Saksanokhur (Саксанохур) is the modern name of a

Hellenistic In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

settlement of the

Greco-Bactrian The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom () was a Greek state of the Hellenistic period located in Central-South Asia. The kingdom was founded by the Seleucid satrap Diodotus I Soter in about 256 BC, and continued to dominate Central Asia until its fall a ...

and

Kushan ''Kushan'' or Kushana may refer to: * Kushan Empire The Kushan Empire (– CE) was a Syncretism, syncretic empire formed by the Yuezhi in the Bactrian territories in the early 1st century. It spread to encompass much of what is now Afghanistan ...

kingdoms, located at the village of Shaftolubogh near

Farkhor Farkhor (), also called Parkhar (), is a city in southwestern Tajikistan, located on the border with Afghanistan. It is the capital of Farkhor District in Khatlon Region Khatlon Region (), one of the four provinces of Tajikistan, is the most p ...

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, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Dushanbe is the capital city, capital and most populous city. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, south, Uzbekistan to ...

. 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 Corinthian order (, ''Korinthiakós rythmós''; ) is the last developed and most ornate of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Ancient Roman architecture, Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric or ...

. 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'; ) is the archaeological site of a Hellenistic city in Takhar Province, Afghanistan. The city, whose original name is unknown, was likely founded by an early ruler of the Seleucid Empire and served as a milita ...

. 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 marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...

. 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