged by the Diodotoi are perhaps also attested
in form of the frst construction phase of an impressive military border along the
passes of the mountains separating Bactria from Sogdiana (Dvurechenskaya 2019;
Stančo this volume).18
According to the same laconic passage in Justin these Scythicae gentes Sa(ca)rau-
cae et Asiani fnally succeeded to take possession of Sogdiana, although it is not
clear from the text when this happened. However, numismatic data seem to shed
light on this question: of crucial importance in this context is not only the dating of
the beginning of silver imitation coinages in Sogdiana, but also the effective lack of
Greek copper coins in Sogdiana after Diodotos I/II, leading Naymark to suggest that
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Macedonian-Greek rule over Sogdiana came to an end during or right after the events
that brought Euthydemos I to power in Bactria (Naymark 2014, 2; Naymark forth-
coming). Presumably, this happened around 230 BCE (Coloru 2009, 176).
We know nothing more about these political changes north of Bactria than the bare
fact that at around roughly the same time anonymous political authorities in three
different regions of Sogdiana started to issue their own coinages, imitating various
older Macedonian and Greek coin series: Antiochos coins with Boukephalos on the
reverse in the Samarqand area, Alexander drachms in Kesh, and early Euthydemos
tetradrachms with sitting Herakles on the reverse in the Bukhara area (Naymark
forthcoming a). As these coinages are all anonymous, they tell us nothing about the
origin and the character of these new coin-issuing authorities. However, it seems likely
that they were founded by the As and Saka groups mentioned by Justin (Pompeius
Trogus). Archaeologically these nomads are attested within kurgan cemeteries along
the middle and the lower Zerafshan, at the eastern fringes of the Zerafshan delta,
and in the inner Kyzylkum. For example, a recently investigated monumental kurgan
with 47 satellite tumuli near Kiziltepa at the northeastern fringes of the Zerafshan
delta seems to belong to those nomads who took power in Bukhara around 230 BCE
(Wang 2020).19
What is clear is that these new regimes in Sogdiana posed a military threat to the
Greeks in Bactria: perhaps Euthydemos I’s message to Antiochos III (during the lat-
ter’s siege of Bactra in 208–206 BCE) mentioning the danger of “no small multitude
of nomads being close by”20 refers to them. That this statement is not simply an
invention of the Seleukid court or Polybios is apparent from the reinforcement of
older (Dvurechenskaya 2019), and the establishment of new (Рапен, Исамиддинов, and
Хасанов 2014, 98), fortifcations at the border between along Bactria and Sogdiana,21
starting in the reign of Euthydemos I.
However, this does not mean that there were no contacts across this border.
Nomads from the north seem to have served as mercenaries in the Greek army
(Clarysse and Thompson 2007), and Greek silver coins continued to fow to the
north, as indicated by fnds like the Takhmach-tepa hoard in the Bukhara region,
the deposition of which dates to around 180 BCE (Naymark in Stark et al. 2019).
Even specimens of Greek-style pottery from Bactria found their way north into the
Bukhara region (Stark 2016a; Lyonnet this volume).22
Isolated elements of Hellenistic innovations can be found still further to the north
in Chorasmia (Minardi 2018). There, the monumental enclosures of Kalaly-gyr I in
‘left-bank’ Chorasmia and Akchakhan-kala in ‘right-bank’ Chorasmia seem to have
coexisted at least during the second century BCE (Minardi 2015, 97–103; Betts et al.
2009).23 However, apart from a couple of ruler names presumably dating to this
period,24 we still know very little about the dynastic history of Chorasmia during the
early Hellenistic period, as this region remained practically outside of the purview of
contemporary classical authors and did not start to issue its own coinage before the
last third of the 2nd century BCE (and frst only imitation coins of Eukratides I). Also
in the Syr-Darya delta we fnd isolated imports from the Greek south.25
Even as far north as the northern Caspian steppes, the southern Urals and western
Siberia we fnd prestige goods that likely originated from workshops in Bactria or the
Arsakid domains – such as a pair of magnifcent Hellenistic iron cuirasses found in
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Early Sarmatian elite burials of Prokhorovka-1 and Berianka-526 and a whole series
of Hellenistic phalerae found in elite burials between the lower Volga and the middle
Irtysh (Treister 2018).
THE FORMATION OF THE XIONGNU STEPPE EMPIRE
AND ITS CONSEQUENCES ACROSS CENTRAL ASIA
Paleoclimatic and archaeological materials show signs of crisis for many Scythoid
cultures in Eastern Eurasia during the 3rd century BCE (Шульга 2016). Finally, in
the last decades of this century, socio-political processes took place in the Mongolian
steppes that had fundamental repercussions for the further course of history in Central
Asia and far beyond: the formation of the frst ‘steppe empire’ centred around a
group of tribes referred to by Chinese court historians as Xiongnu 匈奴 (Nickel and
Yang this volume).
While the precise character of the Xiongnu polity is still debated, it is clear that
it represents a polity of truly imperial sway – extending far beyond its original ter-
ritorial or ethnic confnes and embracing a variety of regions and peoples (Di Cosmo
2011). It is also clear that the formation of this polity had its origin in a severe politi-
cal crisis, aggravated – if not triggered – by aggressive and expansionistic policies of
the newly founded Qin 秦 Dynasty towards their northern neighbours in the steppes,
leading to the replacement of traditional aristocratic regimes by the new imperial
elites of the Xiongnu, constituted by their royal lineage (Luandi 攣鞮 ) and a few
allied in-law lineages (Di Cosmo 2002). Chinese historiographical narratives describe
this process as the rapid political rise of a certain Modu 冒頓 , son of a Xiongnu chief,
to supreme imperial power over “all the people who draw the bow”.27 His career was
that of a ‘charismatic leader’ – the earliest documented case in a long list of nomadic
empire builders with very similar careers.
