Semthan, also Semithan is a village 01 kilometer north of

Bijbehara Bijbehara (, known as Vejibror () in Kashmiri, is a town and a notified area committee in Anantnag district of the Indian administered union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. It is located on NH 44, and jehlum bank. Bijbehara town is also known ...

in the

Kashmir Valley The Kashmir Valley, also known as the ''Vale of Kashmir'', is an intermontane valley concentrated in the Kashmir Division of the Indian- union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The valley is bounded on the southwest by the Pir Panjal Range and ...

Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Kashmir, the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. It has an archaeological site, the ancient site of Chakradhar where cultural sequences were stratified, from the

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

to the Indo-Greek and

Kushan The Kushan Empire ( grc, Βασιλεία Κοσσανῶν; xbc, Κυϸανο, ; sa, कुषाण वंश; Brahmi: , '; BHS: ; xpr, 𐭊𐭅𐭔𐭍 𐭇𐭔𐭕𐭓, ; zh, 貴霜 ) was a syncretic empire, formed by the Yuezhi, i ...

periods.

Excavations

The site was excavated during several seasons from 1977 to 1981. Upon excavation, the site revealed several occupation layers: Period 1: pre-NBPW (700-500 BCE)
Period 2: NBPW (500-200 BCE)
Period 3: Indo-Greek (200-0 BCE)
Period 4:

Kushan Empire The Kushan Empire ( grc, Βασιλεία Κοσσανῶν; xbc, Κυϸανο, ; sa, कुषाण वंश; Brahmi: , '; BHS: ; xpr, 𐭊𐭅𐭔𐭍 𐭇𐭔𐭕𐭓, ; zh, 貴霜 ) was a syncretic empire, formed by the Yuezhi, i ...

Huna Kingdom Hunas were a tribe close to Himalayas that, because of limited interaction with Indian kingdoms, were mentioned in the epic Mahabharata. They belonged to the Xinjiang province of China, east of Jammu-Kashmir. However, they were nomadic people who ...

(1st-5th century CE)
Period 5: Hindu (5th-13th century CE)
Period 6: Late Medieval, post 13th ccentury
Pottery wares were found in Level 3, as well as a seal with an Indo-Greek deity, and Indo-Greek coins. A large number of terracotta figurines were also found in Level 4.

Artefacts

Semthan was at one point a Greek settlement. Many figurines in the Hellenistic style were found during the excavations. The female figurines are fully dressed, with the left leg slightly bent, and wear the Greek ''

chiton Chitons () are marine molluscs of varying size in the class Polyplacophora (), formerly known as Amphineura. About 940 extant and 430 fossil species are recognized. They are also sometimes known as gumboots or sea cradles or coat-of-mail s ...

'' and ''

himation A himation ( grc, ἱμάτιον ) was a type of clothing, a mantle or wrap worn by ancient Greek men and women from the Archaic through the Hellenistic periods (c. 750–30 BC). It was usually worn over a chiton and/or peplos, but was made of ...

'', and the Hellenistic styles of

Bactria Bactria (; Bactrian: , ), or Bactriana, was an ancient region in Central Asia in Amu Darya's middle stream, stretching north of the Hindu Kush, west of the Pamirs and south of the Gissar range, covering the northern part of Afghanistan, southwe ...

are probably the ultimate source of these designs. It is thought that the Indo-Greeks introduced their artistic styles into the area as they moved eastward from the area of Gandhara into South Kashmir. The stratigraphy does not permit a precise dating of these statuettes, and the date has been broadly defined as probably pertaining to the period from the 2nd half of the 1st century BCE to the 1st or 2nd century CE, in effect covering the end of the Indo-Greek period to the early Kushan period. Such Hellenistic draped figurines have not been found at

Taxila Taxila or Takshashila (; sa, तक्षशिला; pi, ; , ; , ) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan. Located in the Taxila Tehsil of Rawalpindi District, it lies approximately northwest of the Islamabad–Rawalpindi metropolitan area and ...

or Charsadda, although they are known to have been Greek cities, but probably this is mainly because excavations to Greek levels have been very limited: in Sirkap, only one eight of the excavations were made down to the Indo-Greek and early Saka levels, and only in an area far removed from the center of the ancient city, where few finds could be expected. File:Semthan terracotta statuette.jpg, Terracotta statuette in Chiton and Himation, Semthan File:Semthan, Hellenistic dress.jpg, Male Hellenistic dress, Semthan File:Semthan, female Hellenistic dresses.jpg, Semthan, female Hellenistic dresses File:Semthan, figure with helmet.jpg, Figure with helmet, Semthan File:Semthan, Indo-Greek and other coinage.jpg, Indo-Greek coin of Lysias and other coinage, Semthan File:Lysias Indian standard coin.jpg, Indo-Greek coin of Lysias (130–120 BCE), Indian square standard, of the type found at Semthan File:Semthan, sealing with Indo-Greek deity.jpg, Semthan, sealing with Indo-Greek deity.

References

{{reflist Archaeological sites in Jammu and Kashmir