Decoding a lapis lazuli Indus seal; (context) Silk
road and Indus valley contacts?
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.com/2011/09/decipherment-of-soma-and-ancient-indo.html This blog
discusses Muztagh Ata as the Mt. Maujavat, the source of Rigveda soma (identified as electrum, silver-
gold ore). This blog also discusses the Tocharian gloss anzu ‘iron’, in the context of amśu „soma
(attribute)‟.
Lapis lazuli square stamp seal
The seal with Indus script glyphs is
decoded as bead-maker, (with) furnaces
to cast copper and iron (see discussion on
rebus readings of glyphs in the following
paragraphs).
This stamp seal was originally almost
square, but because of damage one corner is missing.
Originally two figures faced each other. The one on the left has largely disappeared. On the
right is a man with his legs folded beneath him. It is suggested that at the top are rain
clouds and rain or a fenced enclosure. Behind the man are a long-horned goat above a
zebu. This last animal is related in style to similar creatures depicted on seals from the
Indus Valley civilization, which was thriving at this time. There were close connections
between the Indus Valley civilization and eastern Iran. One of the prized materials that was
traded across the region was lapis lazuli, the blue stone from which this seal is made.
The Sar-i Sang mines in the region of Badakhshan in north-east Afghanistan were probably
the source for all lapis lazuli used in the ancient Near East. From here it was carried across
Iran, where several lapis working sites have been discovered, and on to Mesopotamia and
Egypt. Another source for lapis lazuli exists in southern Pakistan (a region of the Indus
Valley civilization) but it is unclear if they were mined at the time of this seal.
D. Collon, 'Lapis lazuli from the east: a stamp seal in the British Museum', Ancient
Civilizations from Scy, 5/1 (1998), pp. 31-39
D. Collon, Ancient Near Eastern art (London, The British Museum Press, 1995)
1
Modern impression of the seal.
http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_image.aspx?image=ps267036.j
pg&retpage=18837
2
Face of the lapis lazuli seal.
http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_image.aspx?image=ps267035.j
pg&retpage=18837
Two persons facing each other (Is the person a drummer, holding a drum on his
thighs?)
Zebu
Antelope
Mountain-range or a count of 24 (6 X 4) or a pai of 12 dots
Dot or piece
3
This definitive glyph of a dot just below the numerical phonetic determinative may
be decoded as: kandhi ‘a lump, a piece’ (Santali)Rebus: kandi ‘beads’ (Pa.)(DEDR 1215).
[ khaṇḍa ] A piece, bit, fragment, portion.(Marathi) kandi ‘beads’ (Pa.) khaṇḍ ‘ivory’ (H.)
Rebus: khaṇḍaran, khaṇḍrun ‘pit furnace’ (Santali) kandi (pl. –l) beads, necklace (Pa.);
kanti (pl. –l) bead, (pl.) necklace; kandiṭ ‘bead’ (Ga.)(DEDR 1215).
This glyphic below the 24 dots organized in four rows can be
taken to be a phonetic determinant. Glyph of a pair of 12 dots. talka ‘palm of the hand (with
twelve phalanges on four fingers); Rebus: talika ‘inventory, list of articles’. talika, talka sole of
foot; tala, tola sole of shoe (Santali) talka = palm of the hand, ti talka (Santali.lex.) ti = the hand,
arm (Santali.lex.) Rebus: talika = inventory, a list of articles, number, to count, to number; hor.ko
talkhaetkoa = they are counting the people; mi~hu~ merom reak talikako hataoeda = they are
taking the number of the cattle (Santali.lex.)
(Reading the 24 dots as four sets of six dots): bhaṭa ‘six’ (G.) rebus: baṭa = kiln (Santali); baṭa =
a kind of iron (G.) bhaṭṭhī f. ‘kiln, distillery’, awāṇ. bhaṭh; P. bhaṭṭh m., °ṭhī f. ‘furnace’, bhaṭṭhā m.
‘kiln’; S. bhaṭṭhī keṇī ‘distil (spirits) gaṇḍa ‘four’ (Santali); rebus: kaṇḍ ‘furnace, fire-altar’
(Santali) Vikalpa: pon ‘four’ (Santali) rebus: pon ‘gold’ (Ta.)
Thus, the 24 dots may denote an inventory of furnaces: baṭa = kiln, kaṇḍ ‘furnace, fire-altar’ for
rebus: kandi ‘beads’ (Pa.).
Vikalpa (reading the 24 dots as a pair of 12 dots): baroṭi ‘twelve’; rebus: bhārata ‘a factitious
alloy of copper, pewter, tin (M.)’ dul ‘pair’; rebus: dul ‘cast (metal)’. dula ‘likeness, a pair’
(Kashmiri); dula दुल । युग्मम् m. a pair, a couple, esp. of two similar things (Rām. 966) (Kashmiri)
rebus: dul ‘cast (metal)’
डगर [ ḍagara ] A slope or ascent (as of a river's bank, of a small hill). डगर [ ḍagara ] 2 unc An
eminence, a mount, a little hill ड ांग [ ḍāṅga ] m n ( H Peak or summit of a hill.) (Marathi).ṭākuro =
hill top (N.); ṭāngī = hill, stony country (Or.); ṭān:gara = rocky hilly land (Or.); ḍān:gā = hill, dry
upland (B.); ḍā~g = mountain-ridge (H.)(CDIAL 5476). Rebus: ḍhaṅgar ‘blacksmith’ (H.) Glyph:
4
M. ḍagar f. ʻ little hill, slope ʼ.S. ṭakuru m. ʻ mountain ʼ N. ṭākuro, ri ʻ hill top ʼ. P. ṭekrā m., rī f. ʻ
rock, hill ʼ; H. ṭekar, krā m. ʻ heap, hillock ʼ; G. ṭekrɔ m., rī f. ʻ mountain, hillock ʼ.6. K. ṭeg m. ʻ
hillock, mound ʼ.7. G. ṭ k ʻ peak ʼ.8. M. ṭ g n. ʻ mound, lump ʼ. -- Ext. -- r -- : Or. ṭuṅguri ʻ hillock ʼ;
M. ṭ gar n. ʻ bump, mound ʼ (see *uṭṭungara -- ); -- -- l -- : M. ṭ gaḷ, gūḷ n.9. K. ḍaki f. ʻ hill, rising
ground ʼ. -- Ext. -- r -- : K. ḍakürü f. ʻ hill on a road ʼ.10. Ext. -- r -- : Pk. ḍaggara -- m. ʻ upper
terrace of a house ʼ; 11. Ku. ḍ g, ḍ k ʻ stony land ʼ; B. ḍāṅ ʻ heap ʼ, ḍāṅgā ʻ hill, dry upland ʼ; H.
ḍ g f. ʻ mountain -- ridge ʼ; M. ḍ g m.n., ḍ gaṇ, gāṇ, ḍ gāṇ n. ʻ hill -- tract ʼ. -- Ext. -- r -- : N.
ḍaṅgur ʻ heap ʼ.12. M. ḍ g m. ʻ hill, pile ʼ, gā m. ʻ eminence ʼ, gī f. ʻ heap ʼ. -- Ext. -- r -- : Pk.
ḍuṁgara -- m. ʻ mountain ʼ; Ku. ḍ gar, ḍ grī; N. ḍuṅgar ʻ heap ʼ; Or. ḍuṅguri ʻ hillock ʼ, H. ḍugar
m., G. ḍ gar m., ḍ grī f. 13. S.ḍugaru m. ʻ hill ʼ, H. M. ḍõgar m. 14. Pa. tuṅga -- ʻ high ʼ; Pk.
tuṁga -- ʻ high ʼ, tuṁg ya -- m. ʻ mountain ʼ; K. t ng, tongu m. ʻ peak ʼ, P. tuṅg f.; A. tuṅg ʻ
importance ʼ; Si. tungu ʻ lofty, mountain ʼ. -- Cf. uttuṅga -- ʻ lofty ʼ MBh. 15. K. thongu m. ʻ peak ʼ.
16. H. d g f. ʻ hill, precipice ʼ, d gī ʻ belonging to hill country ʼ. Addenda: *ṭakka -- 3. 12. *ḍuṅga -
- : S.kcch. ḍūṅghar m. ʻ hillock ʼ. (CDIAL 5423). unc An eminence, a mount, a little hill (Marathi).
ṭākuro = hill top (N.); ṭāngī = hill, stony country (Or.); ṭān:gara = rocky hilly land (Or.); ḍān:gā =
hill, dry upland (B.); ḍā~g = mountain-ridge (H.)(CDIAL 5476). Marathi. ड ांग [ ḍāṅga ] m n ( H
Peak or summit of a hill.)
meḷh ‘goat’ (Br.) Rebus: meṛha, meḍhi ‘merchant’s clerk; (G.) Vikalpa: mlekh ‘antelope’(Br.);
milakkhu ‘copper’ (Pali) melukkha Br. mēḻẖ ‘goat’. Te. mreka (DEDR 5087) mlekh ‘goat’ (Br.);
mreka (Te.); mēṭam (Ta.); meṣam (Skt.) Glyph: miṇḍāl markhor (Tor.wali) meḍho a ram, a
sheep (G.)(CDIAL 10120) Rebus: meḍ iron (Ho.) meṛed-bica = iron stone ore, in contrast to bali-
bica, iron sand ore (Mu.lex.) me~ṛhet, meḍ ‘iron’ (Mu.Ho.)
meḍ ‘'body ' (Mu.) Rebus: meḍ ‘iron’ (Ho.)
