In 1964, sensational news spread around the world: in northern Afghanistan, on the very border with Tajikistan, at the confluence of the Pyanja and Kokchi rivers, French archaeologists led by Professor of the University of Strasbourg Daniel Schlumberger discovered … an ancient Greek city!
What was this strange find?
D. Schlumberger's discovery takes us back to the 20s of the 4th century BC. e., when the army of Alexander the Great, set off to conquer India, captured the vast areas of Persia, Afghanistan and Central Asia. According to ancient authors, the Greeks founded a number of large cities here. After the death of the great commander, these areas became part of the Seleucid state, which was created by Seleucus I, one of the associates of Alexander the Great. This state occupied a huge territory - from Asia Minor to Afghanistan. Having existed for about one hundred and fifty years, it began to disintegrate into small kingdoms and principalities, which subsequently fell one after another under the blows of the nomads.
Disputes about the fate of the Greeks who came to Central Asia under Alexander the Great and his successors have been going on in the scientific world for a long time. However, all the arguments in these disputes were based on rather meager reports of ancient authors and purely speculative reasoning. Based mainly on the latter, most scholars believed that the handful of Greeks who came as conquerors to a country with long-standing cultural traditions and a large population were not able to leave behind any significant legacy. After the death of Alexander the Great, some of the conquerors probably simply left the conquered areas, and the Greek and Macedonian colonists who settled here, due to their small number, quickly disappeared among the local population.
Objections were also expressed against this very widespread point of view: what about material finds, with traces of Greco-Macedonian culture in local art? Indeed, in Afghanistan, and even in North India, you can find traces of cultural influence that clearly came from Greece, and this testifies to the fact of the long existence of Greek settlements in the depths of Asia and to the rather close contacts of the Greeks with the local population.
Be that as it may, the problem of "Greeks in the East" for a long time remained the most difficult of all problems in ancient history. However, at the disposal of scientists there was a certain "key" with the help of which, if there was a corresponding "lock", it would be possible to answer some of the riddles of the "Greeks in the East". We are talking about the coins of the Greco-Bactrian kings. These magnificent works of antique medal art came to Europe in the 18th century and became the first material evidence of the former existence of Hellenistic art in the depths of Aza. By the middle of the 20th century, scientists had accumulated quite a lot of such coins at their disposal. But so far they have not so much clarified as confused the historical picture. The names of the Greco-Bactrian kings were known from the inscriptions on the coins, but it was impossible to understand which of them reigned when and where. Meanwhile, it was in the history of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom that the solution to the problem was hidden.
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An extremely peculiar state formation, the Greco-Bactrian kingdom, arose on the ruins of the Seleucid state. Antiochus, son and heir of Seleucus, in 292 BC e. was appointed co-ruler of his father and governor of the eastern provinces (satrapies). Antiochus chose the city of Bactra (now Balkh) as his capital. Under him, Central Asia entered a period of relative stability, new cities were built and old cities were restored. Antiochus' successor, Bactrian satrap Diodotus around 250 BC e. declared himself an independent ruler of Bactria. [8]
Greco-Bactria also included the regions of Sogdiana with the capital of Marakand (Samarkand) and Margiana with the capital of Antioch Margiana (Merv). In addition to these large cities, there were many medium and small settlements in the Greco-Bactrian kingdom. One of the Greco-Bactrian kings, Eucratides, was even proudly called "the ruler of a thousand cities."
This Central Asian state, headed by Greek kings, existed for over a hundred years. Having spread during its short heyday (about 180 BC) to the north of India, it fell under the blows of the Saka nomads in the 2nd half of the 2nd century BC. e.
Until 1964, scientists had practically no archaeological materials at their disposal that allowed them to judge the culture and history of this unique Greek kingdom in the depths of Asia. And only the find of French archaeologists opened the door to a long-vanished world for scientists.
The original name of the city in the Panj valley was lost in the depths of time. In the scientific literature, the local name Ai-Khanum was assigned to it. Today, most experts believe that we are talking here about Alexandria Oksiana (Oka is the ancient name of the Amu Darya, which, according to the geographers of that time, included the lower reaches of the Pyandj), known from ancient sources.
For the first time before scientists appeared the ruins of a purely Greek city located in the depths of Asia. Since 1965, excavations have been carried out here annually under the guidance of the French archaeologist Paul Bernard. Soviet scientists also took part in them.
Judging by the scale of the ruins, Ai-Khanum (Alexandria Oksiana) was the second largest city in Greco-Bactria after Baktr (Balkh). It was also the most typical example of a large Greco-Bactrian city. A very good location was chosen for its construction: it was located at the confluence of the Kokcha River with the Pyanj, on a high natural hill with steep steep slopes. The top of the hill was occupied by the citadel - the acropolis; below, along the river bank, are the quarters of the Lower City, built up with residential and public buildings. A straight and wide main street with a length of more than 1700 m ran through the entire Lower City, and between it and the Panj coast there was a complex of palace buildings and a "herayon" - the mausoleum of the founder of the city. The entire territory of the settlement was surrounded by a strong wall with towers made of mud bricks.
