Ai Khanoum Research Articles

The Baktrian Coregency Legend Coinage of Seleukos and Antiochos: Context and Origin

The light weight standard coregency legend coinage of Seleukos and Antiochos struck at the mint of Ai Khanoum in Baktria is an enigmatic punctuation of the otherwise consistently Attic weight standard coinage of the Seleukid realm in the 3rd century BC. A newly identified coregency legend gold stater weighing c.7.05 grams establishes that the coregency coinage system was a comprehensive trimetallic coinage. Consistent with this reduced weight standard stater is the tetradrachm weight standard of c. 14.10 grams. This coinage briefly displaced the previously issued Attic weight coinage in the Oxus valley. A reappraisal of the coinage and its context leads to the conclusion that the impetus for its mintage was the creation of a closed monetary system in the Oxus valley, seeking to emulate the success of Ptolemy in the Nile valley. This extended a pattern of Seleukid adoption and adaptation of Ptolemaic innovations. A motivating factor in this regard was the absence of an indigenous source of silver in the Oxus valley at a time when an influx of Greek settlers catalysed a rapid growth in the monetary economy. However, changing demographics, permeable frontiers, and the assassination of Seleukos contributed to the abandonment of this epichoric coinage, marking the collapse of a dedicated Seleukid effort to rapidly advance the development of monetized economies in eastern reaches of the kingdom.

Providing a Comparative Geo-referenced Database for Religious Artefacts in Ai Khanoum and Taxila’s Sirkap Mound

Providing a Comparative Geo-referenced Database for Religious Artefacts in Ai Khanoum and Taxila’s Sirkap Mound

Yawning matters: What can hiatus tell us about the lost Greek novels? What can the heroon in honor of Kineas on the Banks of the Oxus River tell us about <i>The wonders beyond Thule</i>?

The aim of this study is to contextualize the fragments of the The Wonders beyond Thule in the set of lost Greek novels that have come to us in papyri paying special attention to the treatment of hiatus. The literary ambitions of Callirrhoe, Ninus, Parthenope, and The wonders beyond are similar and their ‘implicit readers’ would have belonged to the educated elite known by the term of pepaideumenoi and pepaideumenai. Other conclusion is that hiatus is a license that depends on the style of the author, but it can sometimes be attributed to an error by the scribe or a decision of the modern editor.
 The study includes value information about novel fragments since 1998 (edition by López-Martínez) and a hypothesis regarding archaeological materials (papyri and inscriptions) found in a Hellenistic city on the Banks of the Oxus River in Afghanistan, Ai Khanoum, which offer us tantalizing paralells for the fictional mise en scène of Diogenes’ novel.

Una versione progredita della teoria delle idee nel papiro di Ai Khanoum: una scoperta nella scoperta

Abstract The paper firstly focuses on a rare vox, that is, the verb μετίσχω, as a new finding in two different sources: the Π text of Methaphysics Lambda 1075b19 and the “Ai Khanoum philosophical papyrus” (not only at column II.9, but arguably at II.11 and IV.8–9 as well). Using the verb μετίσχω testifies for a “2.0 version” of the theory of ideas, in a subsequent phase to Plato’s Parmenides. Xenocrates is likely to have played a role. This suggests a deeper connection than previously thought between Aristotelian theories and Plato’s Academy.

Ai Khanoum after 145 BC

Abstract The attack that caused the ruin of Ai Khanoum around 145 BC was a key event of its history. This was the beginning of the so-called post-palatial period, which is often considered of short duration. The article intends to provide a general study of this last stage of the history of the city, taking into account the information already published, but also the new evidence resulting from the ongoing study of its main sanctuary (henceforth the Sanctuary). The few inhabitants of Ai Khanoum still living in the city after 145 BC reoccupied its private and public buildings and were engaged in the recovering of all the riches of the former Graeco-Bactrian capital. They exploited the stone materials, the metallic objects, the furniture and even reused the ceramics abandoned in the town. The Sanctuary remained in activity for a while, under the control of an authority who undertook maintenance operations, but the religious conceptions of the population underwent some major changes. This study also enables to review the common assumptions regarding the role played by nomadic people during this period.