ḍhol ‘a drum beaten on one end by a stick and on the other by the hand’ (Santali); ḍhol (Nahali);
dhol (Kurku); ḍhol (H.); dhol a drum (G.) ḍhōla m. ʻ large drum ʼ Rudray. 2. *ḍhōlla -- . [Only
OAw. definitely attests -- l -- ]1. Gy. pal. daul ʻ drum ʼ, Paš. ḍūl (← Par. ḍuhūl IIFL iii 3, 65), Kho.
(Lor.) dol, K. ḍōl m., kash. ḍhōl, L. P. Ku. N. A. B. ḍhol, OAw. ḍhora m., H. ḍhol m. -- Ext. -- kk --
: L. ḍholkī f. ʻ small drum ʼ, Ku. ḍholko, H. ḍholak f. 2. Pk. ḍholla -- m., Or. ḍhola, Mth. Bhoj. Aw.
lakh. Marw. G. M. ḍhol m. (CDIAL 5608) Rebus: dul ‘to cast in a mould’; koṭe meṛeḍ ‘forged iron’
(Santali) WPah.kṭg. ḍhòllu drummerʼ.
5
aḍar ḍangra (Santali); rebus: aduru = gan.iyinda tegadu karagade iruva aduru = ore taken from
the mine and not subjected to melting in a furnace (Ka.) dhan:gar ‘blacksmith’ (Mth.)
kh ṭ Brahmani bull (Kathiawar G.); kh ṭro entire bull used for agriculture, not for breeding
(G.)(CDIAL 3899). kh ṭro = entire bull; kh ṭ= bra_hman.i bull (G.) khuṇṭiyo = an uncastrated bull
(Kathiawad. G.lex.) kh _ṭaḍum a bullock (used in Jhālwāḍ)(G.) kuṇṭai = bull (Ta.lex.) cf. kh _dhi
hump on the back; khuĩ_dh hump-backed (G.)(CDIAL 3902). Decoded rebus: kh ṭ ‘community’
(perhaps, a guild). Cf. Santali gloss: kh ṭ a community, sect, society, division, clique, schism,
stock (Santali). rebus: kūṭa ‘workshop’ khu~ṭi = pin (M.) kuṭi= smelter furnace (Santali) Rebus:
kūṭa a house, dwelling (Skt.lex.) kh ṭ = a community, sect, society, division, clique, schism,
stock; kh ṭren peṛa kanako = they belong to the same stock (Santali) khūṭ Nag. kh ṭ, kūṭ Has.
(Or. khūṭ) either of the two branches of the village family. Vikalpa: kundār turner (A.) k dār,
k dāri (B.); kundāru (Or.); kundau to turn on a lathe, to carve, to chase; kundau dhiri = a hewn
stone; kundau murhut = a graven image (Santali) kunda a turner's lathe (Skt.)(CDIAL 3295).
dula ‘pair’ (Kashmiri); rebus: dul ‘cast (metal)’ (Santali) The gloss dula is chosen as a proto-
indic word decoding a ‘pair, likeness’ because of the occurrence of a homonym of this word is
attested in some Munda glosses: Rebus: dul meṛeḍ cast iron (Mundari. Santali) dul ‘to cast
metal in a mould’ (Santali) pasra meṛed, pasāra meṛed = syn. of koṭe meṛed = forged iron, in
contrast to dul meṛed, cast iron (Mundari.lex.)
This can be categorised this as an Indus seal and hence, part of the Corpus of Indus
Inscriptions. Two seals with Indus script were found at Altn-depe (V.M. Masson: Altyn-depe:
Raskopki goroda bronzovogo veka v Juzhnom Turkmenistane, Leningrad, 1991) which
indicates that this was a contact area for traders from the Indus Valley.
http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/images/world/tours/indus-776px-AltynDepeMap.jpg
Stamp seals found at Altyn Depe (Excavation
9 and 7) found in the shrine and in the 'elite
quarter'. Altyn-tepe seals are decoded:
svastika; rebus: jasta ‘zinc’ (Kashmiri) aḍar
‘harrow’; Tu. aḍaruni to crack (intr.)(DEDR
66) adaru to tremble, shake, quake, shiver
6
(Te.)(DEDR 137). rebus: aduru ‘native metal’ (Ka.); kolmo ‘paddy plant’; rebus: kolami ‘forge,
smithy’ (Te.) Thus, the two-sign sequence reads: kolmo aduru ‘forged native metal’.
http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQZboY6SEwm1-
stCJp61fcwKWY3GI7S6D_0fawnjkZ5Dl0AkOqj
See also: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/19269229/Altyndepeandmeluhha
Kokcha River Valley
Leading to Sar-e Sang, Badakshan mines
The hieroglyphs on the seal are as follows
and include glyphs (or themes) commonly
found on Indus inscriptions, apart from
the shape of the stamp seal being a
square seal. The seal may have been cut
by a lapidary who was familiar with the
use of Indus script glyphs. As noted in the
British Museum write-up, “One of the
prized materials that was traded across
the region was lapis lazuli, the blue stone
from which this seal is made." An account
of „Aryan trade‟ along the Silk Road,
notes: Captain John Wood, a surveyor
with the British Navy was commissioned to explore the Amu
Darya River and in December 1838 came upon the Sar-e
Sang mines. He wrote: "Where the deposit of lapis lazuli
occurs, the valley of the Kokcha is about 200 yards wide. On
both sides the mountains are high and naked. The entrance
to the mines is in the face of the mountain, on the right
bank of the stream, and about 1,500 feet above its
level. "The workmen enumerate three descriptions of
ladjword (lapis). These are the Neeli, or indigo color; the
Asmani, or light blue; and the Suvsi, or green. There relative value is in the order in which I
have mentioned them. The richest colours are found in the darkest rock, and the nearer the
river the greater is said to be the purity of the
stone." http://heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/aryans/trade.htm
Bronze Age, about 2400-2000 BC. From the ancient Near East. Height: 3.1 cm; thickness:
2.5 cm. Width: 4.0 cm. ME 1992-10-7,1 Room 52: Ancient Iran British Museum.
Badakshan lapis lazuli
http://heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/images/sugd/lapisBadakshanAfghanistan.jpg
7
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AltynDepeMap.jpg
http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/images/world/tours/indus-archatlas.jpg
8
Gold bull's head from Altyn Depe
This gold bull's head was the most remarkable object found.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GoldHeadE7r7-wiki.jpg
9
http://www.iranicaonline.org/uploads/files/Archeology/v2f3a041_f6_300.jpg
10
Ziggurat, Altyn-depe.
http://hotelsincentralasia.com/wp-
content/uploads/sightseeing_tours/turkmenistan/kaahka/1.jpg
In focus: Statuette of seated woman.
Kara-Depe, South Turkmenistan.
Principles of the 3rd millennium BCE
Clay. Beside her a figurine of a man.
Kara-Depe, South Turkmenistan.
11
Principles of the 3rd millennium BCE
Right: Model of car.
Altyn-Depe, South Turkmenistan.
End of 3rd-early 2nd millennium BCE
clay
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rafael_dp/5693837962/
Cart (terracotta). Mohenjodaro.
12
http://www.szabir.com/data/files/Image/172_01.jpg
The study of Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Early Bronze Age sites in Southwestern Central Asia suggests that Southern
Turkmenistan and possibly northern Khorasan were source areas of early farming cultures, which eventually evolved
into the early urban civilization of Western Central Asia, as evidenced by the late 3rd millennium site of Altyn-Depe
(Masson, 1981: 96-108) and the late 3rd - early 2nd millennia BC Orientaltype proto-urban center at Gonur-Depe -
the capital of Margiana (Sarianidi, 2005).
The cultural and technological basis of the proto-urban centers of Southern Turkmenia formed in the late 4th and the
early 3rd millennia BC. These processes occurred under intense contacts both with neighboring territories and with
more remote and more advanced regions of the Near East (Kirtcho, 2008; Masson, 1981: 109-118). A key role in
these cultural interactions was played by transportation, since regular contacts and especially trade are impossible
without adequate means of transportation.
The stages in the evolution of the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age wheeled transport of Western Central Asia were first
described by E.E. Kuzminykh (1980) based on the studies conducted in the 1950s-1970s. Many of his principal
conclusions remain valid, although generally earlier dates were suggested in more recent studies.
Thanks to archaeological excavations at Altyn-Depe, conducted in the 1980s - early 2000s, and to the analysis of
unpublished materials, new evidence has appeared, bearing on the types of carts and the ways animals were
harnessed in Southwestern Central Asia in the late 4th - early 3rd millennia BC.
