Lands of Asia layouts (Eng) 26.11.21

part i | civilisations
tied to a particular area through a water-management system and had many features
of a city-state or city-oasis.
Oasis states of this kind, particularly in Bactria, subsequently merged into
kingdoms under a single state authority. This assumption is based on an analysis of
archaeological data, and supported by the accounts of the Greek historian Ctesias of
Cnidus (5th century BC), who referred to a mighty Bactrian kingdom led by King
Oxyartes that fought against the powerful Assyrians.
Later than the ones in Bactria, some form of proto-state grouping began to
emerge in Sogdia. At any rate, even in pre-Achaemenid times, large settlements with
citadels like Koktepa, Uzun-Kyr, Er-Kurgan were already in existence here, perhaps
constituting the capitals of such groupings.
A different route to the formation of states was underway in the north of
Transoxania, in Khorezm, on territory inhabited by the Sakas. It appears that as
early as the beginning of the 1st millennium BC confederative alliances became
established here, the core of which was probably Khorezm, based on the principles of
military democracy, and led by an elected king or queen such as Tomyris or Zarina.
Central Asia in the first half and beginning of
the second half of the 1st millennium BC
At the beginning of the 1st millennium BC, the nature and substance of cultures in
Central Asia underwent significant changes. During this period, most of southern
Central Asia was occupied by the Yaz I culture or the East-Khorasan culture.
Communities associated with Yaz culture were Eastern Iranian tribes of the Late
Bronze Age and Early Iron Age who occupied a vast area in the south of Central Asia,
extending from the Kopetdag mountains in the west to the Pamirs in the east. Their
economies relied on irrigated farming and cattle breeding settlements.
Two-part settlements with a fortified citadel built on a high brick platform were
typical. Dwellings were made of mud brick and clay, but also included houses that
were partly dug out with a frame construction. Tools and weapons were made of
stone and bronze (grinding stones, bell-shaped pestles, sickles, and arrowheads with
sockets or tangs). Later came objects made of iron, and the large irrigation channels
were also created. Hand-moulded vessels, both decorated and plain, were made
using clay mixed with chamotte and crushed stone. Pottery was typically decorated
with concentric ornamental triangles, obliques and straight lines in brown and red
paint. Wheel-turned pottery was used as well. Striking finds from this period include
the head of a male in stone from Marshade and an assemblage of ritual objects. The
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