Abstract
Wars that took place in distant fringes of the Hellenistic world - seen from Greek point of view - are typically the least known due to the scarcity or even complete lack of written sources and epigraphic data. Dealing with them, we rely mostly on comparatively limited archaeological record, offering often ambiguous interpretation possibilities.
Ancient Bactria, located as far away from the imaginary core of the Greek Hellenistic world as it could be, was for a short period of time during the Alexander the Great campaign in focus of attention of Greek historians. Information stemming from their accounts stimulated never ending debate about where the individual events of the conflict took place and who was involved. Subsequent developments and local conflicts both among Greco-Bactrian rulers themselves and between them and various nomadic tribes are rather hypothesised than really known. Some hypotheses are, however, generally taken for granted, accepted without questioning validity of available data and reasoning of previous generations of scholars.
To illustrate fragility of such "solid" historical narratives, I have chosen one case study: the famous Darband Wall aka Iron Gates of Bactria and surrounding system of fortresses. Seemingly well-researched fortification cluster founded in its modest form reportedly in the 2nd half of the 3rd c. BC by Greek rulers of Bactria against nomads from the north, and later rebuild, reinforced and extensively used by Kushans in the same way, offers rare opportunity to tell the story - with only a small effort of the archaeological field work - in a completely different way. This paper will focus on the possibilities in the interpretation of the Darband Wall itself from the tactical point of view, as well as of the whole fortification system in the Bactro-Sogdian borderlands and its strategical meaning based on the recent surface survey of the Czech-Uzbek team in the area in question.