13
The Earliest Wheeled Transport In
Southwestern Central Asia by L.B. Kirtcho
http://www.szabir.com/blog/the-earliest-wheeled-transport/
See: http://www.szabir.com/data/files/File/172/Earliest_wheeled_transport.pdf
Compartmented stamp seal with winged goddess on a dragon.
Late 3rd–early 2nd millennium B.C. Silver.
Western Central Asia, Gonur-depe, Tomb 570.
The National Museum of Turkmenistan named after Saparmurat
Turkmenbashi, Ashgabat
This seal depicts a female figure wearing a tufted full-length robe.
This image is well known in the art of western Central Asia.
However, here the female is shown with wings suggesting that we
are looking at a deity.
This might relate the figure to the image of the Mesopotamian
goddess Ishtar who is shown with outstretched wings from the Akkadian period onward.
This female is shown with her face in profile looking to the right, and she sits sidesaddle on a scaly
dragon facing backward.
The dragon has its tail curling up toward its rider.
The monster's tail and front paws cross the frame of the seal, and its mouth is open in a snarl.
On this seal the deity wears a full-length tufted robe.
The knob rising out of the seal was presumably used for holding the seal while making
impressions. http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcST08byQ0VlD1YtK2ITrcUwNzh5PW
U3FvJAaZuJ6DsEVHrD3CHeEKRPbcev
14
http://www.jstor.org/stable/4299865?seq=2
15
BMAC complex
http://www.jstor.org/stable/4299865?seq=5
16
http://pubweb.cc.u-tokai.ac.jp/indus/english/map.html
Evidence of silk in Indus valley is a fascinating discovery which suggests a review of the link
between the Silk Road and Indus Valley. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1475-
4754.2008.00454.x/pdf New Evidence for early silk in the Indus civilization by I.L. Good,
J.M. Kenoyer and R.H. Meadow, Archaeometry 51.3 (2009) 457-466.
Material witness: Trouble on the silk road
Philip Ball
Nature Materials 10.4 (2011) doi:10.1038/nmat2935
Published online 15 December 2010
No one really knows how China (the Middle Kingdom, Zhongguo) came to be so-called in
the West, although there is no shortage of theories: perhaps it is from Qin, the first dynasty
of Imperial China, or maybe from Cin, the Persian word for the region. But Ji-Huan He of the
17
Modern Textile Institute in Shanghai argues for another derivation: beginning with si, the
Chinese word for silk, we get 'Sino', then 'Cina' and finally 'China' 1.
That etymology is significant because, for He, it links China's national identity with its claim
to be the cradle of sericulture, the production of silk. That of course is the traditional
picture; after all, the Silk Road commences at the ancient Chinese capital of Xi'an. The
science and technology of silk manufacture is still afforded dedicated research institutes in
China, where surely more is known about this ancient craft than anywhere else in the world.
So it is not surprising that a recent suggestion by Irene Good of the Peabody Museum at
Harvard and her colleagues that silk production might have begun independently in the
Harappan culture of the Indus Valley (now in east Pakistan) has been greeted with some
dismay in China. Good and colleagues identified the Harappan silks in an archaeological
project conducted in 1999–2000 through a US–Pakistan collaboration2.
The claim is challenged by He, who says that the Harappan silk fragments dated by Good et
al. to the mid-third-millennium BC far postdate evidence for Chinese sericulture from
around 5000 BC1. But that evidence is partly circumstantial: it comes from engraved
drawings on ivory that have been interpreted, but not conclusively, as silkworms. Some
samples of silk have been found in the Yangtse delta in Zhejiang province in association
with a bamboo basket dated to 3500–2700 BC, but Good et al.3 say that the presence, at
the same site, of items such as peanuts that must stem from a much later period raise
questions about the silk's age. Silk from Qingtai in Henan province is associated with
cultural artefacts from 4000–3500 BC, but the textile itself lacks a radiocarbon date. So
Good and colleagues argue that there are no clear examples of Chinese silk before around
2500 BC.
The debate doesn't just rest with the archaeological dating. Good et al. also pointed out
that, on the basis of microscopic morphology of the threads, their samples of early
Harappan textiles were made from the silk of wild silkmoths indigenous to southeast Asia,
not the domesticated silkworm Bombyx mori used in China1. They stress that nothing in
their findings threatens the notion that the domestication of silkworms first happened solely
18
in China. Domesticated silk does not start to appear outside China until around two
millennia ago.
It's unlikely that this is the end of the story. Ji-Huan He may of course be right that
sericulture had a unique origin in China. But because definitive proof of that is likely to be
very hard to come by, it seems risky to develop too much emotional attachment to the idea.
References
1. He, J.-H. Archaeometry doi:10.1111/j.1475-4754.2010.00550.x (2010).
o Article http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4754.2010.00550.x
2. Good, I. L., Kenoyer, J. M. & Meadows, R. H. Archaeometry 51, 475–466 (2009).
o Article http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4754.2008.00454.x
3. Good, I. L., Kenoyer, J. M. & Meadows, R. H. Archaeometry (in the press). … Some
samples of silk have been found in the Yangtse delta in Zhejiang province in association
with a bamboo basket dated to 3500–2700 BC, but Good et al.3 say that the presence, at
the same site, of items such as peanuts that must stem from a much later period raise
questions about the silk's age… in article
http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/v10/n1/full/nmat2935.html#ref-link-4
A succinct historical account of the link between the Silk Road and Gandhara is provided by
William Rust and Amy Cushing in their article in Athena Review (2001).
With the discovery of Tokharian as an Indo-European language and the occurrence of the
word anzu „iron‟ in Tokharian with possible links to amzu as a key attribute of soma in the
Rigveda, new locations are hypothesized for the soma obtained from Mt. Mujavat. One
hypothesis is that the Mt. Mujavat could be Muztagh Ata of Kyrgystan. Muztagh Ata
and Kongur Tagh are two peaks of the Himalayan ranges north of Tibetan plateau, close to
the Karakoram Highway.
The Swedish explorer and geographer Sven Hedin made the first recorded attempt to climb
Muztagh Ata, in 1894. Sven Hedin, together with Aurel Stein have discovered the
fascinating links of Indian civilization with the Silk Road.
Athena Review Vol.3, no.1:
The Buried Silk Road Cities of Khotan
The ancient desert settlements of Khotan and neighboring Silk Road towns from Chinese
East Turkestan to Turkmenistan were once bustling, cosmopolitan centers that flourished
from the exchange of goods, languages, religion and ideas. The Silk Road, today a busy
19
highway with some recent notoriety for drug-smuggling, has been crossed by centuries of
travellers from Zhang Quian to Marco Polo. Lands through which the western part of the
ancient Silk Road passed, however, in many ways present a stark contrast to the insular,
war-torn political and economic climate of today‟s
South-Central Asia.
China‟s original Silk Road (active from the 2nd
century BC - 14th c. AD) led westward from the
T‟ang Dynasty capital at Ch‟ang An to Tun-huang
at the edge of the Taklamakan Desert, then split
at Kashgar into north and south routes through
countries now becoming household names (figs.1,
2). The north branch crossed Kyrgyzstan and
Uzbekistan (with famous market towns at
Tashkent and Samarkand); the southern branch
entered Afghanistan along the Hindu Kush
mountains between northern Pakistan and
southern Tajikistan, then passed through the age-
old cavern stop and camel center of Bactria.
Converging in Turkmenistan, the Silk Road
continued west through Iran to endpoints at
Damascus and Antioch.
Fig.1: Map of the western Silk Road region
between China and Iran, with modern political
boundaries.
In Chinese Turkestan, the ancient province of
Khotan lay along this east-west corridor
connecting China with several early, hybrid civilizations including the Indo-Scythian (-
Kushan), and Graeco-Buddhist (Gandharan) cultures in Afghanistan and Pakistan, plus
commercial elements from the Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Empires further west.
Although Khotan‟s buried cities were rediscovered a century ago, today the unique
archaeological remains in this region are tragically caught in a warzone‟s crossfire of
destruction. Furthermore, many Buddhist and other religious and cultural remains
considered taboo by Islamic fundamentalists have recently been destroyed.
An ancient cultural melting pot: The region from Turkestan to Afghanistan has a long term
history as a cultural crossroads. Between 2500-1700 BC, the Punjab in the Indus Valley of
Pakistan was home to the Harappan civilization, one of the world‟s first urban cultures, with
writing, roads facilitating long-distance trading networks, and major cities at Mohenjo-Daro
and Harappa. Later, in the 4th to 1st centuries BC, the region witnessed an influx of Greek,
Iranian, Palmyran, Parthian, Tokharian, and Chinese influences. Bactria (today‟s Balkh in
northern Afghanistan) was then the wealthy capital of the independent Bactrian kingdom,
combining Hellenistic and Indian cultures. In nearby northern Pakistan, meanwhile, the
Gandharan kingdom flourished from the 3rd century BC to the 4th century AD (eventually
falling in the 6th c. AD to Hephtalites or White Huns). Centering at Taxila on the Indus River
near today‟s Islamabad, the Gandharan culture incorporated eastern and western (Graeco-
Buddhist) art, symbolism, and architecture. Starting with King Ashoka (273-232 BC),
Gandhara served as a gateway between India, Central and Eastern Asia, and the
20
Mediterranean, promoting the spread of Buddhism, art, and mercantile culture northeast to
the Tarim Basin and China.
