Takht-i Sangin: study of the Hellenistic settlement

Excavation and research program

The site of Takht-i Sangin, in southern Tajikistan and northern former Bactria, is located at the confluence of the Vakhsh and Pandj rivers, which then form the Amu Darya. Situated on a narrow strip of land between the river and a mountain range (Aktau), it was discovered at the end of the 19th century and excavated sporadically at the beginning of the 20th century before being explored by Russian and Tajik teams until 2010.

In 2013, the Institute of History, Archaeology, and Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan (IHAET) turned to French archaeologists to resume the excavation, and the French Archaeological Mission in Central Asia, then led by H.-P. Francfort, contacted the APOHR team, now OrAM: after an initial joint field stay in 2013 and the first excavations in 2014, Mr. Gelin established in 2015 the new Franco-Tajik mission, under the CNRS, the Commission of Excavations of the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, and the IHAET.

The thesis on the founding of a Seleucid city

According to the work of previous missions, Takht-i Sangin is thought to have been founded in the 3rd century BCE, attributed to Antiochus I, when Bactria was under Seleucid rule. It is believed to have lasted until the Kushan period, in the 2nd century CE, thus surviving the nomadic invasions.
For the Seleucid and Greco-Bactrian periods, its chronological phasing corresponds to those established at the sites of Ai Khanoum, Termez, and Bactra, three important cities located within a radius of about a hundred kilometers (in present-day Afghanistan and Uzbekistan).
Takht-i Sangin is famous for housing the Oxus temple, and it seems that religious life there held a significant role, given the central location of the temple and a deliberate staging that gave it a dominant position; the Oxus Treasure, discovered nearby, is sometimes associated with it.

The building, situated in the citadel overlooking the site and extending towards the river, was fully excavated by previous archaeologists. A Tajik team led by A. Drujinina carried out excavations within the settlement itself (1998-2010), working on several habitation areas. However, due to its considerable size, the knowledge accumulated about the urban space itself remains limited for the moment, and, for example, its exact boundaries, the founding dates of the long walls that block the site at various intervals, and the probable stages of the city’s expansion are still unknown.

The fortress as an origin

The research we have been able to conduct since 2014 nevertheless suggests the possibility of a foundational structure of limited size: if it is a Seleucid creation, it is more likely to have been a fortress rather than a large city. Only future studies will allow us to determine the reality of this Seleucid foundation and how the subsequent developments of the urban area took place. Unfortunately, the security situation at the border currently does not allow us to verify these hypotheses.

The research was conducted in 2013 and 2014 thanks to and with the French Mission in Central Asia (H.-P. Francfort, F. Brunet), and from 2015 onwards as part of the French-Tajik Archaeological Mission in southern Tajikistan, supported by OrAM, the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, the Sisyphe laboratory (METIS) of Pierre and Marie Curie University, the Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan, the Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of Dushanbe, and the French Embassy in Tajikistan.

Participating OrAM members:
– Gelin Mathilde, archéologist, CNRS, Director (2013-2014, 2017);
– Blanc Pierre-Marie, archéologist, CNRS (2013-2014, 2017).

Participating ARSCAN members:
– Francfort Henri-Paul, archéologist, “Académie des Inscriptions et belles lettres” (2013-2014).

Others participants :
– Khudjagueldiev Tura, archéologist, IHAET (2013-2014, 2017);
– Sharipov Abdullah, archéologist, IHAET (2017);
– Kurbanov Faez, archaeological site of Kobadian(2013-2014);
– Aslan Bérivan, géo-physican, METIS-UMR 7619 Laboratory, Paris 6 University (2014);
– Schwerdtner Ronald, topograph (2014);
– Bolbolov Nekruz, topograph (2017).

Bibliography

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