Saksanokhur is the modern name of a

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

settlement of the

Greco-Bactrian The Bactrian Kingdom, known to historians as the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom or simply Greco-Bactria, was a Hellenistic-era Greek state, and along with the Indo-Greek Kingdom, the easternmost part of the Hellenistic world in Central Asia and the India ...

and Kushan kingdoms, located at the village of Shaftolubok near Farchor on a plateau of arable land near the meeting of the Kyzylsu and

Panj Panj () is a city in southern Tajikistan which is situated on the Afghan border, some south of the capital Dushanbe. It is located along the north bank of the river Panj, from which it derives its name. The population of the town is 12,500 (Jan ...

rivers, in the south of present-day

Tajikistan Tajikistan (, ; tg, Тоҷикистон, Tojikiston; russian: Таджикистан, Tadzhikistan), officially the Republic of Tajikistan ( tg, Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhurii Tojikiston), is a landlocked country in Centr ...

. The site consists of a rectangular settlement, with a citadel in the north-eastern corner, rising three metres above the surrounding territory. The main structure in the citadel is a fortified palatial building, with a large courtyard, measuring around 50 metres on each side. On the west, east, and south sides, the courtyard is surrounded by a narrow corridor which give access to a range of further rooms. On the south side of the courtyard there is a vestibule with four columns, known as an ''aiwan''. The door of the ''aiwan'' leads to the south isolating corridor and from there to a large hall about 15 m wide and 22 m long with two columns. The columns all belong to the 'free' Corinthian order. The general layout of the palace, the 'isolating corridors', the ''aiwan'', and the use of the free Corinthian order are all distinctive Bactiran features shared with the palatial complex at the nearby Greco-Bactrian site of

Ai Khanoum Ai-Khanoum (, meaning ''Lady Moon''; uz, Oyxonim) is the archaeological site of a Hellenistic city in Takhar Province, Afghanistan. The city, whose original name is unknown, was probably founded by an early ruler of the Seleucid Empire and ser ...

. These factors suggest that, like the Ai-Khanoum palace, Saksanokhur was constructed in the 2nd century BC. Pottery finds also support this date. Potters' quarters were excavated to the south of the citadel. All the pottery found there dates of the Kushan Period, through to the fourth century AD, indicating that the site continued to be occupied through

Late Antiquity Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English ha ...

. Saksanokhur was excavated by Soviet archaeologists from 1966 to 1967 and 1973 to 1977, when much of the site had already been levelled.

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* * * * * {{coord, 37.5514, N, 69.3906, E, source:wikidata, display=title Bactrian and Indian Hellenistic colonies Populated places along the Silk Road Former populated places in Tajikistan Populated places established in the 2nd century BC Archaeological sites in Tajikistan Archaeology of Tajikistan

See also

References

Bibliography