By the 1st century BC, the Gandharan civilization was closely linked to the trading centers
of Khotan. Despite being located in a relatively harsh environment skirting the Taklamakan
Desert, both archaeological and historical evidence reveal that, for a full millennium, the
ancient Khotan settlements thrived as places of economic, religious, and cultural exchange
between east and west.
Rediscovery of Khotan: Clues to over a thousand years of major Silk Road settlements
remained hidden in Chinese Turkestan‟s desert sands until exposed between 1896 and 1910
by two of the most intrepid explorers ever known, Sven Hedin and Aurel Stein.
Unexpectedly well preserved finds from the ancient Kingdom of Khotan dating from the 2nd
century BC to after AD 1200 revealed that a forgotten commercial and cultural crossroads
prospered there in the 1st millennium AD. Although the region is largely Islamic today,
ancient merchants carried Buddhism along with their goods on the Silk Road, allowing it to
flourish throughout
this gateway to China.
In the center of
Western Turkestan‟s
Tarim Basin lies the
forbidding, nearly
waterless Taklamakan
Desert, first accurately
mapped by
geographer Sven
Hedin in the late
1890s (figs.2, 5).
Over 750 miles wide
(EW), the desert is
flanked on the north
by the Tien Shan mountains, and on the south by Tibet‟s imposing Kunlun range. Spring-fed
rivers that ran through this barren desert, supporting the Silk Road trade centers in Khotan,
were harnessed by sophisticated irrigation systems and yielded cobbles of jade, the
sanctified green stone sought throughout the ancient Orient.
Fig.2: Map of the Tarim Basin, with sites found by Sven Hedin and Aurel Stein (after Hedin
1898 and Stein 1933).
When Marco Polo passed through Turkestan in 1271 (fig.3) on his way to the court of Kublai
Khan at Khanbalik (Beijing), he reported that Khotan - by then, long converted to Islam -
still remained prosperous:
“Khotan is a province 8 days journey in width, subject to the Great Khan. The inhabitants all
worship Mahomet. It has cities and towns in plenty, of which the most splendid, and the
capital of the kingdom, bears the same name as the province, Khotan. It is amply stocked
with the means of life. Cotton grows there in plenty. It has vineyards, estates, and orchards
in plenty. The people live by trade and industry; they are not at all warlike.” [Marco Polo,
Travels, chap. 33].
21
Eventually, by the time of the Ming Dynasty (AD 1386-1644), the rivers that fed the basin
had shifted or dried up. Concurrently, the Ming Emperors‟ policy of isolationism drastically
reduced the importance of the Silk Road. As a result, these ancient cities were abandoned
to the desert elements, and buried by sand.
Rediscovery of the buried cities of Khotan around 1900, first by Hedin and then by
archaeologist Aurel Stein (fig.14), revealed an astonishing mixture of eastern and western
cultures, as evidenced by inscriptions from Chinese, Semitic, and Indo-European languages,
and by temple and household objects combining Asian and Hellenistic art styles. By 330 BC,
Alexander the Great‟s conquest of the Iranian Empire had infused Greek language,
adminstration, and sculptural arts into the extant Persian and Indian traditions. Palmyran
and then Parthian tribes reclaimed the region, but Greek influences persisted through the
Bactrian kingdoms of the 2nd-1st centuries BC. The culture of this region further diversified
with subsequent northern Indian contact. As Stein was to prove, the Kushan people
(descendents of the Yüeh-chih, a group displaced to northern India by Hun ancestors called
Hsiung-nu) moved into the Tarim Basin by the 2nd century BC, bringing with them writing,
Buddhistic beliefs, and commercial ties with the Gandharan culture on the Indo-Afghan
frontier. This melding of traditions produced striking art forms combining Eastern symbolism
with Western realism.
The Silk Road: Knowledge in China of these cultural movements began with reports by
Chinese officer Zhang Quian, called the “father of the Silk Road.” Emperor Wu Ti (140-87
BC) of the Han Dynasty had sent Zhang Quian to the Yüeh-chih rulers of northern India to
persuade them to join the Chinese against the Hun progenitors called Hsiung-nu. After
failing to recruit them, being imprisoned by the Hsiung-nu for 10 of the 13 years of his trip,
and returning in 125 BC with only one of his hundred original men, Zhang Quian
nevertheless had gained crucial information about sophisticated, wealthy societies in the
West with a faith known as Buddhism, and a larger breed of horses that could benefit the
Han militia.
Upon learning of
these Occidental
states, the Emperor
Wu Ti at once
sought to control
the lucrative trade
corridor linked to
the West that
became known as
the Silk Road. Han
forces conquered it
in 115 BC by
beating the Huns
back north of the
desert. Starting in
6 BC, the Huns re-
seized the
contested area and,
during the next 11 years, divided it into 55 territories. The pendulum swung back for the
Chinese in AD 73 under Emperor Ming Ti, when the general Pan Ch‟ao, famed as one of
22
China‟s greatest soldier-statesmen for his use of trickery and skillful diplomacy over brute
force, reconquered the Tarim Basin.
Fig.3: Map of China and Central Asia, showing Great Wall locations
Increasing trade amid hostile territories led to the extension of the Great Wall of China
along the Silk Road (fig.2). The Great Wall was first built at the end of the 3rd century BC,
when the Qin (Ch‟in) Dynasty (221-206 BC) unified China‟s Warring States and connected
their regional protective walls into one solid frontier. Now, to protect new trade networks
with India, Han Emperor Wu Ti extended the Wall westward along the Silk Road. For
centuries it was periodically maintained and lengthened as far as the Tibetan Plateau.
Remains of the Great Wall with 7th-8th century AD guard outposts were found by Stein as
far west as Tun-huang (see below).
Along with facilitating China‟s prosperous trade in silk (its manufacture long a jealously
guarded secret) and many other goods ranging from salt and glass to jade and ivory, the
Silk Road provided Buddhism with a ready avenue for expanding and flourishing in alliance
with merchants and urban culture. Mahâyâna or “Great Vehicle” Buddhism spread from
India to China via the trade route, after the Han Emperor Ming Ti (AD 57-75) was convinced
that the golden figure in his dream was a sign from Buddha. In AD 68 he sent a minister
named Cai Yin to learn about this mysterious god of the West. Yin returned not only with
Buddhist sculptures and scriptures, but with two Buddhist monks to teach their faith to the
Chinese.
Later, by AD 166, Emperor Huan formally introduced the western religion by hosting
Buddhist ceremonies in his palace. At the end of the Han Dynasty, both regional unrest and
disillusionment with the traditional Confucian order had encouraged people to adopt a new
faith (Montell 1935). Buddhism continued to gain popularity and experienced its greatest
inflow into China during the Northern Wei Dynasty (in the Six Dynasties) in the 4th-5th
century AD. The earliest known Chinese Buddhist image with a precise date, from AD 338,
is a bronze Buddha imitating a Gandharan prototype (Sullivan 1979).
In AD 399-400 Fâ Hsien, a Buddhist monk from China, travelled through the Khotan
province on foot on his way to India to obtain Buddhist texts for his homeland. On his
journey, he made invaluable observations about the people and places he visited. By AD
514, at least two million people in China
were practicing the religion.
During this time the Chinese Empire
witnessed a boom in the construction of
Buddhist monasteries, stupas (shrines;
fig.4), and grottos (cave sanctuaries).
Grottos carved into soft sandstone cliffs
were especially abundant on the edge of
the Taklamakan Desert. They often held
a wealth of offerings to Buddha from
merchants giving thanks for, or asking
for, a safe trek across the unforgiving
desert. Not coincidentally, the Mogao grottos at Tun-huang at the edge of the desert‟s most
difficult crossing have yielded some of the richest caches of Buddhist art and ancient
documents, dating from the Northern Wei Dynasty (AD 386-535). Also known as the Caves
23
of the Thousand Buddhas, they were heavily used during the Sui and T‟ang Dynasties (AD
581-906). Here, important new discoveries were made by Stein (fig.8).
Fig.4: Buddhist stupa discovered by Stein's expedition at Miran (Stein 1912).
Further evidence for the popularity of Buddhism in China comes from the writings of 7th
century traveller Hsüan-tsang (Xuanzang), who undertook a mission to collect Buddhist
teachings during the height of the Silk Road. Upon his return, he built the “Great Goose
Pagoda” in Ch‟ang An, the capital of the T‟ang Dynasty, to house the more than 600
scriptures he retrieved. Today Hsüan-tsang is seen as an important influence in the
development of Buddhism in China. He also chronicled in great detail the customs of the
people and places of Turkestan as well as Tibet and India. In
his work Hsi Yu Chi, he wrote of Khotan:
“What land there is, is suitable for regular cultivation and
produces abundance of fruits. The manufactures are carpets,
haircloth of a fine quality, and fine-woven silken fabrics.