By the frst half of the 2nd century BCE the imperial sway of the Xiongnu
reached from the Ordos to Lake Baikal and from Manchuria into the Syr-Darya
region, with its centre in the Mongolian steppe lands (Brosseder 2016). They col-
lected tributes from the various states of the Tarim basin – at least for some time
this happened through a specifcally appointed offcial called “Commander-in-
chief of the tributary slaves” (tongpu duwei僮僕都尉 ), who resided in and around
Yanqi (Qarashahr).28
As a result, inter-regional elite communication within and beyond Inner Asia
intensifed signifcantly. This intensifcation of networks of inter-regional exchanges
brought about a number of unifying cultural expressions of ‘salient affliation’ – such
as certain new mortuary practices, a broad adherence of certain elements of costume
decoration (e.g. specifc belt ornamentations), and a uniform style of weaponry (e.g.
the compound bow with bone strengtheners) across large areas of the eastern steppes
and beyond (Miller and Brosseder 2017). All this led to the formation of new far-
reaching elite networks, that formed the basis of an emerging prestige good economy
(Brosseder 2015).
The rise of the Xiongnu polity had political and demographic repercussions far
beyond the territories directly or indirectly ruled by the Xiongnu. In particular, it set
in motion a chain of political upheavals and population displacements, depicted in
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Chinese court historiography as full-fung migrations. Most notably we are told that
in 176 BCE a powerful nomadic group, called Yuezhi 月氏 in Chinese sources and
(slightly later) ‘Tocharoi’ in Greek (Falk 2015, 48–51), then most likely located in
the rich Barköl steppes north of Hami, suffered a disastrous defeat at the hands of the
Xiongnu and their allies, with the Yuezhi ruler losing his life (and his skull famously
being made into a drinking cup).29 As a result, supposedly the majority of them – but
probably only the majority of their elite households (from now on called the ‘Great
Yuezhi’ – Da Yuezhi 大月氏 ) left their seats and moved into the Ili and Chu valleys
north of the Tianshan, in turn driving nomadic elites previously dominating this
area – called Sai 塞 (Saka) by the Chinese – southwestwards (Lin 2013, 91–92; Falk
2015, 44–46).
AGE OF MIGRATIONS? NEW NETWORKS AND NEW
SOURCES ON THE POST-HELLENISTIC PERIOD
Regardless of how one reconstructs the course of these events in detail, and whether
one takes the Chinese narrative of full-scale migrations at face value or understands
it as a refection of much more complicated political and ethno-genetic processes (but
doubtlessly including the displacement of nomadic elites and dependent households),
it is clear from our sources, that one ultimate cause of these processes was the polity
formation and the subsequent dramatic territorial expansion of the Xiongnu in and
beyond the eastern Eurasian steppes. However, another important factor might well
have been the chaos into which Greek rule in Bactria was thrown after the murder of
Eukratides I at some point around 145 BCE (and not the other way round, as is usu-
ally assumed).30 It is not at all excluded that competing war fractions inside Bactria
deliberately called in tribal contingents and personal warbands from their northern
neighbours for support. Such a scenario is not only amply attested for later periods,31
but explicitly mentioned also for the roughly contemporary case of the Arsakids
calling in Saka contingents against their Seleukid rivals in the early 120s BCE (see
below).32 So perhaps the arrival of new nomadic groups in Bactria and the establish-
ment of political regimes by elites of nomadic origin, even if originally triggered by
the expansion of the Xiongnu and subsequent political changes in the eastern steppes
(occupation of the Ili valley by the Wusun 烏孫),33 was not the result of ‘nomadic
invasions’ but of complex processes that took place much more gradually than is
usually assumed.34
All we know is that some twenty years after the violent death of Eukratides I, in
127 BCE, when Zhang Qian 張騫 arrived in the region, he encountered a relatively
powerful group of nomads claiming Yuezhi descent,35 who had taken control of the
valleys of northern tributaries of the Oxus river36 and exerted some sort of suze-
rainty over the formerly Greek dominions south of the Oxus. We are told that they
(or perhaps only their leaders?) had left the steppes north of the Tianshan owing to
pressure from the Wusun. But these Yuezhi were not the only nomad force around
in the region. At around the same time, probably in spring 126 BCE, the Arsakid
ruler Phraates II perished while fghting against ‘Saka’ marauders at the northeastern
borders of his kingdom – originally hired for his war against Antiochos VII Sidetes
(Olbrycht 1998, 88; Assar 2004, 79–80).37 In late 122/early 121 BCE yet another
Arsakid ruler, Artabanos I, died fghting against nomads in the northeast – this time
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the Tochari – presumably the same Yuezhi which Zhang Qian had met in north-
ern Bactria only some fve years earlier. But already two years later, in 119 BCE,
these Tochari/Yuezhi were defeated by the new Arsakid ruler Mithridates II – as we
know from an astronomical diary from Babylon (Assar 2006, 139; Olbrycht 2010,
150–151; Falk 2015, 61–62). This must have been a decisive defeat, and as a result
institutions of central government among the Yuezhi were probably considerably
weakened.38
From a historiographical point of view, one of the main results of the Chinese dip-
lomatic missions to the west is the beginning of information from Chinese language
sources on the ‘Western Regions’, offering important new insights into the various poli-
ties and political networks to the north of Bactria.39 In the following I will give a brief
overview over this information, restricting myself to the regions closest to Bactria in the
north: Sogdiana, Fergana, and the lower reaches of the Amu and Syr Darya.
One frst important take-away from these Chinese sources is that the Xiongnu
enjoyed special political prestige in all these regions: peoples or confederacies like the
Kangju (on whom see below) offcially recognized Xiongnu suzerainty and Xiongnu
emissaries went on what might have been more or less regular inspection tours.40
Even the rulers of relatively remote regions (from a Xiongnu perspective) – such
as the ‘lesser king’ of Yujian – probably the micro-region of Kharqana-Karmina in
Sogdiana41 –seem to have paid some sort of vassalage to the Xiongnu.42 This political
prestige of the Xiongnu imperial elites must have been still felt in the middle of the
1st century BCE as it enabled a certain Zhizhi (previously an unsuccessful pretender
to the Xiongnu throne in Mongolia) to establish his own polity at the expense of the
Kangju and Wusun in the Chu/Talas area and to exact tributes from Fergana and the
lower Syr-Darya area in the years between c. 40 and 35 BCE.43 This attempt only
failed because of decisive military intervention by the Han.
