Pottery of the steppe piedmonts of the Bactro-Sogdian Borderlands: The case of Iskandar Tepa (mid-2nd–1st c. BC)

Abstract

Iskandar Tepa is a recently excavated rural settlement site in the steppe piedmonts of the Kugitang, the westernmost foothills of the Pamir-Alay Mountain range in south Uzbekistan. Archaeological and numismatic investigation suggests that the site might have belonged to the system of outposts or watch-posts serving the strategic needs of the last Greco-Bactrian rulers to control the Sogdian-Bactrian borderlands and especially to control the communication routes leading through this region. This phase was followed by the occupation of the site by newly arrived (semi)nomadic people who took control of northern Bactria's territory during the second half of the 2nd century BCE. A quantitative and typological examination was performed on the pottery recovered at the site aiming to provide a preliminary overview of the ceramic repertoire and complementary chronological data for accurate dating. Different wares of all functional categories were identified with a predominance of closed shapes of the table and common wares, and the pithoi or large storage jars. We established typological analogies with the ceramic prototypes found in other coeval and nearby settlements and also recognized variations among the sites. Complementary to the previous archaeometric studies on ceramics from northern Bactria, we also present the characterization of a small ceramic assemblage to investigate their provenance and technology using a combination of analytical methods (WD-XRF, XRD, and OM). Archaeometric results reveal various paste recipes associated with specific chronologies and functional purposes, whose provenance can be located in several pottery workshops within the Amu/Sherabad/Surkhan rivers floodplain. The study demonstrates that ceramic prototypes and exchanges evolved during the period of occupation of the site, which has been preliminarily fixed between the 2nd century BCE and the 1st century CE.