Moreover, it produces white and green jade...They have a
knowledge of politeness and justice...They love to study
literature and the arts...This country is renowned for its music”
(Hsüan-tsang, in Montell 1935:149-150).
Khotan‟s success, which was interdependent upon the strength
of the Chinese Empire, the success of the Silk Road, and the
proliferation of Buddhism, suffered great losses when all three
began to decline. In the 10th century AD, the region witnessed
the weakening of the T‟ang dynasty in the East and invasions by Arabs in the West, who
brought Islam to the area at the expense of Buddhist practices and art. Henceforth, while
east-west trade continued, the once-flourishing Buddhist shrines were destroyed or replaced
by those of Islamic culture. The ensuing instability as well as the rise of the Silk Sea Route
caused traffic on the Silk Road to decline.
By the early 1200s, the Mongolian tribes united, elected a leader, Genghis Khan, and
conquered a huge portion of Eurasia as far west as the Mediterranean. With the later Sung
Dynasty (AD 960-1279) now unable to protect the Silk Road from Mongolian, Arab, and
other invasions, populations and wealth (still evident at the time of Marco Polo) dwindled in
Chinese Turkestan. Shifting rivers and desert sands soon reclaimed the once-flourishing
towns.
Fig.5: Swedish geographer Sven Hedin, who first rediscovered the buried cities of
Khotan (Hedin 1898).
Rediscovery: Swedish geographer Sven Hedin (fig.5), who spent much of a long and
successful career exploring and mapping large but little known portions of Turkestan, Tibet,
and northwest China, rediscovered the desert settlements of Khotan in 1896 under highly
dramatic circumstances. After crossing the formidable Kun-lan mountains, whose melting
snows fed streams once flowing through the Taklamakan Desert past ancient towns, Hedin
attempted to cross the waterless desert itself. As described in his 1898 book, Through Asia,
this Taklamakan trek in the summer of 1896 proved to be nothing short of disastrous. After
most of his party, including all the pack camels, had died of thirst and heat exposure, Hedin
24
and two companions managed to crawl to safety at an oasis in the southeast corner of the
desert, to be rescued by a passing
caravan.
While recovering at the nearby bazaar
town of Khotan, Hedin learned of lost
cities along abandoned riverbeds whose
wooden house beams stuck out through
desert sands, and of artifacts collected
by local people. Within a few months he
had visited several sites at Khotan and
Niya, making limited excavations at
houses and temples. Recognizing the
significance of the finds which included
Buddhist- and Gandharan-influenced
carvings, paintings, and texts, well-
preserved in the dry climate, Hedin
reported them in both scientific and
general publications.
Fig.6: Ruins of Niya house XXVI excavated by Stein. Fantastic animal effigies including
winged beasts with crocodile heads are carved on wood panels (Stein 1912).
Hedin‟s descriptions of the buried cities soon inspired the Hungarian archaeologist and
linguist M. Aurel Stein to explore Khotan and surrounding areas. Stein had a mastery of the
Oriental languages of northern India, and a keen interest in deciphering the missing history
of Central Asia. In pursuit of these goals, Stein organized four expeditions into Turkestan
and western China from 1900-1930.
Leaving Kashmir on May 29, 1900, Stein and his crew travelled by
camel and horseback to reach Khotan on October 2. Stein
ingeniously solved the problems of both crossing and working in
the deadly Taklamakan Desert by travelling in winter and having
camels carry large blocks of ice, an easily transportable source of
water. He proceeded to unearth phenomenal finds in the Tarim
Basin at Khotan, Dandan-Uiliq, Niya, Endere, and other sites as
far east as Tun-huang, including included Buddhist temples and
artifacts, house-dwellings, inscriptions, and ruins of the extended
Great Wall.
Fig.7: Sir Mark Aurel Stein (1862-1940), the Hungarian
archaeologist who uncovered Buddhist sites from Khotan to Tun-
Huang (Stein 1912).
Buddhist temples and artifacts: Stein discovered excellently preserved Buddhist temples
(called But-khana, or temple of idols) at Dandan-Uiliq. These had an inner, square
sanctuary room or cella, enclosed by four equidistant outer walls in a square passage used
for the ceremonial processions or pradakshina of Indian custom. In the center of these
rooms were elaborately stuccoed pedestals holding large idols of Buddha (indicated by
remnants of the statues‟ feet still in place).
25
The temple walls of Dandan-Uiliq and elsewhere had paintings and stucco reliefs of Buddha,
Buddhist saints (Bodhisattvas), and flying Gandharvas (Buddhist angels), all created in a
Graeco-Buddhist style similar to that in Gandhara In AD 400 Fâ hsien reported Buddhist
figurines and temple walls coated in gold leaf, and Stein in fact discovered minute traces of
gold on some of the artifacts.
Further east at Tun-huang, even
richer examples of Buddhist art
are housed in the Caves of the
Thousand Buddhas (fig.8) . The
prolific stucco statues and fresco
paintings of Buddhist heavens,
saints, and even everyday life
reflect a mixture of Indian and
Chinese styles. In each cave, a
large Buddha statue sits
surrounded by a number of
Dvarapalas, the heavenly “Gu
ardians of the Quarters,” and Bodhisattvas (fig.9). So industrious were these artists that
some paintings of Buddha are nearly one hundred feet high.
Fig.8: Middle and southern groups of Caves of the Thousand Buddhas at Tun-Huang
(Dunhaung) in western China, with Buddhist paintings and inscriptions from 4th-9th
centuries AD (Stein 1912).
Preservation of such works throughout the Silk Road cities offers precious insights into their
varied religious traditions, symbols, and legends. At Dandan-Uiliq and Endere, Stein
uncovered a number of paintings depicting both Buddhist and Hindu deities, including
Ganesha, the popular elephant-headed Hindu god of wisdom. At the Caves of the Thousand
Buddhas, Stein documented an ancient silk painting depicting King Vaisravana, Buddhist
god of Wealth and patron god of Khotan, moving on a cloud across the ocean with his divine
hosts. At left, a demon attempts to shoot an arrow at Garuda, half-man half-bird, who flies
to the safety of heaven. In Buddhist Khotan temples, depictions of a local rat-headed
divinity were discovered that, as initially described by Hsüan-tsang, represented the story of
how rats helped Khotan‟s king repel a Hun invasion by destroying their horse harnesses.
Another story told through art is a painting of the Chinese princess who introduced silk
manufacture (sericulture) to Khotan.
House-dwellings and associated
artifacts: Stein, in excavating many
towns of the ancient Khotanese,
preferred to dig out the more deeply
buried structures, as the sands
protected them and their contents from
the elements as well as looters. Houses
and temples were built of sun-dried
bricks and clay, due to the lack of
stone in the Khotan region. Wooden
beams and poles incorporated into the
walls and roofs for support were often
26
the first remains found sticking out of desert sands.
Both local life and long-distance commercial contact with China are reflected in these
household remains. Everyday items include pottery, and dyed cotton, silk, and woolen
fabrics with designs showing both eastern and western influence. At Lou-lan, Stein found
both polychrome silk and damask fragments revealing 2000-year-old Chinese
manufacturing techniques; and tapestries of wool with a style “unmistakably Hellenistic,”
one with a head of the Greek god Hermes (Stein 1933).
Fig.9: Sculptured group in Mogao Cave, one of the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas at Tun-
huang, showing Buddha surrounded by Dvarapalas (guardians) and Bodhisattvas (saints)
(Stein 1912).
Other finds included leather shoes, animal bones, bone spoons, and wooden horse combs.
Inside household structures at Niya, Stein found tatters of antique rugs, silk and woolen
fabrics, glass, pottery and metal fragments, agricultural tools, chopsticks, and wooden
furniture such as an elaborately carved armchair with lion-claw legs and armrests in
Hellenistic style. Leisure activities are indicated by remains of musical instruments such as
guitars, and multitudes of sheeps‟ knuckles, painted red and yellow, that were used as dice.
Evidence for commerce with China consists of coins, delicate laquered ceramic wares, finely
woven silk, green and yellow glass, and porcelain sherds with Chinese seals on them. Both
Chinese and local coins were plentiful at Endere, Khotan, Aksipil, Hanguya, Kara-dong, and
Rawak. Local coinages displayed the bilingual nature of business, with one side printed in
Chinese and the other in Kharoshthi. Most Chinese coins, with their distinctly square-holed
centers, date to the T‟ang dynasty (AD 618-907; fig.28). Another clue that the Khotan
region flourished for centuries in the 1st millennium AD is the abundance of precious stones.
Jade was cherished and used, among other ways, as seals that the inhabitants of Khotan
ceremoniously touched to their brows before opening
letters.
Clay pottery and figurines ranging from plain coarse-ware
to elaborately designed effigy bowls were abundantly
produced in all shapes and sizes. At Niya, Stein found an
intact pottery jar three feet in diameter. Effigy bowls and
other pots were often decorated with appliqué masks of
terra cotta depicting people, animals, and mythological
beings. Handles, spouts and figurines were also often
intricately moulded into realistic or mystical animals .
