Abstrakt
A total disaster, abandonment of the towns and villages, complete destruction of well-established settlement pattern of the Achaemenid period, this is firmly established scholarly view of the period of Alexander the Great and shortly afterwards in southern Central Asia. Was this picture valid for Bactria as a whole, or is it possible to redraw it here and there with a fresh archeological data? Last decade experiences the new excavations of the Hellenistic fortresses of Kurganzol and Uzundara in the Baysun foothills confirming strategic importance in this region for the protection of northern border of both the Seleucid and Greco-Bactrian kingdoms.
The most recent surveys of the Czech-Uzbekistani team show clearly that these lands were not barren wastelands, resembling military buffer zones furnished only with sophisticated fortifications, but also spaces for living of mixed population with strongly helenized material culture. In 3rd c.
BCE, each valley in the Kugitang and Baysuntau foothills got its own centraly placed agricultural settlement. Thus, this region was settled systematicaly for the first time in history in a few decades after Alexander's eastern campaign.
New data from the surface surveys in the Sherabad and Baysun Districts of southern Uzbekistan are corooborated by the materials from recent archaeological excavations (Iskandar Tepa). Additionally, apparent absence of the archaeological material belonging to the so-called Achaemenid / Yaz III / Kuchuk IV period in the research area alows us to re-open the discussion on identification of particular places located around Baysun and Darband with those mentioned by Greek and Latin written sources, even if not solving it with an definite answer.