Northwest of Bactria we fnd the state of Kangju, described by Zhang Qian as a
“mobile state” (xing guo 行國 ) – apparently a reference to a nomadic ruling elite.44
As argued above, most likely these Kangju are to be identifed with the Asiani in our
Greek and Latin sources. They were centred in the middle Syr-Darya region – their
winter capital was probably located at the extensive site of Kanka some 60 kilometres
southwest of present-day Tashkent,45 while their core area might have extended east-
wards into the Talas-Chu area. In the entire region we fnd extensive nomadic cem-
eteries dating to this period.46 Traditionally the Kangju polity acknowledged some
sort of sovereignty exerted by the Xiongnu (Shuji 123, 3161; Hanshu 96A, 3892)47
– clearly a refection of the imperial sway the Xiongnu held over much of Central
Eurasia since the time of Modu.48
The Kangju polity must have been a loose confederation rather than a strictly cen-
tralized polity: from the Hanshu report we learn that there were fve “lesser kings”
(Hanshu 96A, 3894: 小王 ), likely ruling over the oasis states of Sogdiana.49 In addi-
tion we hear of a vice king and numerous “noblemen”50 – all of them acting in their
own interest. Data from the Xuanquan documents51 confrm this impression: one of
them (II 90DXT0216(2): 877–883), dating to the year 43 BCE, clearly shows that
envoys of the kings of Kangju and Suxie (Samarkand), as well as individual noblemen
submitted tribute/trade commodities – in this case camels – together. Apparently, the
Kangju ruler allowed his vassals as well as important tribal leaders to participate in
proftable diplomatic missions to the Western Han court.52
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Largely beyond the purview of Western Han period reports remained the impor-
tant region of Chorasmia at the lower Amu-Darya – although it sent an embassy
to the Han court as early as 110 BCE (see above, n. 23). As a result, during the
Western Han period information about this region from Chinese sources remains
extremely scarce (Ying 2002, 342–344). Apart from the above-mentioned embassy,
the only other supposed mentions of the region is the often-repeated identifcation of
Chorasmia with a kingdom called Yujian (see for example Hulsewé and Loewe 1979,
131), mentioned in the Hanshu as one of the fve small vassal states under the suze-
rainty of Kangju (see above, n. 50). However, this identifcation is highly unlikely.53
Consequently, all we know about the dynastic, economic, and cultural history of
Chorasmia during this period we know from coins (Вайнберг 1977), some inscrip-
tions on silver vessels (see above), and decades of systematic archaeological investi-
gation across the region – started by the famous ‘Khorezm Expedition’ under S. P.
Tolstov, and continuing with important new fndings concerning the royal ideology
and early Zoroastrian iconography at the royal site of Akchakhan-kala in right-bank
Khorezm.54
By comparison a much more prominent place in the Han period reports about the
regions west of the main Tianshan ranges holds the country Dayuan 大宛 – the medi-
eval and present-day region of Fergana along the southern and northern tributaries
of the upper Syr-Darya (Shiji 123, 3160; Hanshu 96a, 3894–3896). Traditionally the
region formed a kind of link between the regions in the Turanian plain and those in
the Tarim basin.55
It is described as a densely populated country with a total of 70 fortifed set-
tlements. Three of them are mentioned by name: Ershi 贰师 (or simply “[Da]yuan
city”), Guishan 貴山 and Yucheng 郁成 .56 Perhaps the mentioning of two capitals
indicates – like among the neighbouring Kangju federation – the existence of a sum-
mer and a winter capital.57 Apparently the country was ruled by a royal dynasty,58
but an important role was also played by ‘nobles,’ including rulers over one of the c.
70 fortifed settlements.59
Dayuan is described in Chinese sources as rich in agricultural produce – nota-
bly its highly developed viticulture drew the attention of the Han court.60 But the
country of Dayuan was especially famous for its blood-sweating ‘heavenly horses
(han-xuema 汗血馬 , tianma 天馬 ), raised in the subalpine pastures of the Tianshan
and Alai mountains. They must have been the same tall and strong breed that was
later, in medieval times, known as Khuttalī61 or Ṭukhārī horse. Fit for carrying armour
and heavily armoured riders, this breed was famed both at the Caliphal and the Tang
courts.62 To procure these ‘heavenly horses’ Han Wudi 漢武帝 launched between
104 and 101 BCE two major military expeditions into Fergana – the cost of which
“drew all under heaven into turmoil”63 – all in return for a yearly tribute of just two
horses (albeit surely of the highest quality), as well as the one-time delivery of 20–30
horses of the highest and some 3,000 horses of lesser quality.64 But upon closer inspec-
tion these costs appear justifed: on the one hand, access to this particular breed was
indispensable in order to improve the performance of units of heavily armoured cavalry
– the use of which became increasingly widespread in warfare tactics during this period
(Ольбрихт 2010, 77–82). On the other hand, this breed of horse was – throughout the
centuries – something of the quintessential princely gift,65 and therefore certainly of
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great value to the Han in the pursuit of their diplomatic strategies – as well as a formi-
dable symbol of the Han Emperors’ hegemonic aspirations.66
Finally, to the northwest of Kangju and near a large lake Chinese sources briefy
mention a country they call Yancai 奄蔡 (Shiji 123, 3161; Hanshu 96a, 3893) or Hesu
闔蘇 67 – most likely the lower Syr-Darya region near Lake Aral. However, almost
everything we know about this area during the second half of the 1st millennium BCE
comes from archaeological sources. They show that between the 5th and the 2nd
centuries BCE the Chirik Rabat culture fourished along the Jana Darya and Inkar
Darya branches of the Syr-Darya delta, where pastoralist groups from the Central
Eurasian steppes mixed with communities of settled agro-pastoralists descending from
regional ‘Steppe Bronze’ cultural traditions (Вайнберг и Левина 1992; Bonora 2019).