Semi-automated detection of looting in Afghanistan using multispectral imagery and principal component analysis

Abstract

The Hellenistic Far East: Archaeology, Language, and Identity in Greek Central Asia by Rachel Mairs

BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 407 The Hellenistic Far East: Archaeology, Language, and Identity in Greek Central Asia. By Rachel Mairs. Oakland: University of California Press. 2014. Pp. xvi, 234. Classicists often label Bactria and northwestern India as the “Greek Far East.” In this thought-provoking book, Mairs proposes the more appropriate “Hellenistic Far East,” challenging the traditional perspectives expressed in the very titles of the two main works referencing the question: William Woodthorpe Tarn’s The Greeks in Bactria and India (Cambridge 1938), and Awadh Kishore Narain’s The Indo-Greeks (Oxford 1957). The former considered these regions as the outpost of Hellenism, while the latter claimed them as parts of Indian history. Arguing that “this material is exotic in a double sense” (3), Mairs proposes a more complex approach, focusing on the interaction between the Greeks and their neighbors after Alexander. In her criticisms she mostly takes aim at the traditional attitude of classicists. However, some late twentieth-century approaches, espousing acculturation, also need revision. Mairs’s methodological observations give a welcome complement to the more traditional, comprehensive monograph by Omar Coloru, Da Alessandro a Menandro: Il regno greco di Battriana (Pisa and Rome 2009). The book is structured as a sort of matryoshka doll. After a methodological “Introduction ” (1–26), two historical chapters provide the opening and the closing (Chapter One, “Administering Bactria: From Achaemenid Satrapy to Graeco-Bactrian State,” 27–56; Chapter Four, “Waiting for the Barbarians: The Fall of Greek Bactria,” 146–176), whereas the central chapters focus on two expanded case studies (Chapter Two, “Ai Khanoum,” 57–101; Chapter Three, “Self-Representation in the Inscriptions of Sōphytos [Arachosia] and Hēliodōros [India],” 102–145). A brief “Conclusion” (177–188) sums up the methodological achievements of the book, followed by an “Appendix” (189–193) with the texts of three inscriptions discussed in Chapters Two and Three, a sizeable “Bibliography” (195-225), and a general “Index” (227–231). There is no source index . Chapter One considers the continuity of Achaemenid institutions in Bactria, an aspect less developed by Coloru, who starts with the actual beginnings of the kingdom. Mairs draws on the archaeological and the epigraphic evidence, extracting “a few themes or pieces of pertinent information” (32). Some preserved administrative documents, still written in Aramaic, seem to show that Alexander’s conquest did not apparently produce an outright break, but no written evidence was found until the third century. The Seleucids may well have retrieved Achaemenid administrative know-how, but is it enough to label the Seleucid satrapy as a period of lengthy transition from the Iranian to the Hellenistic phase? Chapter Two deals with the center of Āy Ka ̄nom (usually known with the spelling Ai Khanoum) in Arachosia, present-day Afghanistan.1 Mairs criticizes an early article of the late Paul Bernard giving emphasis to the “Greekness” of the city, “whose colonists strove to maintain the integrity of the civilization they had brought with them” (91).2 1 Laurianne Sève-Martinez (in her review of the book in TopoiOrOcc 20 [2015] 579–588) suggests that this discussion ignores several relevant archaeological publications. 2 P. Barnard, “Ai Khanoum on the Oxus: A Hellenistic City in Central Asia,” PBA 53 (1967) 71–95; cf. G. Traina, “Notes on Hellenism in the Iranian East (Classico-Oriental Notes, 6-8),” Iran & the Caucasus 9 (2005) 1–14. 408 PHOENIX To support her argument, Mairs proposes a new interpretation of the inscription of Klearchos with the sayings of the wise men from Delphi from the pronaos of the heroon of Kineas.3 Following Narain against Louis Robert, she dismisses the latter’s identification of Klearchos with the philosopher Klearchos of Soloi, a pupil of Aristotle,4 and considers him a local citizen from the Bactrian-born generation. Refined texts such as Klearchos’ inscriptions were meant to enforce Ai Khanoum’s Greek identity in a sort of invention of tradition. Chapter Three compares two apparently opposite cases, dating from the same chronological context (second century b.c.e.): Sōphytos, a poet of Arachosia bearing a local name, who composed an extremely refined Greek acrostic funerary epigram found in Qandaha ̄r (SEG 54: 1568; Rougemont, no. 84), and...

Guy Lecuyot. Fouilles d’Aï Khanoum IX. L’habitat

This volume makes available for the first time all the excavation records on the dwelling quarters of Ai Khanoum, collected during fieldwork of the Delegation archeologique francaise en Afghanistan (DAFA). This project was long time ago approached by Paul Bernard, former director of the DAFA, and finds in the study of G. Lecuyot (with contributions of other Authors, among whom P. Bernard himself), its final form. The excavation documents, including diaries, photos, and drawings of the differe...

