Ai Khanoum and Greek Domination in Central Asia

Summary

Abstract: Ai Khanoum is probably the most important and the best-known of the Greek settlements founded in Bactria by the Seleucid kings. The site was excavated between 1964 and 1978, but its chronology remains unclear. The purpose of this article is to give a more accurate view of its history, taking into account the results of recent research. As yet, we are still unable to date with precision the time of its foundation, which was not a single event but a process, going on for several decades between the time Alexander the Great entered eastern Bactria in spring 328 and the time a true city was planned there under Antiochos I. Nevertheless, the development of Ai Khanoum occurred only from the beginning of the second century BC, when the city had become, along with Bactra, the major city of the Graeco-Bactrian kingdom. Under the Seleucids as well as the Graeco-Bactrian kings, Ai Khanoum was thus a royal city and its history was subordinate to those of the Greek kings.

Key words: Hellenistic Bactria, Ai Khanoum, Alexander the Great, Seleucid kings, Graeco-Bactrian kings, Greek colonization.

Central Asia was one of the territories conquered by Alexander the Great, leading subsequently to Greek immigration (Fig. 1). After his death, the region was initially incorporated into the Seleucid kingdom, then saw the emergence of independent dynasties that laid claim to Greek culture and exercised characteristically Hellenistic royal power. Literary sources and numismatics long constituted the only sources of information about its history, but they are not sufficiently numerous or comprehensive to allow it to be re-constructed in detail. Archaeological documentation provides welcome additions, and for the Hellenistic period reveals many settlements inhabited by people who were Greek or were in contact with the Greek world. One of the most important is Ai Khanoum, located on the current border between Afghanistan and Tajikistan on the left bank of the Darya-i Pandj, at the confluence with the River Kokcha. The site was excavated between 1964 and 1978 by the French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan, under the direction of Paul Bernard, and was home to the only truly known city of the Hellenistic era in Central Asia (Fig. 2). Founded in the early third century BC in ancient Bactria, it was occupied by settlers from more western regions. For nearly a hundred and fifty years their descendants.