Lands of Asia layouts (Eng) 26.11.21

part iii | cultural and spiritual development
Krylgan-Kala, a site that archaeologists believe belongs to the period between the
4th/3rd centuries BC and the 1st century AD.
There are two further examples of the earliest Aramaic inscriptions dating back to the
4th and 3rd centuries BC. One of them is an inscription on a seal ring from the Amu
Darya hoard. It consists of four signs engraved over a depiction of the human-headed bull
known as Gopatshah and gives the name of the God of the Amu Darya river, Vakhshu.
The second specimen is an Aramaic legend on gold coins, with the name
Vakhshuvar (Oxyartes in Greek transliteration).
A large series of Aramaic inscriptions on objects made of greenish-blue stone –
mortars, pestles and vessels, which had an important role in the ritual preparation of
haoma, revered as a sacred drink by the Zoroastrians, has been found in the area of
ancient Arachosia (southern Afghanistan), neighbouring Central Asia. In particular,
these inscriptions include names of Arachosian craftsmen, which are very similar to
Bactrian, Sogdian and other ancient Eastern Iranian names, and they represent the
oldest collection of such names in Eastern Iran and Central Asia.
After the Achaemenid state succumbed to the armies of Alexander the Great,
Aramaic continued to be used for official purposes in Central Asia, even though the
Greek language and script were also used for administrative purposes. In the Parthian
kingdom, Aramaic was used alongside Greek for some time, while in the newly
formed Graeco-Bactrian kingdom, Greek was the main language of administration.
An ostracon found at the site of Ai-Khanum with an inscription in Aramaic dates
back to the first half of the 2nd century BC. The text of the inscription is brief – it
consists of just three incomplete lines and a postscript (or an earlier but still visible
text) made by another hand, and the content appears to relate to accounting. According
to P. Bernard and V.A. Livshits, the language is probably Bactrian rather than Aramaic.
The find at Ai-Khanum suggests that throughout Graeco-Bactrian history,
Aramaic-Bactrian was used alongside Greek for administrative purposes in the
kingdom, primarily serving the local population.
As a rule, written language tends to be relatively conservative and traditional. This is
because one of its most important functions is to preserve cultural heritage in the memory
of several generations. It is therefore no wonder that the tradition of Aramaic writing in
Central Asia and Eastern Iran, including Bactria, endured even under Hellenistic rule.
Bactrian-Aramaic script existed in Termez in the Kushan period of the first
centuries AD. As V.A. Livshits has established, this is evidenced by a brief one-word
inscription on a potsherd discovered by L.I. Albaum during the excavation of the
Buddhist complex at Fayaztepa.
The Aramaic script, but not yet Sogdian, was used for coin legends on imitations
of Euthydemus tetradrachms that were in circulation in Bukharan Sogdia. The earliest
128