The War-Ravaged Cultural Heritage of Afghanistan: An Overview of Projects of Assessment, Mitigation, and Preservation

Afghanistan is the quintessential “crossroads of cultures” where the civilizations of the Near East, Central Asia, South Asia, and China interacted over the millennia in a constantly shifting mixture of trade, emulation, migration, imperial formations, and periodic conflict. This complex history of contacts gave rise to some of the most important archaeological, artistic, architectural, and textual treasures in world cultural heritage. Thirty five years of continuous war have devastated Afghanistan's archaeological heritage – most notably with the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas, the shelling and looting of the National Museum in Kabul, and large scale looting of archaeological sites such as Ai Khanoum. This paper presents an overview of the continuing threats to Afghanistan's cultural heritage – focusing mainly on archaeology – and summarizes ongoing efforts to monitor the damage, mitigate its impacts, and develop infrastructure to preserve this priceless cultural patrimony.

The Spatial Organization of Ai Khanoum, a Greek City in Afghanistan

The excavations of the Greek settlement of Ai Khanoum took place between 1965 and 1978; they are not yet fully published, and work is still in progress. This article presents the spatial organization of the town by taking into account the results of recent research, which help clarify the different stages of its history. Ai Khanoum was founded as a city by the Seleucid king Antiochos I (r. 281–261 B.C.E.) and thereafter underwent development, particularly from the beginning of the second century. But it was only under Eucratides (r. ca. 170–145) that it took the form we now know. Several elements considered in this article shed light on the nature and functions of the settlement: its urban organization, the division between public spaces and private spaces, and the extent of Greek influence on these elements. We know that Ai Khanoum was a royal residence and that the Seleucid and Graeco-Bactrian kings were very much present there throughout its history. It may have looked like other eastern royal capitals of that time, whose architecture, which combined eastern and Greek influences, was inspired by that of the royal residences of the eastern part of the Seleucid kingdom.

Questions on the Date of the Hellenistic Pottery from Central Asia (Ai Khanoum, Marakanda and Koktepe)

Abstract On the basis of recent research on the pottery and comparisons between three important sites with Hellenistic occupation in Central Asia, new dates are proposed for each of them. The article presents both the former data and hypotheses and the recent discoveries, including coins for Afrasiab/Samarkand, which lead to the new proposals. Changes in pottery style do not follow immediately Alexander’s conquest, and the first real Hellenistic shapes only appear under Antiochos I. After Antiochos III’s reconquest of Bactria, an important wave of new fashions in pottery style is introduced which lasted until Eucratides’ death and the end of the Greek domination, around the middle of the 2nd century BC. Sogdiana hardly shows any of these novelties because it had already gained its independence.

Mesopotamian religious architecture: Alexander through the Parthians

This book is a comprehensive treatment of the survival and reworking of earlier forms of Mesopotamian religious architecture in the periods of foreign occupation of the Near East, first by Greeks, who established the Seleucid kingdoms after the conquests of Alexander the Great, and second by Parthians, who gradually took political control from the Greeks in the second century B.C. The author argues that Mesopotamian traditions remained extraordinarily vital throughout these periods and up to the middle of the third century of the Common Era. She presents not only architectural analysis but a carefully documented picture of the mixture of peoples and beliefs in this focal region of the eastern Hellenistic world. The Seleucids revived traditional religious forms and practices in old Mesopotamian cities, notably Uruk and Babylon, while drawing on Mesopotamian and other oriental traditions to create original religious architecture in new colonies, such as Ai Khanoum in Afghanistan. The effects of the Parthian conquest varied. The Seleucid temples of Uruk were destroyed, but Duray-Europos, Assur, and Hatra demonstrate the continued vitality of Mesopotamian architecture.

The Euthydemid Coinage of Bactria: Further Hoard Evidence from Aï Khanoum

Revue Numismatique, 6e série, XXIII, 1981, pp. 7-44. Fiank Holt, The Euthydemid Coinage of Bactria: Further Hoard Evidence from Ai Khanoum. — The author publishes a hoard of some 141 Bactrian coins from Ai Khanoum, the site of a recently excavated Hellenistic city in northeastern Afghanistan. Part I of the article presents the details of the treasure's discovery and disposition, followed by a catalogue of 139 of the coins. In Part II, the author examines the hoard's historical significance in light of recent evidence for the Euthydemid period of Bactrian history.