This is perhaps one of the reasons for a surprising heterogeneity and diversity of socio-
cultural features fused into the Chirik Rabat culture – most notably an astounding
variety of different funerary traditions (monumental round and square mausolea, bar-
rows, and pit graves). We know of a handful of large and strongly fortifed sites – such
as the eponymous site of Chirik Rabat – probably functioning as centres for elite
activities, ceremonial centres, and refugia (but not as urban-type settlements), while
the population mostly settled in small unfortifed and dispersed villages, individual
farmsteads, and specialized production areas next to irrigation canals and agricultural
felds, with a signifcant proportion of the total population perhaps being semi-mobile
(Болелов и Утубаев 2017; Bonora 2019). It has been argued that the carriers of the
Chirik Rabat culture were (a part of) those Daha tribes mentioned in an inscription of
Xerxes in Persepolis (XPh) (Вайнберг 1999, 260–264; critical: Olbrycht 1996, 156).
Although today seemingly isolated, the region used to be well-connected during antiq-
uity: On the one hand it was tightly linked with (right-bank) Chorasmia – through the
once well-watered riverbeds of the Jana and the Akcha-Darya (Толстов 1962, fg. 72).
On the other hand, the region was a stepping-stone into the Dashti-Qipchak (central
Kazakhstan) as well as to the southern Urals. Tellingly, Chirik-Rabat ceramics – many
of them used as packing materials – have been found in Early Sarmatian burials in the
southern Urals (Bolelov 2013, 247).68
Substantial socio-cultural changes took place in the region during the late 3rd and
the early 2nd century BCE leading to the end of the Chirik Rabat culture and the
abandonment of its sites. This is often credited to changes in the water regime of the
delta (e.g. the drying up of the mid and low course of the Inkar and Jana-Darya),
but there are also signs of political crisis in the region around 200 BCE that might
have brought about the collapse of the artifcial irrigation system (Bonora 2019,
400). During the 2nd century BCE the epicentre of settlement in the lower Syr-Darya
shifted to the Kuvan-Darya region further north, where subsequently the Jeti-Asar
cultural complex fourished. Early Jeti-Asar (Jeti-Azar Ib-c, dated by Levina between
the 2nd century BCE and the 3rd century CE) continued to show many older Chirik
Rabat features (such as ceramic traditions, building and irrigation techniques, com-
plex agro-pastoral economic strategies, complemented by fshing and hunting), but
also displayed important cultural innovations – notably the emergence of the frst
true cities in the region.
By the late 2nd and 1st centuries BCE the Chirik Rabat culture was already defunct,
so it is logical to assume that among the Yancai mentioned in Shiji 123 and Hanshu
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96a are included the carriers of the Early Jety-Asar culture. Still, we know nothing
with certainty about the political organization of these communities. Nowhere in
the Shiji and the Hanshu do we hear of a ‘king’ or supreme ruler of Yancai/Hesu.
Perhaps the seat of its sovereign – if there was one – was in fact situated beyond Lake
Aral, outside the horizon of the Early Han.69 Towards this points the fact that Yancai
apparently played some role in the early ethnogenesis of the Alans (Alemany 2000,
401–402).
‘HELLENISM’ AS AN ELEMENT IN THE CENTRAL EURASIAN
PRESTIGE ECONOMY AT THE TURN OF THE MILLENNIUM
At the turn of the millennium we see a prestige economy of pan-Eurasian dimensions
in place – stretching from Han China to the Caucasus and the northern Black Sea
cost (Brosseder 2015; Miller and Brosseder 2017; Brosseder and Miller 2018). This
notably included Bactria and the regions immediately north of it.
The dynamics of this exchange network are extremely complex and the fatten-
ing East–West perspective of the ‘Silk Roads’ paradigm, glossing over many of the
local agents and nodes between the big agrarian states, does not help us to under-
stand them better. Here is not the place to systematically discuss these complexities;
instead, I will only touch upon the question of how the ‘Hellenistic’ heritage contin-
ued to shape elite representation in southern Central Asia after the end of Greek rule
in Bactria.
But before I do so, it is important to point out with Brosseder and Millar that
“what blossomed in Eurasia at the turn of the millennium were organic networks,
not structured systems, of interregional exchange and interaction … characterized by
a multiplicity of socioeconomic and political hubs” through which goods, styles, and
technologies were disseminated. This created at the elite level a “matrix of distinct
local cultures that [were] interconnected through their differential engagements with
components of a ‘global’ vocabulary of culture.” These components, regularly drawn
from far-distant cultures, were selected and used by regional elites to express power
and prestige, resulting in “global projections of prestige” (Brosseder and Miller 2018,
164–166).
The globalized nature of prestige assemblages of exotic goods, styles, and tech-
nologies in elite burials can be observed all across Central Eurasia (Brosseder 2011;
Brosseder 2015). The exotica from the lavishly furnished elite burials found at Kok-
tepa near Samarqand (Рапен et al. 2014) and Tillya-tepe near Shibergan (Sarianidi
1985), demonstrate that this is also true for Bactria and the regions north of it. In
both cases – as in other contemporary elite assemblages – it is mostly body and cos-
tume ornaments as well as feasting accoutrements that relate to these “global projec-
tions of prestige” (Brosseder and Miller 2018, 166).
‘Hellenism’ clearly was one of the components of this vocabulary. This is espe-
cially true for Bactria – be it in objects, motifs70 or style.71 The Yuezhi or early Kushan
princes even seem to have drunk wine à la grecque (Francfort 2014, 1560–1562),
underlining the connection between signalling prestige, conspicuous consumption,
and feasting. These choices were not ethnic markers – curiously, the individual who
wore most of the ‘Greek-style’ adornment among the six excavated elite individuals
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buried at Tillya-tepe, was likely a ‘foreigner’ from the steppes outside of Bactria
(Rubinson 2008). Instead, iconographies of Hellenistic origin were increasingly con-
nected with the social memory of Greek rule (Morris in this volume) – until, in late
antique Bactria/Tokharistan, they fnally seem to develop into a celebration of the
history of this particular region and its kings of old (Stark and Morris forthcoming).