Agricultural artifacts and features were discovered near
many of the houses. At several sites, shrivelled, bleached
trunks of long-dead poplars, willows and fruit trees
protruding from the desert sand indicate the use of
ancient orchards. In a Karagong ruin, Stein discovered
the remains of ancient agricultural goods such as tarigh
(millet), wheat, rice, oats, roots, and dried black currants.
To support such agriculture, complex irrigation works were needed; their gradual
abandonment led to the demise of Dandan-Uiliq, Niya, Endere, and neighboring towns
through the Tarim Basin.
27
Fig.10: Ancient silk embroidery of Buddha surrounded by Bodhisattvas, from Tun-huang
(Stein 1912).
Inscriptions: A wealth of information has come to light from the abundant writings found
throughout the Khotan region. First found by Hedin at the Khotan sites, and later a focus of
Stein‟s investigations from Khotan to Tun-huang, the texts represent a number of writing
systems or scripts whose succession or co-existence in Turkestan helps illuminate this little
understood yet literate region (fig.11).
Aramaic: Several scripts found in the Tarim Basin developed out of Aramaic, a Semitic
alphabetic writing system containing 22 consonants and no vowels, that was developed by
Canaanite tribes (Hebrews, Phoenicians, Aramaeans) from 2000-1000 BC. By 800 BC, the
Phoenicians had lent their highly useful alphabet to the Greeks, their trading partners, who
in turn modified and adopted it to their own language. Hebrew was and has remained more
of a secondary, scholarly language (until its recent re-adoption in the modern state of
Israel). Aramaic, meanwhile, became an international language during the 1st millennium
BC and the root of many new languages, as it was carried with travellers and traders from
the eastern Mediterranean spreading east, south, and north.
Aramaic spread into India and heavily influenced the development of Indic writing,
especially that used in N. India for the Indo-European language Sanskrit. Emperor Ashoka
(273-232 BC), a convert to Buddhism, had his edicts etched in stone in two local scripts
which grew out of Aramaic: Kharoshthi, a cursive, syllabic script using 252 separate signs,
read from right to left; and Brahmi, a semi-alphabetic script which later becomes the
dominant form in India. Kharoshthi scripts, probably introduced when Persians ruled NW
India in the 5th century BC, were used in Central Asia until the 8th century AD for
commercial and calligraphic purposes. Aramaic writings at Khotan represented Sogdian, an
Iranian dialect from ancient Sogdiana (present day Samark and Bokhara), and were
discovered at Lop-nor and Tun-huang.
At a ruined portion of the Great Wall in Tun-huang, Stein discovered both Kharoshthi and
Sogdian-like Aramaic writtings in a trash pile dated to the beginning of the 1st century AD.
The spectacular find uncovered some of the earliest known forms of paper and exemplifies
the intersection of the East, West and South at this desert tower.
Sanskrit: The semi-alphabetic Brahmi script was also used to write Sanskrit documents in
the Tarim Basin. Sanskrit manuscripts representing canonical Buddhist writings were found
at Dandan-Uiliq along with documents in Chinese and a mysterious, previously undiscovered
language (Khotanese).
Tocharian: Another early language in the Tarim Basin was Tocharian, somewhat
controversially considered an Indo-European language. Sieg and Siegling (1908), who made
this identification, also linked it (based on ancient Greek and Latin historians) with the
Tochari of the upper Oxus River, which may be incorrect. Hedin (V.2, p.69) claimed that, in
157 BC, the Tokhari (or Tukhari) people migrated from Bulunghir-gol to west Turkestan and
settled in and around Khotan, and that geographical names such as the town of Tokhla and
the Taklamakan Desert are remnants of the Tocharian language.
Since Tocharian shows no obvious relationship to other Indo-European languages, it now
forms an independent branch of this group and holds a large number of borrowed words
from Turkish, Iranian, and (later) Sanskrit. The Tocharian literature is heavily Buddhistic in
28
content. Examples of this language written in Brahmi script have been found in the Tarim
Basin dating between AD 500-1000. There were two Tocharian dialects, A (from Turfan area
in the east) and B (from Kucha region in west but also from the Turfan area). It is possible
that dialect A was a “dead” language, only used in Buddhist monasteries, while B was more
commercially used.
Chinese: The largest collection of Chinese writings found by Stein
were Buddhist texts at Tun-huang. He also discovered military and
administrative documents at a number of Tarim sites including
Endere, Dandan-Uiliq, and Khotan. Hedin recovered many Chinese
records on paper and wood at Lop-Nor.
Khotanese: Khotanese (Saka) was a Middle Iranian language
written in Brahmi script, containing many borrowed words from
the Prakrit (local, Sanskrit-derived) languages of India. There are
two Saka dialects; one seen in many Buddhist and other types of
scripts at Khotan from the 7th-10th century AD, while the other
dialect is connected with Tumshuq. According to Stein, this non-
Sanskritic language represented the local dialect of the Khotan
people.
Fig.11: Leaf from a Khotani Saka sutra, discovered by Sven Hedin
(Hedin coll., Stockholm Ethnog.Museum, Montell 1938).
An unnamed Prakrit dialect in Kharoshthi script: Of all the writings found in the Tarim Basin
and eastward, Stein was most interested in an Indian Prakrit dialect written in the
Kharoshthi script that, he concluded, entered the area during the 2nd century BC conquest
of Khotan by the northern Indian Kushan kingdom. He first encountered this writing at the
site of Niya in January of 1901, in the form of hundreds of administrative documents written
on wooden tablets. Many were wedge-shaped from seven to thirty inches long, with some
rectangular ones up to seven and a half feet in length. All the variant tablet forms were
named in the ancient writing using bureaucratic categories which Stein, somewhat jokingly,
compared to those of modern India. Some tablets were originally fastened in pairs to make
an enclosed envelope. Sunken sockets filled with clay seals of Greek figures next to an
address written in Kharoshthi marked the outside of the joined wooden pieces. In a few
instances, wooden tablets with double seals displayed one in Hellenistic style and the other
in Chinese characters.
Stein‟s interest in the Kharoshthi materials lay in the fact that the script used in Khotan was
exactly like that used around Taxila. This directly ties early Khotan influences to the Kushan
people of the Indo-Scythian dynasty who ruled over the Punjab (the Indus River zone in
Pakistan) during the last three centuries BC.
Stein, furthermore, found historical evidence in both the 7th century writings of Hsüan-
tsang and old Tibetan texts, which said that Khotan had been conquered and colonized
about 200 BC by Indian immigrants from Taxila (Stein 1904, p.383). Hsüan-tsang learned
from early accounts that a number of chieftains from Taxila (Pakistan) were forced to
emigrate to an area north of the snow mountains to escape the vengence of the king and
founded a kingdom in the Tarim Basin. These are the people, he reports, who introduced
Buddhism to Khotan, and told legends of how the Buddhist divinity Vaisravana granted the
kingdom a dynasty whose first ancestor sprung from the head of the god‟s image.
29
Taken together, the inscriptions in the Tarim Basin, written on materials including wood,
leather, silk, and paper, provide extraordinary information about business, politics, and
personal life in the ancient towns. One officer‟s report found at Dandan-Uiliq, dated
precisely to AD 768, requests that the people of his town be allowed to pay their taxes late,
due to economic harships from a recent rash of robberies. Another ancient (but undated)
document depicts a military requisition for an animal skin to re-cover a drum, and feathers
to repair arrows. The manuscripts in the local Khotan writing system from Dandan-Uiliq
denote recoveries of debt, bonds for small loans, and reports from local officers, all dating
between AD 781-790. This coincides with the end of the Chinese T‟ang Dynasty‟s control
over the region around AD 791, followed by the Tibetan invasion. Likely not a coincidence,
maintenance of the vital irrigation system subsided around the same period, as Chinese
officials in charge of them abandoned their stations. Tibetan texts dated to AD 719 from
Endere foreshadow the Tibetan rise to power.
Another intriguing text centers around Hwi Chao, a Korean monk who grew up in China and
travelled to India via the sea. He ended up living and travelling in India and Turkestan from
AD 713 to 741. Based on his adventures, Chao wrote The Record to Five Indian Kingdoms, a
work widely referenced by other ancient scholars that provides valuable information on
Islamic and Buddhist distributions in Central Asia at this time. The book had been declared
lost since the T‟ang Dynasty, until French explorer Paul Pelliot found a 14-page section of it
in a Tun-huang cave in 1908.
The extended Great Wall: During his second expedition in 1906-1908, Stein ventured as far
east as the western gate of the Great Wall in Chia-yü-kuan. Strategically located with
several thousand miles of mountains to its south, it protects eastern China‟s only accessible
entrance from the west. However, at Tun-huang, much further west, Stein noted
Chinese limes, or frontier fortifications, of great antiquity. Stein describes the guard towers
as 30 ft high with bases of 20 square feet tapering towards their tops (fig.35). Usually,
Stein found the adjoining living quarters, originally built of wood, to be badly damaged by
the elements. However, in some instances, he discovered guard rooms that were buried and
preserved by fallen tower sections .
