Bactria/Tokharistan in the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D. Selected Problems of Settlement Patterns and Material Culture
Abstract
Southern Central Asia in the period of the Late Antiquity, i.e. in the so-called Kushan-Sasanian period, is dealt with by scholars mostly from the point of view of global history. Questions of chronology, ruling dynasties, relation to the Sasanian Iran and other regions, and especially purely numismatic issues are frequently addressed.
Being neither numismatist, nor historian, I try to evaluate data provided by other material culture gained by the archaeological investigations. My research area is located in the southern Uzbekistan province of Surkhan Darya.
During last 15 years, I have devoted 5 years to the excavations of one of the important sites of the given period, which is known as Jandavlattepa, and additionally couple of field seasons to both intensive and extensive surface surveys in the Sherabad District. Since 2011 I have dealt here and there with selected problems of the Kushan-Sasanian period and this effort ensued in the unpublished thesis (so-called habilitation) entitled "Bactria / Tokharistan in the 3rd-4th c.
AD. Selected problems of settlement patterns and material culture" that was submitted at the Charles University in Prague just three months ago.
The thesis was compiled of both published and unpublished papers. For the present conference I have chosen some aspects of this thesis, focusing on spatial distribution of settlements (settlement patterns and dynamics) in the Kushan-Sasanian period and also on some significant features of material culture.