It is therefore not surprising that this ‘Hellenism’ had a particularly strong pres-
ence in the self-representation of elites of nomadic origin in Bactria. However, we
can discern it also in Chorasmia (Minardi 2018) and Sogdiana – where a particu-
larly poignant reminder is provided by the iconographic borrowings from the famous
Alexander battle on one of the belt plaques from Orlat (Mode 2006). In Sogdiana
local dynasts of nomadic origin, such as a certain Ashtat in Nakhshab (Наймарк
forthcoming), a ruler named Zh- in Kesh (Naymark forthcoming b), and a certain
Hyrcodes (likely based in the Kharqana-Kermina area to the east of Bukhara72 – see
Наймарк forthcoming), started new coin series which not only returned to a highly
naturalistic style of portraiture, but also (in the case of the Hyrcodes and the ruler of
Kesh) to actually legible Greek legends (Veksina 2012; Naymark 2016). Apparently,
even to the north of Bactria local dynasts associated Hellenistic references in both
image and writing with princely status and legitimate rule.
As indicated above, this ‘Hellenism’ continued to shape elite culture in southern
Central Asia also during the following centuries (Stark and Morris forthcoming).
However, starting around the middle the 1st century we observe a series of profound
political changes in the wider region, such as the formation of the Kushan empire
under Kujula Kadphises since ca. 30 CE (Cribb 2018), and the initiation of a new era
in Chorasmia around the middle of the 1st century or slightly earlier (Lurje 2018)
– perhaps by a new dynasty allied with the Arsakid great-kings (Olbrycht 2013,
79–80). Finally, towards the end of the 1st or the beginning of the 2nd century CE
we observe a massive demographic decline in the Zerafshan valley, leaving Nakhshab
the only viable urban centre in the region of Sogdiana (Naymark 2016, 63; Stark
et al. 2019, 248–49; Lyonnet 2020, 14). All this resulted in new political networks
across the regions to the north of Bactria – which are, however, already beyond the
scope of this chapter.
NOTES
1 This mountain range seems to have constituted the border between the two regions only
since the Seleukid or the early Graeco-Bactrian period.
2 The numerically most important corpus of inscriptions (mostly ostraka and inscriptions on
ceramic and metal vessels) dating between the 3rd century BCE and the 1st/2nd century CE
comes from Chorasmia (Лившиц 2009, 108).
3 For a comprehensive recent discussion of these events see Rapin 2018.
4 But there are exceptions, mostly in the biography chapters – e.g. the description of the Han
campaign against the Xiongnu chanyu Zhizhi 郅支 in 36 BCE in the biography of Chen
Tang 陳湯 (Hanshu 70) – note Duyvendak’s suggestion that the unusually detailed descrip-
tion of the fnal battle might have been based on a historical painting; Duyvendak 1939.
5 For evidence for this in Scytho-Sarmatian society see Ivantchik 2005, 183–189, 223. On
the connection of youth and retinue see also the important observations by Bremmer
(Bremmer 1982 with older literature).
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6 M. Treister recently suggested that the woman interred in grave 4 of kurgan 4/2006 at
Filippovka (southern Urals) was an Achaemenid princess (Treister and Yablonsky 2013,
315).
7 On this see the recent analysis by Ртвеладзе 2016.
8 See in detail Holt 1988 and more recently Rapin 2018.
9 On this see the chapter of Lyonnet below in this volume.
10 See Paul 2003 on this aspect for the post-Mongol period. For the early Hellenistic period
such social changes can be observed in the southern Urals: Treister and Yablonsky 2013,
321.
11 Note however the possible use of silver originating from a source in China or Mongolia on
Achaemenid-style throne legs found in and near the ‘royal kurgan’ (No. 1) at Filippovka,
dating prior to the last quarter of the 4th century (Куринских et al. 2013, 196).
12 See in detail the previous chapter by Strootman in this volume.
13 For older views see, for example, Bopearachchi 1991; Rapin and Isamiddinov 1994, 557–
559; Lyonnet 1998; Rapin 2007, 26–47; Lerner 2010, 72.
14 Justin, Prologue 41 (ed. Arnaud-Lindet 2003).
15 Czeglédy 1983, 45–53. According to Czeglédy the Chinese term Kangju 康居 stems from
the name of a territory or region (namely the Syr-Darya zone – see below), while As(iani)
refers to a group of people. On this still enigmatic polity see also the important discussions
in Кляшторный 1964, 155–179; Вайнберг 1999, 266–289.
16 On archaeological data for this see Заднепровский 1994; and Алимов and Богомолов 2000.
As suggested already by Markwart, the form Kangju 康居 (Late Han khɑŋ kɨɔ < kɨa, MC
khâŋ kjwo – see Schuessler 2009) might refect the name of a certain region called Kaŋha- in
Yt. 5.54,Yt. 5.57, and Yt. 19.4, f (Markwart 1938, 188) – most likely the middle and lower
Syr-Darya regions (Пьянков 2013, 318). Ptolemy seems to know its inhabitants as Καχάγαι
Σκύθαι (Ptolem. 6.14.1). According to a curious notice in Ibn Khurdādhbih, in the 9th cen-
tury CE the local name for the middle Syr-Darya was still kankar (Ibn Khurdādhbih 178
– perhaps to be amended to kankaz < *kang-as?). Still today a tributary of the Ahangaran
river is called Kamchyk – i.e. ‘little Kang’ (Максудов и Хатамова 2016, 47).
17 See the example of the well-documented invasion of Qazāq tribesmen into Mā warāʾ al-
nahr in 1723 (Чехович 1954).
18 On this border see also below and the contributions by Stančo and Lyonnet in this volume.
Note however, that Dvurechenskaya dates the earliest phase of the Uzundara fortress not
later than Antiochos I. Stančo considers a dating to the time of the Diodotoi.
19 The burial chamber below the main tumulus was thoroughly plundered and yielded no
diagnostic fnds. However, under one of the excavated satellite tumuli a ‘podboi’ burial of
a young male with arrow and belt (a retainer of the deceased below the main kurgan?) on a
reed mat was found; a C14 date from the reed mat strongly suggests a dating to the second
half of the 3rd century BCE – i.e. around the time of the beginning of the Euthydemos I
imitations in the Bukhara region.