In one of these initial excavations of the limes, Stein first encountered written records of the
guards on a solid block of wood, painted black and thickened at one end, with a string
attached, On this wooden tablet were two red Chinese characters. Puzzling Stein and his co-
workers, the meaning of this artifact was realized weeks later after one of Stein‟s
excavators recalled a similar item still used in modern armies. He explained how soldiers
from garrisons would carry large conspicuous permits of leave to prevent confusion and
limit the number of soldiers allowed to be away from their posts at any one time. Along with
the ancient permits Stein and his crew found a wide variety of everyday materials in the
guardhouse, including administrative accounts, pottery jars, wooden combs, broomsticks,
wooden hooks, cross-bows, and arrowshafts. All of this evidence made it clear that
these limes dated as far back as the Han Dynasty (202 BC-220 AD), as supported later by
the date inscribed on an artifact to the third year of the Chü-shê period in 8 AD.
Interestingly, at the Great Wall extension Stein also found a box fastened in a manner
unmistakably like the triangular wooden Kharoshthi script “envelopes” of the Niya sites.
Here, however, they were three centuries older and inscribed with Chinese characters.
Based on this evidence, Stein contended that these Chinese limes dated to the T‟ien-han
period in the 2nd century BC. He further suggested that these western limes were identical
to the Great Wall. Their purpose, he deduced, was largely for defense against the Hsiung-nu
30
(Hun ancestors), but also provided the Chinese military a strategic point from which they
could patrol and extend their own territory.
Khotan’s Legacy: Sven Hedin‟s and Aurel Stein‟s achievements in revealing early Central
Asian history have enlightened scientific and public communities alike about a large but little
understood area. In spite of great hardships in the Tarim Basin‟s harsh environment (Hedin
almost died from dehydration, and Stein lost the toes on his right foot to frostbite), they
persevered to make lasting contributions, which seem especially relevant today to our
understanding of this region‟s history.
Stein and Hedin‟s important work has seen surprisingly little follow-up by modern
archaeologists. Within the past 10 years, the search for the lost cities of the Silk Road has
recommenced by investigators using satellite imagery to detect traces of ancient
settlements in the desert. Current dramatic political events in the Afghanistan/Pakistan
region will also no doubt rekindle widespread interest in its remarkable role as an east-west
crossroads, but make it more difficult to study . Yet the Khotan sites show how positive
cultural exchange between diverse cultures is itself part of the shared background of the
Silk Road region, and may serve as a kind of beacon of hope in the midst of today‟s grave
misunderstandings and conflicts in the mountains and deserts of Central Asia.
by William Rust and Amy Cushing
Bibliography:
Bergman, Folke 1935. “Lou-Lan wood carvings and small finds discovered by Sven
Hedin.” The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities Stockholm Bulletin No. 7. Stockholm,
Hasse W. Tullberg‟s Boktrycheri, Esselte AB.
Hedin, Sven 1899. Through Asia. New York and London, Harper Brothers.
Lane, George S. 1974. “Tocharian Language.” Encyclopaedia Britannica V.18:467-468.
Chicago, Helen Hemingway Benton, Publisher.
Montell, Gösta 1935. “Sven Hedin‟s archaeological collections from Khotan.” The Museum
of Far Eastern Antiquities Stockholm Bulletin No. 7. Stockholm, Hasse W. Tullberg,,
Esselte AB.
Montell, Gösta 1938. “Sven Hedin‟s archaeological collections from Khotan II.” The
Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities Stockholm Bulletin No. 10.Stockholm, Hasse W.
Tullberg, Esselte AB.
Reischauer, Edwin and John Fairbank. 1960. East Asia The Great Tradition. Boston,
Houghton Mifflin Co.; Tokyo, Charles E. Tuttle Co. Inc.
Stein, M. Aurel. 1904. Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan. London, Hurst and Blackett,
Limited.
31
Stein, M. Aurel. 1912 (repr.1999). Ruins of Desert Cathay. Personal Narrative of
Explorations in Central Asia and Westernmost China. New Delhi, Madras, Asian
Educational Services.
Stein, M. Aurel. 1933. On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks. New York, Pantheon Books.
Sullivan, Michael. 1979. The Arts of China. Berkeley, University of California Press.
Thapar, Romila 1966. A History of India. Middlesex, Penguin Books.
Turner, Eric, Ruth Barbour, T. Julian Brown, Ray Nash, Donald Anderson, Ralph Pinder-
Wilson, Chiang Yee, Won-Yong Kim. 1974. “Calligraphy.”Encyclopaedia Britannica
V.3:661-670. Chicago, Helen H.Benton.
Wild, Oliver 1992. “The Silk Road.” http://www. ess.uci.edu/~oliver/silk.html.
Wilhelm, Richard 1929. A Short History of Chinese Civilization. London, George G.
Harrap and Co. Ltd.
Wright, Thomas 1901 (transl.). The Travels of Marco Polo. London, George Bell and
Sons.
http://www.athenapub.com/9khotan1.htm
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.com/2011/09/decipherment-of-soma-and-ancient-indo.html This blog
discusses Muztagh Ata as the Mt. Maujavat, the source of Rigveda soma (identified as electrum, silver-
gold ore).
32
Terrain and Weather around Badakshan
Badakhshan's terrain.
Photo credit: Christoph Hormann at Views of the Earth
Badakhshan's terrain is typified by the image on the left. The Panj River runs through the
valley that stretches up from the lower left corner of the photograph curving to the right.
In the part that can be seen in the photograph, the Panj River marks the border between
Afghanistan and Tajikistan. The Pamirs of Tajikistan are to the left of the Wakhan Valley,
while the Hindu Kush mountains (& Afghanistan's border with Pakistan) are to the right of
the valley. The high mountains on the horizon are the Kunlun Mountains presently in
China's Xinjiang Uygur (Turkic) Region. The right peak (top-centre of the photograph) is
the Muztagh-Ata, and the peak to Muztah-Ata's left is Kongur-Shan.
33
Panj River's Wakhan Valley & farms.
The Panj River is called the Amu Darya (Oxus) in Afghanistan
Photo credit: crazynomad at Flickr.
While the winters in the mountains as well as the highlands of the Murghab district of
eastern Badakhshan, the Pamir Bowl, are harsh, the Pamirs are also home to temperate
valleys.
While the mountains are rugged and the highlands stark, many of the valleys are fertile.
The contrast in the landscape that is seen in the photograph of the Panj valley on the left,
is typical.
The principle river of the Pamir-Badakhshan region is the upper reaches of the Amu Darya
River, called the Panj River during its course in the south and west of the Pamir-
Badakhshan region.
According to Wikipedia, the Chinese call the Pamirs 'Congling' meaning the Onion Range,
a name derived from the wild onions growing in the region.
34
Wakhan Valley Farms close-up
Photo credit: crazynomad at Flickr.
Topography of the Boundaries
The area defined by the Pamir-Badakhshan region is roughly a square, with each side of
the square bounded by a major river and a mountain range. The shape and topography is
unique. It is unlike any other region in the area.
The rivers were called daryas - rivers large enough to be considered a sea or perhaps
rivers that were, in the past thought to be connected to seas. The rivers flow beyond in
different directions. Mountains ranges also radiate in different directions.
The Pamirs, the Himalayas and the other mountain ranges at the north of the Indian
subcontinent were formed by the subduction of the Indian subcontinent plate under the
Eurasian plate. The result is that earthquakes in the Pamirs are frequent and violent.
Pamiri houses are constructed to cope with earthquakes. Hot springs are numerous and
the tectonic forces have created gemstones and precious metals that are buried in the
mountains.
The Pamir's deposits of precious stones and metals that correspond to those described as
being contained in Mount Meru, the mountain that stood at the centre of the world, in the
Hindu scripture, the Vedas. Mount Meru is the equivalent of the Mount Hara Berezaiti,
Airyana Vaeja's central mountain mentioned Zoroastrian scriptures, the Avesta. In the
Vedas, Mount Meru is described as a four sided mountain where the four sides are made
from four different precious substances: the south of lapis-lazuli, the west of ruby, the
35
north of gold and the east of silver (or crystal).
The mountains in the south of the Pamir region do indeed contain the only lapis lazuli
mines known in antiquity. The other Mount Meru precious metals and stones are also
found in the region (see trade and mines below).
(Also see of pages on Aryan Trade and Sogdian Trade.)
Some of the earliest trade between the Aryan nations of the Vendidad took place out of
Badakhshan with its exclusive Sar-i Sang Lapis Lazuli mines on the upper reaches of the
Kokcha River, a tributary of the Panj (also called Amu Darya or Oxus) exporting Lapis as
far west as Mesopotamia and Egypt and as early as the 4th millennium BCE (cf. Ancient
Mesopotamian Materials and Industries by Peter Roger Stuart Moorey, p. 86). Marco Polo
visited the Sar-i Sang mines during his travels along the Silk Road. The area is rich in
other gemstones such as rubies and emeralds and precious metals such as silver and gold
that were actively traded throughout the ages (see Gem Hunter site). One of the Pamiri
settlements that centred around silver mining, Bazar-Dara, is described below.
