Lands of Asia layouts (Eng) 26.11.21

4 .1
in present-day Pakistan. In the Indus Valley, in the first half of the 3rd millennium BC,
one of the most remarkable civilisations of the ancient East emerged – the Harappan
civilisation, which was to last until its collapse in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC.
In the 1970s, in the Amu Darya valley at the confluence of the Kokcha and
Amu Darya rivers in northern Afghanistan, French archaeologists discovered six
settlements with materials from the Harappan civilisation, and one of these sites,
Shortugai, was excavated in full. These discoveries suggest that the Harrapan people
had found a way north from the Indus valley, through the Khyber Pass to the Amu
Darya valley in the second half of the 3rd and the first half of the 2nd millennium BC.
It has been suggested that Harappan colonies existed here for the mining of
Badakhshan lapis lazuli deposits, which were then transported to Harappan settlements.
At the same time, a sea trade route connecting the Indus Valley with Mesopotamia
was also established. Mesopotamian texts make frequent references to the inhabitants
of Meluhha (most likely referring to the Indus Valley) and speak of items such as
gold, tin, silver, lapis lazuli, carnelian and timber being exported from Meluhha.
A hoard of precious objects, including gold and silver vessels made in
Mesopotamian artistic styles, was found in the area of Fulol in northern Afghanistan.
Of particular interest are the items made of lapis lazuli, a semiprecious stone,
which was highly prized in the East from ancient times. The main deposits of lazurite
are in Badakhshan, in the upper Amu Darya basin, and the earliest findings of lapis
lazuli items in Central Asia, Iran, Mesopotamia, Egypt and West Asia date from the
4th–3rd millennia BC.
The mapping of these finds, comparing them with a report about the mineral
made by an Assyrian agent who had been sent by his king to the mountainous region
of Badakhshan to acquire lapis lazuli, together with a number of Sumerian texts,
led V.I. Sarianidi to propose the existence of a ‘Great Lapis Lazuli Road’ between
the countries of the Near East and Badakhshan. Thus, as early as the 3rd to the 2nd
millennium BC, a system of overland and sea routes connecting the most remote
cultures and civilisations in the vast region of the Middle East extending from west
to east, from the plains of Mesopotamia to the Indus Valley, and from north to south,
from the deserts of Central Asia to the Arabian Sea, was established. In time, these
roads became one of the major parts of the Silk Road. This established system of
roads can rightly be called Mesopotamian-Harappan, given the most important
contribution of these two civilisations to its formation.
During this period, migrations of different peoples also increased. Especially
significant was the migration of Indo-Europeans westwards (Celts, Italic peoples,
Etruscans), to the south (Achaeans, Dorians, Hittites), and south-eastwards (through
Central Asia). This led to major changes in the ethnic map of Eurasia.
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