In the shadow of the Wall. Hellenistic settlement in the Baysun and Kugitang piedmonts

Abstract

This article brings an up -to -date evaluation of the archaeological research in the core of the Bactro -Sogdian borderlands, i.e., in the vicinity of the Darband Wall, Baysun District, southern Uzbekistan, including the most recent results of the fieldwork of the Czech -Uzbek archaeological expedition. These are combined with the fruits of the efforts of other local and international teams busy in this region for the last twenty years in a spatiotemporal assessment. Building upon the lack of evidence, the author argues against the identification of the selected locations in the region as places where the events connected with the invasion of Alexander the Great took place. We also show that the area of the Baysun District including Darband was for the first time in history settled in the Seleucid / Greco -Bactrian period. The original function of the Darband Wall itself was most probably related to an event preceding the campaign of Antiochos III to Bactria and the presumed threat of nomads.

Keywords

• hellenistic
• bactria
• darband wall
• alexander the great
• seleucid
• greco -bactrian
• settlement patterns