Despite the wide use of raw bricks in the buildings of Ai-Khanum and numerous architectural analogies to Persian and local Bactrian structures, it was the Greek city that appeared to archaeologists. Almost everything was Greek here: a theater designed for up to 6 thousand spectators, a huge gymnasium, which included premises for sports exercises and for school activities. There was also a swimming pool. On the territory of the gymnasium, a Greek inscription was found dedicated to the Greek deities Hermes and Hercules, who in Hellas were the patrons of the gymnasia. In general, all the inscriptions discovered in Ay-Khanum are purely Greek in their writing, language and style. The pottery found among the ruins of the city is also almost entirely Greek. According to the Greek model, houses built mainly of adobe bricks were covered with tiled roofs. Building plans and techniques are of a typical Greek character. The forms of stone architectural decoration are also Greek. They are very close to the same forms found in this era in Greece and Anatolia. The sculptures found during excavations were also purely Greek. Apparently, experienced professional sculptors worked in the city.
So scientists for the first time were able to get acquainted with the culture of a purely Greek city, located on the very edge of the then ecumene. Ai-Khanum is the furthest from the Mediterranean and the most eastern found Greek settlement in Central Asia. This city was founded in the early Hellenistic period by Macedonian and Greek colonists. From the excavations of Ai-Khanum, scientists managed to learn almost everything about his life - from the initial period up to his fall.
The founder of Ay-Khanum (Alexandria Oksiana) was, apparently, a certain Kineas, buried in a “herayon”, built according to the Greek model, but placed on a stepped platform, like the tomb of the Persian king Cyrus in Pasargadae. The inscriptions in Greek, opened in the "heraion", tell that the scientist Clearchus of Sol specially made a trip from Ai-Khanum to the sacred Greek center of Delphi in order to copy the famous "maxims" in the temple there - aphorisms in which the basic rules of the Hellenic hostel are given. Clearchus brought copies of these "maxims" to Ai-Khanum, and here they were carved on stone slabs of the "herayon". Some of these "maxims" have been found by archaeologists. An even more interesting find was an imprint on clay of some Greek text written on papyrus or parchment. Analysis of the few surviving lines showed that this is an excerpt from the philosophical treatise of the Peripatetic school.
Almost a third of the city's territory was occupied by a huge palace complex, which included ceremonial, residential and office premises. In his appearance, purely Greek features were combined with features taken from the ancient East. In front of the palace, a vast open courtyard was arranged - a peristyle (measuring 136 × 108 m), surrounded by a colonnade. The main entrance to the courtyard was framed by propylaea, and on the opposite side was a multi-column palace hall. The columns of all the porticoes and the palace hall were made in classical Greek norms, wall reliefs and masonry technique were also Greek - without a connecting solution, with metal brackets in special nests. At the same time, a significant part of the walls of the entire complex were built using local technology - from adobe bricks.
The main building was adjoined by the building of the treasury. Apparently, it was plundered by the nomads who seized the city, but in its ruins the archaeologist found a small number of coins and several financial documents written in Chinese ink on clay shards.
In addition to the palace, archaeologists have investigated the remains of an arsenal, which, judging by the numerous finds, kept weapons for many hundreds of soldiers; residences of senior city officials; residential buildings and temples. The last group of buildings was the most interesting. It turned out that in a city where power belonged to the Greeks, where the bulk of the population was Greek, the architecture of the temples had nothing to do with the architecture of traditional Hellenic sanctuaries. The architecture of the temples built by the Greeks in Bactria was not Bactrian, but Mesopotamian. Moreover! As the studies of archaeologists have shown, the rituals performed in these temples were also not similar to the Greek ones. For all that, typical Greek statues of deities stood in these temples.
This discovery shed light on the origins of cultural interaction between Ancient Greece and the East. The Greeks, being polytheists, believed that each country is protected by its own gods, and therefore, having come to a foreign country, it is necessary to worship them. Hence - this kind of religious syncretism, which became the basis for the synthesis of two cultures and the birth of a new, Greco-Bactrian cultural phenomenon and Greco-Bactrian art, which, as it has now been established, is an independent chapter in the history of world art.
The culture of Greco-Bactria was very peculiar. D Schlumberger, the discoverer of Ay-Khanum, explaining the nature of the interaction of local and Greek civilizations after the conquests of Alexander the Great, wrote: “One would expect that it (the expansion of Hellenism) would collide with the great national civilizations of the East, following the ancient traditions, but this did not happen. In its older sisters, Hellenism did not meet rivals, it only supplemented them.”Greek art, the Greek way of life turned out to be very attractive for the local“barbarians”, first of all for the local tribal aristocracy, which contributed to the triumphant spread of Greek artistic taste in the East.
The excavations of Ai-Khanum made it possible to partially restore the picture of the political life of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom. Power in Greco-Bactria belonged to the conquerors - the Greeks and Macedonians. Around the 80s. 2nd century BC e. the Greeks from Bactria began to move south and undertook the conquest of the regions of India. But at the same time, the military leader Eucratides rebelled against the legitimate king of Euthydemus. The vast state, seized by turmoil, began to split into separate small holdings. The attack of the nomads finally decided the fate of the country: Greco-Bactria was crushed. Ay-Khanum (Alexandria Oksiana) died, probably around 130 BC. e., and more in this place, life was not renewed.
Ai-Khanum is a brilliant example of a Greek city that arose in Central Asia as a result of the campaigns of Alexander the Great. The discovery of Ay-Khanum made it possible to find the right path in solving the problem of “Greeks in the East”: the old views, according to which ancient authors allegedly exaggerated the number of cities founded by Alexander and the Seleucids in Central Asia, were discarded. However, the history of the Greek colonization of the East remains poorly understood, so that on this path, researchers are likely to face new discoveries.
From the book: "One Hundred Great Archaeological Discoveries." Author: A. Yu. Nizovsky