20 Polyb. 11.34.5.
21 See also above.
22 Recently, B. Lyonnet connected fnds of grey ware and stamped decoration that strongly
resemble the Bactrian ceramic assemblage of the time of Eukratides I at Afrasiab with
Greek colonists escaping the supposed ‘‘nomadic onslaught’’ (Lyonnet 2018, 434). This is
problematic (see below). Instead one wonders if we are dealing here with the well-known
phenomenon of deported craftsmen.
23 Recently E. Rtveladze argued that there might have been a political division between
‘right-bank’ and ‘left-bank’ Chorasmia already during the time of Alexander (Ртвеладзе
2016). Is it possible that the two countries Huanqian 驩潛 (clearly a transcription for
Khwarezm: Pelliot 1938, 147–148) and Dayi 大益 (probably a transcription for Daha:
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Yü 2013, 19), mentioned side by side in Shiji 123, 3173 as having sent envoys to the
Han court in 110 BCE, denote ‘right-bank’ and ‘left-bank’ Chorasmia respectively? On
the connection between (especially ‘left-bank’) Chorasmia and the Daha see Лившиц и
Мамбетуллаев 1986, 40 and Балахванцев 2012. On the environmental and cultural-histor-
ical differences between ‘left-bank’ and ‘right-bank’ Chorasmia see Ягодин 2013, 17 (‘left-
bank’ Chorasmia appears more closely connected with the nomadic world of the Ustyurt
plateau, the Iranian plateau and Transcaucasia; ‘right-bank’ Chorasmia appears somewhat
more closely connected with Sogdiana and Bactria. On the nomadic culture in the Ustyurt
plateau see Ягодин 1978; Olkhovskiy 2000; Blau and Yagodin 2005; Мамбетуллаев 2008;
on the connections with Chorasmia see Yagodin 2010, 53–58.
24 The Isakova 1 inscription (in early Chorasmian) mentions a certain “King Amuržam, son
of the King Warδān”. Inscription 2 (also in early Chorasmian), mentions a certain “sover-
eign Wardak” – see Livshits 2003. While the “kings” (MLK’) of Isakova-1 are likely to be
the supreme rulers of Chorasmia, this is less clear for the “sovereign” (MRY’) mentioned in
Isakova-2.
25 See for example an alabastron found at Chirik-Rabad with the inscription Α | ΚΑΣΙ – likely
referring to “one (mine) of cinnamon” (Иванчик и Лурье 2013, 291–292).
26 There is no consensus about the precise origin of these cuirasses and the reason for them
ending up in the steppes of the southern Urals – see Симоненко 2010, 129–131; Дедюлькин,
Каюмов, и Мещеряков 2019.
27 Quotation from a letter, sent by Modu to the Han Emperor Wendi (179–157 BCE), pre-
served in Shiji 110, 2896, and other texts (translation by Di Cosmo 2002, 196).
28 Hanshu 96a, 3872. This offce seems to anticipate aspects of the later offces of a Tudun
under the Türks and a Darughachi under the Mongols.
29 I am following here the scenario as reconstructed by Lin 2013. For the traditional view
which places the Yuezhi originally in the present-day Gansu province and suggests at least
two major defeats of the Yuezhi by the Xiongnu see Falk 2015, 37–53.
30 We know very little with certainty about the actual circumstances under which Greek rule
over Bactria came to a close. The popular assumption is that the migration of Saka tribes
into Bactria was one of the reasons for the end of Greek rule north of the Hindukush.
However, it needs to be stressed that archaeological data from Ai Khanoum hint at inter-
nal strife as well as a post-Greek occupation phase (see in detail and most recently Mairs
2013 and Martinez-Sève 2018). A major disruption of urban life is suggested by the aban-
donment of copper coinage after the death of Eukratides I (Cribb 2005, 212). But there
were also many continuities – see Francfort 2014.
31 See, for example, the lord of Khuttalān calling in the Türgesh-Türks against the Arabs in
738 CE – Stark 2016b.
32 Justin 42.1.2: Scythae in auxilium Parthorum adversus Antiochum, Syriae regem, mercede
sollicitati.
33 One should note here that the often-repeated precise date of 130 BCE for this ‘event’ is the
result of a very elaborate argumentation by Yü 1998, but not directly mentioned by any
source.
34 See in detail and fully taking into account the archaeological evidence from burial grounds:
Stark forthcoming
35 It is true that Shuji 123, 3158 calls the Yuezhi chief in northern Bactria explicitly a “crown
prince” (taizi太子 ) of the former Yuezhi ruler, slain by the Xiongnu some 50 years earlier.
However, perhaps this should not be understood literally (as all translators and commenta-
tors have done so far): Curiously, some eight years later, in 119 BCE, an astronomical diary
from Babylon also calls the leader of the Guti (clearly the Tochari/Yuezhi of Justin 42.2.2)
“crown prince” (DUMU.LUGAL – see Assar 2006, 139). In light of this remarkable paral-
lel one wonders if the “crown prince” in both the Chinese and the Akkadian text is but a
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calque for the title of the Yuezhi ruler in northern Bactria – perhaps the much-discussed
title yabghu (although this title was also transcribed in Chinese as xihou (翖侯 ). As pointed
out by E. de la Vaissière, this title was originally used by the Wusun and Yuezhi, perhaps
as that of a high-ranking general, while its etymology remains essentially unknown (Sims-
Williams and de la Vaissière 2007). This would explain why the Yuezhi chief in Bactria
showed no interest in avenging his father’s death. Supposedly these Yuezhi were able to
feld some 100,000–200,000 archers (Shiji 123, 3161) – evidently a stark exaggeration on
the part of Zhang Qian or his informants (in order to further the interest of Wudi in the
establishment of diplomatic relationships?).
