The End of the Old Order : Arrival of Hellenism in Bactria and its Impact on the Local Settlement Structure
Abstract
At the end of 4th century B.C., the eastern outpost of Achaemenid Empire, Bactria, was annexed by Alexander the Great, and became part of the Hellenistic world. According to the written sources, efforts for gaining control over this region and its colonisation were encountered with solid resistance from both the native inhabitants and the Greco-Macedonian settlers.
Transitional period between the fall of the Achaemenid dynasty and the reign of Seleucus I (late 4th century B.C.) seems to be quite turbulent and restless. The aim of this paper is to trace imprints of this transition on the local settlement structure in the region of Bactria, and highlight selected phenomena related to arrival of new, predominantly Greek, elites based on current state of archaeological evidence.
The data employed in the paper come mainly from Soviet (post-soviet) and French extensive surface surveys and limited number of excavations, which took place mostly in the second half of 20th century within the borders of present-day regions and states (Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan). Results of these various projects - which had not been until now properly collected and compared in the extent of the whole Bactria (i.e. upper Amu Darya basin) - were processed in GIS framework, and newly examined using approaches of landscape archaeology.
Special attention is paid to role of both major sites and rural agglomeration within the inhabited area and the way how the landscape reacted to the armed conflict. Rare existing architectural remains are also considered for better understanding of the period in question.
Established discontinuity between late Achaemenid and Hellenistic period settlement in predominant part of Bactria is eminent, and its origin can be in all probability - correspondingly to Greek and Roman writers - identified with military campaigns and violent suppression of revolts of indigenous inhabitants, or Greco-Macedonian colonists. However, the regional differences between the quantity and hypothetical purpose of vanished and surviving settlement sites in eastern and western part of - in Achaemenid period almost equally inhabited - Bactria are striking.
The proposed paper thus focuses on comparison of western Bactria, where the settlement is almost completely abandoned, and only limited number of fortified sites remains in existence, and valleys of eastern Bactria, where rural agglomerations flourished to considerable extent despite the turbulences of late 4th century B.C.