2100-1700 BC - Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex [BMAC]
The discovery of the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex [BMAC] is attributed to Professor Sariadini at the time of the USSR: this zone covers Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan essentially, plus a little bit of Iran and India. Physical proof of an advanced civilization in northern Afghanistan around 2100-1800 BC (or 2000-1750 BC, or more broadly 2400-1600 BC) has come from more than a dozen exacavations conducted during the 1970s in the region that archaeologists refer to as the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC). While we can still only glimpse at the constellation of cities that existed in ancient times, findings made at BMAC already reveal a series of cities and settlements, each with a distinctive and exceptionally large architectural footprint, with temple structure, administrative quarters and defensive walls.
The Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex culture is defined on the basis of typologically similar artifacts (seals, ceramics) and monumental buildings, reflecting the emergence of a complex society. It lasted for about 250 years and then collapsed, as evidenced by the precipitous decline of urban settlements and the disappearance of artifacts. At the same time, however, there is an abundance of BMAC artifacts on the Iranian plateau and in the Indo-Iranian borderland, although no artifacts indigenous to the plateau and Indo-Iranian borderland have been found in the heartland of the BMAC culture itself. The material culture of BMAC is distinctive both in style and quality of its production. Exceptionally fine silver and gold vessels, ceremonial shaft-hole axes adorned with figures of animals in combat, alabaster jars, and chlorite or calcite female figures abound in a variety of shapes with a wealth of incised and appliquéd designs and decorative motifs.
Large numbers of nomadic invaders or migrants, pastoral citiless people travelling on horseback and by chariot, long known (conveniently, perhaps wrongly) as Aryans (derived from the Sanskrit word for "nobles"), migrated south from the Caspian Sea region across the Oxus (present-day Amu Darya) River to present-day Afghanistan during the late early 2nd millennium (by circa 1700 BC). No contemporaneous record exists of the Aryans' journey. But according to legend, they sang hymns as they travelled that were passed on by word of mouth from one generation of priests to another until c. 1200 BC, when the hymns were added to a collection of volumes known as the Rig Veda (1700-1100 BC). These texts celebrate a tribe, centuries earlier, emerging from the Hindy Kush and crossing the Kubha, or Kabul, River around 1500 BC, as these nomadic wanderers put the Central Asian vastness behind them. Though evidence remains slim, some of the Aryan migrants appear to have stopped their wandering and settled in Afghanistan, while others continued south toward the India subcontinent. Meanwhile, a third branch of the Aryan Migration turned westward and settled on the Iranian plateau, in a place called Ariana, where an unknown scribe, or scribes, around 1800 BC produced the Persian hymns known as the Avesta, which mentions a city in northern Afghanistan termed Bakhdi (Balkh) "beautiful, crowned with banners.”
Some scholars have suggested that the Old Avestan texts belong to the Iranian communities of the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex, whereas the Young Avestan reflect the religious evolution of the same population after they settled in the northeastern part of the Iranian Plateau (ca. 1200-1000? BC). Some suggest the Indo-Aryans were in India a long time before traditional dating, and that they were coming from a zone in the Middle East that could correspond to the Iranian plateau with a migration from there essentially East and North East, meeting then the BMAC.
Like any other facet of human culture, Rigvedic religion was neither static nor without history. It has a prehistory that includes some of the local (Indus) beliefs as well as several layers of those picked up 'along the way' _ from a hypothetical steppe homeland (wherever exactly situated), via the general area of the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC) and the Afghan mountains to the Greater Panjab.
The steppe war chariot could have been introduced to the Near East through Central Asia, where there was clear and undoubted evidence for contact between the fortified, brick-walled oasis cities of the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC) and Sintashta and Petrovka charioteers from the northern steppes about 2100-1800 BCE. The BMAC oasis communities had far-flung trade relationships with cities and citadels across the Iranian Plateau, where the Elamite state and other smaller alliances were locked in combat with Mesopotamian kings during the Ur III period.
All known cities in the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex contained monumental structures with heavy defensive walls, each located aproximately 30 to 50 kilometers (roughly a day's march) from each other. The temples in these ancient cities contain fire altars, sacrificial areas and architectural features described in passages of the Rig-Veda and the Avesta — the holy texts of the Indo-Aryans and the Zoroastrians. The city in northern Afghanistan named Baktra (present-day Balkh) is recorded in the Avesta as the birthplace of Zarathustra Spitama (Zoroaster), the founder of Zoroastianism, one of the first great world religions that is continually practiced to this day. The reasons that the cities of the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex were suddenly abandoned are not known. Possibly the widespread calamity known as the Bronze Age Collapse (which imploded the palace economies of the Aegean and Anatolia during the late 2nd millennium) impacted trade with settlements in Central Asia. Or possibly a severe drought or other envionmental catastrophe forced the BMAC settlers in Central Asia to flee.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