36 These valleys were also in later periods home to a number of ethnic groups of nomadic
origin (Кармышева 1976). Especially the upper reaches of the Vakhsh and the Surkhan-
Darya (the medieval regions of Khuttalān and Chaghāniyān) were famous for their
horses (see Bosworth 1963, 113 and below). On nomadic burial grounds in these areas
associated with nomadic groups dating to the centuries around the turn of our era see
(Мандельштам 1966; Мандельштам 1975; Горбунова 1994; Central Asia Archaeological
Team, Northwest University and Institute of Archaeology, Academy of Sciences of
Uzbekistan 2018)
37 These Saka fnally ended up establishing their own domains in the region of the Helmand
basin, which received its current name from them (Sīstān < Sakastan) – see Daffnà 1967;
Baratin 2005.
38 One undated tally from Xuanquan (II 90DXT0114(3): 273) mentions an “assistant envoy
from the king of the Da Yuezhi”大月氏王副使者 . This tally was found in layer 3 of unit
114 at site II in Xuanquan, together with 611 more tallies, 72 of them dating between the
reign of emperor Zhaodi (87–74 BCE) and the end of the site. Presently, it is impossible to
know if this is a Yuezhi or an early Kushan king – see Hao and Zhang 2009, 207.
39 See in detail Yu 2013. Most of the relevant information is preserved in the Shiji 123 (English
translation by Watson 1961) and Hanshu 96B (English translation by Hulsewé and Loewe
1979). For the relationship between the two chapters see Posch 1995.
40 Shiji 123, 3173: “When a Xiongnu 匈奴 envoy, carrying a token of credence from the
chanyu 單于 , were sent abroad, all the states on route would provide a relay service of
escorts and food, and did not dare to detain or harm the envoy.” (English translation by Yü
2013, 2).
41 On this identifcation see below, n. 53.
42 Hanshu 94a, 3790. See Di Cosmo 2013, 32–33.
43 It was clearly the charisma enjoyed by this Xiongnu prince which induced the Kangju king
to enter a marriage alliance with him: “The king of Kangju 康居 esteemed Zhizhi 郅支
very much and wanted to coerce the various states by relying on Zhizhi’s 郅支 authority”
(Hanshu 70, 3009). Contemporary interactions between Kangju and Xiongnu elites are
also indicated by several warrior burials found in the Arys valley along the Middle Syr-
Darya (one of the core areas of the Kangju federation), which display costume elements
(belt) and weaponry characteristic from the 2nd and 1st century BCE Xiongnu complexes
in Mongolia (Подушкин 2015).
44 This notion is reinforced by the reference to a summer residence (called Beitian 卑闐 ) and
a winter residence (called Leyuenidi 樂越匿 ) of the Kangju ruler (Hanshu 96A, 3891).
45 Буряков 2011, 20. The strongly fortifed core of the site – the ‘citadel’ and ‘shakhristan
1’ (6.5 hectares) – seem to have existed since the 3rd century BCE; ‘shakhristan 2’ (c.
45 hectares) is now also dated to this early period (Буряков 2011, 17–19). The outermost
fortifcation– the wall around ‘shakhristan 3’ enclosing a territory of c. 160 hectares and
housing ceramic and metallurgic workshops – seems to date to the 1st century CE (Буряков
2011, 20–21, 33). Note that some 700 years later the Western Türks also had their winter
capital in Chach. Perhaps the present-day name of the site is actually derived from that
94
























— C e n t r a l A s i a a n d t h e S t e p p e —
of ‘Kangju’ (Late Han khaŋ-kɨa after Schuessler 2009, 322, 332). Note also the location
of important iron, silver, and turquoise mines in the nearby Chatkal and Kurama ranges,
apparently exploited since the early centuries CE (if not before).
46 Poduškin 2013 ; Kavardan, Bujakov 1991
47 According to Zhang Qian’s report in Shuji 123, 3161 Kangju also owed allegiance to the
Yuezhi in the south, but this detail (lacking in the Hanshu report) might be the result of
information received at the Yuezhi residence and appears dubious.
48 But this did, apparently, not prevent the Kangju – together with other, unnamed peoples of
the ‘Western Regions’ – to send envoys and tribute missions to the Han court as early as
134 BCE (Yü 2013, 7), that is several years before the arrival of Zhang Qian in the region.
49 The seats of these fve “lesser kings” are called Suxie 蘇, Fumo 附墨 , Yuni 窳匿 , Ji 罽, and
Yujian 奧鞬 . The precise location of some these kingdoms remains debated. However, at
least Suxie is very likely to be identifed with the Samarkand region. On Yujian 奧鞬 see
below n. 53). See in detail Bi 2012.
50 Chin. guiren 貴人 – perhaps powerful tribal leaders within the Kangju confederation.
Hanshu 94b, 3801 seems to call them ‘yabghus’ (xihou翖侯 ). However, the use of this title
among Kangju elites is dubious and probably owed to Wusun informants to the Han court
(as this title was ubiquitous among the Wusun elites).
51 See in detail Bi 2012.A total of 16 documents within the Xuanquan corpus mention envoys
from Kangju; 11 of them are precisely dated, namely between 52 BCE and the last years of
Chengdi 成帝 (33–7 BCE).
52 That Kangju and its dependencies had a particularly strong interest in trading with the Han
is clear from a memorandum, sent by a protector-general to the court of Emperor Cheng
(23–7 BCE) (Hanshu 96a, 3893: “[Kangju] wants to trade. Being amicable is a rhetorical
pretense.” Samarkand had sent a tribute mission to the Han court as early as 110 BCE
(Shiji 123, 3173). The notice in Shiji 123, 3174 that the inhabitants of “the states from
Dayuan west to Anxi … are skillful at commerce and will haggle over a fraction of a cent”
does not name but certainly includes the cities of Sogdiana (La Vaissière 2005, 26–28).
