This article is on the result of the two reasons of excavation at Kyzyltepa in Sukhandarya, southern Uzbekistan, by an Uzbek- American Joint Expedition sponsor by the Institute for the Study of Ancient World, New York University.... more
This article is on the result of the two reasons of excavation at Kyzyltepa in Sukhandarya, southern Uzbekistan, by an Uzbek- American Joint Expedition sponsor by the Institute for the Study of Ancient World, New York University. Kyzyltepa is a site dated to the Achaemenid Persian period. It is a key site for studying the Persian domination in Central Asia.
This article discusses aspects of the agro-pastoral economy of Kyzyltepa, a late Iron Age or Achaemenid period (sixth–fourth century BC) site in the Surkhandarya region of southern Uzbekistan. The analysis integrates archaeobotanical and... more
This article discusses aspects of the agro-pastoral economy of Kyzyltepa, a late Iron Age or Achaemenid period (sixth–fourth century BC) site in the Surkhandarya region of southern Uzbekistan. The analysis integrates archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological analyses with textual references to food production and provisioning in order to examine local agro-pastoral strategies. Preliminary results suggest an economy that included both an intensive agricultural component, with summer irrigation of millet, and a wider-ranging market-oriented pastoral component that provided meat to the settlement.
The fortified site of Kyzyltepa in the Surkhandarya Valley of southern Uzbekistan is one of the largest Iron Age settlements in northern Bactria. The site consists of a monumental public building, referred to as the Citadel, and a lower... more
The fortified site of Kyzyltepa in the Surkhandarya Valley of southern Uzbekistan is one of the largest Iron Age settlements in northern Bactria. The site consists of a monumental public building, referred to as the Citadel, and a lower city surrounded by a circumferential wall equipped with projecting towers. Recent excavations have clarified the site's spatial organization and occupation history. The work has revealed five occupation levels overall and four building phases within the Citadel. The excavations correct the earlier assumption that the site was founded in the pre-Achaemenid period and continued to be occupied until the Achaemenid period. The new excavations suggest that the site was established in the Achaemenid period and that it was abandoned during the early Hellenistic period. The work also reveals that the Citadel and the fortification system at the site were built in phases, rather than at one time, as previously thought. The presence of both Achaemenid and Hellenistic levels, as well as the site's location and its peculiar building history, make Kyzyltepa unique. The excavations clearly show for the first time the stratigraphic transition from the Achaemenid to early Hellenistic period in ancient Bactria.
This paper applies a new methodological lens to the study of imperial domination on frontier regions through an examination of the relationship between the Achaemenid Empire and Central Asia. Taking the site of Kyzyltepa in the Upper... more
This paper applies a new methodological lens to the study of imperial domination on frontier regions through an examination of the relationship between the Achaemenid Empire and Central Asia. Taking the site of Kyzyltepa in the Upper Surkhandarya River Valley of southern Uzbekistan as its case study, it examines the site within the larger framework of the Achaemenid imperial system, departing from traditional treatments of Kyzyltepa (as well as of other Iron Age sites of northern Bactria) within its more limited regional framework. The picture that emerges from this analysis is that of a systematic Achaemenid institutionalization of the ancient Bactrian local landscapes, despite their distance from the imperial heartland, resulting in a fundamental transformation of the socioeconomic life of that frontier region’s inhabitants.