Many of the trade roads to the upper Indus and Kashmir valleys in the adjacent Indian
sub-continent, including branches of the Silk Roads to the east and west, passed through
the Wakhan corridor. This gave the Badakhshanis access to the Indian sub-continent. It
also gave them a controlling position of the trade roads and one of the Zoroastrian era
forts called the Zamr-i-Atish-Parast, or Fortress of the Fire Worshippers, at Yamchun
served this function. It also formed a second line of defence for the Pamir / Badakhshan
region to the north, the first line of defence being the Hindu Kush mountains.
36
Bazar-Dara Valley Site Map 37
Click for a larger map
In the central Pamirs, above the banks of the river Ak-Dzhilga / Ak-Jilga, in the valley of
Murghab, are the remains of remote settlements and a mining complex called Bazar-Dara
and Ak-Jilga. The Badakhshan region has historically been famous from Egypt to China,
the steppes to India for its gems and precious metals. Silver was mined in Bazar-Dara
and traders who plied the Silk Roads came to Bazar-Dara and stayed in its caravanserai
while conducting their business. The settlements and mining complex are located at a
height of 4,000 m. The six sites, accessible only by foot or helicopter, are dated 10th to
11th century ACE in the middle valley, and 5th century BCE in the upper valley.
About 1,200 - 1,500 people lived in the settlement which included an administrative
complex, a fire-temple, and a bath with sub-floor (kan) heating. The size fits the first
level of a Jamshidi Vara (see above).
Water was obtained from small wells and skilfully designed water basins. In this region,
the soil is frozen most of the year and trees cannot grow. The large building that is
believed to have functioned as a medieval caravanserai, also has Vara-like features.
A webpage titled Geo-Archaeological Survey of Ancient Metallurgic Centres of the Bazar-
Dara Valley contains further information on this ancient Pamiri settlement.
Bazar-Dara Caravanserai ruins
According to the Wikipedia page on Parsees:
"Western Gujarat, Sind and Baluchistan had once been the eastern-most
territories of the Sassanid (226-651 CE) empire, and consequently maintained
military outposts there. Even following the loss of these territories (after the Arab
conquest in 649 CE), the Iranians continued to play a major role in the trade links
between the east and west, and in the light of Brahmanical discouragement of
38
trans-oceanic voyages, which Hindus then regarded as polluting, it is likely that
Iranians maintained trading posts in Gujarat (on the west coast of India) as well.
The 9th century Arab historiographer al-Masoudi briefly notes Zoroastrians with
fire temples in al-Hind and in al-Sind. (Stausberg 2002, p. I.374) Moreover, for the
Iranians, the harbours of Gujarat lay on the maritime routes that complemented
the overland Silk road and there were extensive trade relations between the two
regions."
Herodotus (Histories 5.52-54) gives us his account of the Persian empire's roads which he
called the Royal Roads. He was familiar with the western Royal roads which he had
travelled and which ran from Lydia (Western Asia Minor) at the borders of Ionia and
Greece to Susa. These roads passed through Armenia, the Tigris River and Babylon.
Branches ran from Susa to Persepolis in Persia, and from Babylon to Ecbatana (Hamadan)
in Media and beyond to Ragha and the eastern empire, and the Indus valley.
Herodotus (5.52-54) informs us "Now the true account of the road in question is the
following: Royal stations exist along its whole length, and excellent caravanserais; and
throughout, it traverses an inhabited tract, and is free from danger." The road was well
maintained, guarded and traversed by a regular courier and postal service.
In book 8.98, Herodotus talks about the couriers: "Nothing mortal travels so fast as these
Persian messengers. The entire plan is a Persian invention; and this is the method of it.
Along the whole line of road there are men (they say) stationed with horses, in number
equal to the number of days which the journey takes, allowing a man and horse to each
day; and these men will not be hindered from accomplishing at their best speed the
distance which they have to go, either by snow, or rain, or heat, or by the darkness of
night. The first rider delivers his despatch to the second and the second passes it to the
third; and so it is borne from hand to hand along the whole line, like the light in the
torch-race, which the Greeks celebrate to Vulcan. The Persians give the riding post in this
manner, the name of 'Angarum.'" (The angarum were called pirradazish by the Persians
Perhaps for the first time in recorded history, travellers and traders could traverse the
Aryan lands and the entire Persian empire relatively quickly and safely with a uniform law
to protect them. Trade flourished and the revenues helped to make the Persian empire
one of the wealthiest known to history.
The Royal Roads of Darius became the Silk Roads. As we have seen above, the Aryans
expanded the trade between themselves to include their neighbours. Aryan trade
extended from China in the east, to Asia Minor and Mesopotamia in the west, to the
Iranian plateau and the Indus valley in the south, an east-west distance of nearly ten
thousand kilometres. The Aryan trade routes would come to be known as the Silk Roads.
Amongst the different Indo-Iranian groups, the Sogdians would become the principle
traders along the Silk Roads.
» Site with photographs: ECAI Silk Road Atlas
39
According to the Wikipedia page on Parsees:
"Western Gujarat, Sind and Baluchistan had once been the eastern-most territories of the
Sassanid (226-651 CE) empire, and consequently maintained military outposts there. Even
following the loss of these territories (after the Arab conquest in 649 CE), the Iranians
continued to play a major role in the trade links between the east and west, and in the light
of Brahmanical discouragement of trans-oceanic voyages, which Hindus then regarded as
polluting, it is likely that Iranians maintained trading posts in Gujarat (on the west coast of
India) as well. The 9th century Arab historiographer al-Masoudi briefly notes Zoroastrians
with fire temples in al-Hind and in al-Sind. (Stausberg 2002, p. I.374) Moreover, for the
Iranians, the harbours of Gujarat lay on the maritime routes that complemented the
overland Silk road and there were extensive trade relations between the two regions."
40
Ancient tin mines, with evidence of exploitation by contemporary Andronovo
groups probably in the early-mid 2nd millenium, have been identified in the
Zerafshan region, to the north-east (Parzinger and Boroffka 2003); and
previous work suggested Afghanistan may have been a major source of tin in
antiquity (Cleuziou and Berthoud 1982).
Cleuziou and Berthoud 1982
Cleuziou S. and Berthoud 1982, 'Early Tin in the Near East: A Reassessment in the Light of
New Evidence from Western Afghanistan', Expedition, 25:14-19.
Tepe Hissar, an archaeological site of largest known urban settlement in the northeast
corner of present-day Iran, flourished from 4,500 to 1,900 BCE (Metal Age). It is located
ninety kilometres southeast of the Caspian Sea, near the modern city of Damghan, along
the south slopes of the Alburz mountains, and south of Turkmenistan. Hissar was
strategically and centrally located on the east-west trade route. Amongst the artefacts
found at the site, were those made from lapis lazuli turquoise from Badakshan in the east.
According to The Shelby White-Leon Levy Program for Archaeological Publications, Harvard
University: "Its strategic location along the major East-West trade route, between southern
Mesopotamia, Iranian plateau and Central Asia, further heightens its presumed economic
and political role in the region. The importation of lapis and turquoise implies connections
with the east, and at the same time links with the west have been documented by blank
41
clay tablets reminiscent of Proto-Elamite tablets, and a cylinder seal. Its importance,
therefore, as a cornerstone of chronology, cannot be overemphasized."
http://heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/aryans/trade.htm
Herodotus (Histories 5.52-54) gives us his account of the Persian empire's roads which he
called the Royal Roads. He was familiar with the western Royal roads which he had
travelled and which ran from Lydia (Western Asia Minor) at the borders of Ionia and
Greece to Susa. These roads passed through Armenia, the Tigris River and Babylon.
Branches ran from Susa to Persepolis in Persia, and from Babylon to Ecbatana (Hamadan)
in Media and beyond to Ragha and the eastern empire, and the Indus valley.
Herodotus (5.52-54) informs us "Now the true account of the road in question is the
following: Royal stations exist along its whole length, and excellent caravanserais; and
throughout, it traverses an inhabited tract, and is free from danger." The road was well
maintained, guarded and traversed by a regular courier and postal service.
In book 8.98, Herodotus talks about the couriers: "Nothing mortal travels so fast as these
Persian messengers. The entire plan is a Persian invention; and this is the method of it.
Along the whole line of road there are men (they say) stationed with horses, in number
equal to the number of days which the journey takes, allowing a man and horse to each
day; and these men will not be hindered from accomplishing at their best speed the
distance which they have to go, either by snow, or rain, or heat, or by the darkness of
night. The first rider delivers his despatch to the second and the second passes it to the
third; and so it is borne from hand to hand along the whole line, like the light in the
torch-race, which the Greeks celebrate to Vulcan. The Persians give the riding post in this
manner, the name of 'Angarum.'" (The angarum were called pirradazish by the Persians
Perhaps for the first time in recorded history, travellers and traders could traverse the
Aryan lands and the entire Persian empire relatively quickly and safely with a uniform law
to protect them. Trade flourished and the revenues helped to make the Persian empire
one of the wealthiest known to history.
42
http://www.archatlas.org/workshop09/wilkinson/Slide44.jpg
43