Lands of Asia layouts (Eng) 26.11.21

part i | civilisations
led to the creation of the first states in
Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.
This type of proto-town and
proto-state organisation emerged
in the middle to the second half of
the 2nd millennium BC in the south
of Transoxania, in the present-day
Surkhan Darya region of Uzbekistan.
An example is Jarkutan (near the city of
Sherabad), a huge conurbation covering
an area of over 100 hectares. It consisted
of several settlements merged into a single
complex, with the fortified residence of the
ruler and the temple at its heart making up the
ideological core. This was not, however, the
only way that the cities of Transoxania arose.
There were other kinds of towns as well. For
example, many of the cities grew out of the
progressive development of small settlements
SITE OF KANKA WITH
A RABAD (A suburban district for
crafts, commerce and trade)
with a citadel that appeared in the early 1st millennium BC and gradually became
large cities. Others were originally built as a refugium – a shelter consisting of a large,
mostly undeveloped area with a citadel, where the surrounding population could
take shelter along with their chattels and cattle in times of conflict. Later on, these
areas became inhabited, and various buildings were built, with the refugium turning
into a city with all its associated functions.
There were also cities that were built in accordance with a king’s wishes and
to a well-thought-out plan. This kind of development of a city was typical of the
Hellenistic world from the time of Alexander the Great and his successors. We know
about this from Arrian’s description of such a city being built within 20 days on
the banks of the Syr Darya River on Alexander’s orders (it may well be the Kanka
settlement in the Tashkent Region); it became inhabited by veterans of his army and
the local population.
How long ancient cities survived depended on natural, geographical, political
and economic factors. Some of them rose and developed only to die suddenly (often
as a result of a military invasion) or were gradually abandoned and never resurrected.
This was true of many ancient Transoxania settlements, which ceased to exist in the
4th and 5th centuries AD. Others evolved steadily and grew into medieval and then
modern cities. There are many such cities in Transoxania, but only a few of them go
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