53 This identifcation is solely based on the Xiyu zhuan of the Xin Tangshu, stating that the
country Huoxun 火尋 (Khwarezm) “is the old territory of the city of Yujian (and its) lesser
king (under) Kangju” (Xin Tangshu 221b, 6247). However, this equation is most probably
nothing more than a learned speculation by the Song period editors of the Xin Tangshu,
who wrote more than 1000 years after the end of the Western Han and were demonstrably
wrong with several similar equations of Han period localities in the same chapter. Against
this equation speaks not only that Chorasmia does not readily ft the description as a
‘small kingdom’ but also – and more importantly – the fact that the Western Han knew
Chorasmia already under the name Huanqian 驩潛 (Pelliot 1938). Indeed, the designa-
tion as a ‘small kingdom’ fts much better with one of the small Sogdian principalities in
the Zerafshan and the Kashka-Darya micro-regions. Consequently, I am following here
the identifcation suggested by Yü Taishan (e.g. Yü 2015, 126), who suggests to identify
the ‘small kingdom’ of Yujian with the principality of Kharqana-Karmina to the east of
Bukhara. Apparently, the center of this small principality was the present-day archaeo-
logical site of Kuzimon-tepa to the north of the Zerafshan, which was founded in the 3rd
century BCE and seems to have fourished (judging from the ceramic records of three lim-
ited test trenches) between around the 2nd/1st century BCE and the 3rd–4th centuries CE
(Адылов 1987, 88-91; Мирзаахмедов et al. 2016, 229–230). It is probably also the place,
where the Hyrcodes coin series were struck – see Наймарк forthcoming.
54 For Chorasmian coinages of the period see Вайнберг 1977. For general overviews of
archaeological sources see Khozhaniyazov 2005; Болелов и Ртвеладзе 2013; Minardi
2015. For recent fnds concerning royal ideology and early Zoroastrian at Akchankhan-
kala see Betts et al. 2015 and Sinisi et al. 2018.
95

























— S ö r e n S t a r k —
55 Dayuan’s connections with the world southeast of the Tianshan – up to the Chinese plains
– is nicely confrmed by the fact that the leaders of Dayuan knew of the riches of China,
and that Chinese goods were already available in abundance long before the arrival of
Zhang Qian.
56 The location of these cities remains disputed. Plausible candidates for the city of Ershi,
which was the seat of the ruler during the time of the Han expedition to Dayuan (see
below), are the major sites of Eski Akhsi (medieval Akhsiket) in the Namangan micro-
region, or Mingtepa near Markhamat in southeastern Fergana. The city of Guishan 貴山
– mentioned as the capital of Dayuan in Hanshu 96a, 3894 – is likely to be located at the
archaeological site of Kasan (Mugtepa) in northern Fergana, while the city of Yu must be
sought somewhere at the eastern borders of Fergana, i.e. one the area of Osh or Uzgand –
see in detail Заднепровский и Матбабаев 1991; Заднепровский 2000; Анарбаев 2010; Zhu
朱 et al. 2017).
57 Заднепровский 2000, 195 suggests Guishan (Mugtepa) to be a summer capital.
58 We hear of a certain Mugua/Wugua/Wugu (母寡 / 毋寡 / 毋鼓 , (Late Han mə-kua/mua-kua/
mua-ka), who was killed by his nobles during the siege of the capital by the Han army.
After a brief interregnum by a Han protégé he was followed by his brother Chanfeng 蟬封
(Shuji 123, 3179).
59 The latter are also called ‘king’ in Chinese sources – such as the ‘King of the city of Yu’
(郁成王 ) in eastern Fergana (Shiji 123, 3178).
60 Shiji 123, 3160, 3173; Hanshu 96a, 3895. The grapes from Dayuan were so highly prized
by the Han that their seeds were brought to be grown in the imperial summer palaces (Shiji
123, 3174).
61 After the region Khuttal south of the Alai range.
62 For Khuttalī horses at the Tang court see Schafer 1963, 64; their enormous value is nicely
illustrated by a story in al-Ṭabarī about the three sons of the deceased Caliph Abd a-Malik
quarrelling about the only Ṭukhārī horse in his stables (al-Ṭabarī II 1735). Hence this breed
was the subject of legends and considered of divine origin – see Беленицкий 1948.
63 Shiji 123, 3176: 天下騷動 . The expeditionary army during the second campaign numbered
60,000 soldiers and was supported by 100,000 cattle, 30,000 horses, and several 10,000
donkeys, camels, and mules.
64 Shiji 123, 3179; Hanshu 96a, 3895.
65 See for example the story related in Niẓāmī ʿArūżī’s Čahār maqāla of the prince of
Chaghāniyān rewarding the poet Farrukhī Sīstānī with Khuttalī colts (Browne 1921, 44).
66 Despite the dramatic losses (only some 10,000 of the original 60,000 soldiers returned
home) this was also an important display of the growing military power of Han, showing
that they were capable to intervene directly in regions beyond the Tianshan, which con-
siderably increased their political prestige in the ‘Western regions’ (Shiji 123, 3178–3179)
– at the expense of Xiongnu supremacy in the wider region. The fact that the Xiongnu
did not intervene is explained by internal political strife and natural disasters, plaguing
the Xiongnu between 105 and 101 BCE (Shuji 110, 2915). On the motifs for Han Wudi’s
expeditions to Dayuan see in detail Gao 2009.
67 This name appears only in Hanshu 70, 3009 mentioning that chanyu Zhizhi sent mes-
sengers to collect tributes there (see above). The connection with Yancai is due to a Tang
commentator (Yü 1998, 119).
68 It should also be noted that there are remarkable similarities (settlement and subsistence
patterns, architectural features, ceramic, and small fnd inventories) that link the Chirik
Rabat complex with the Bashtepa settlement cluster, just on the opposite (southern) end of
the Kyzylkum desert).
69 As suggested by Yü 1998, 119.
96







— C e n t r a l A s i a a n d t h e S t e p p e —
70 See for instance the dolphin earrings so popular among females of regional nomadic elites
in pre- and early Kushan period Bactria (Rubinson 2019).
71 See for example the exquisite belt plaque from Sakhsonokhur (see most recently Francfort
2014, 1553). Perhaps its original owner was somehow linked to the monumental kurgan
in the Adyr zone just above the present-day village?
72 Likely the ‘lesser kingdom’ of Yujian – see above n. 53.
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