Lands of Asia layouts (Eng) 26.11.21

2 .1
south of ancient Uzbekistan lasted for about 200 years, and for a somewhat shorter
period in Sogdia, up to the second half of the 2nd century BC.
At the same time, in the northern and central regions of Central Asia – in
Khorezm, Sogdia and Ferghana – an autochthonous state was emerging, which we
could refer to as the ‘Khorezmian-Kangju’ type.
Khorezm, which broke free from Achaemenid domination in the 4th century BC,
was the first to form its own independent state. As early as 329 BC, in Maracanda,
Alexander the Great received the Khorezmian king Pharasmanes, who offered
Alexander peace and an alliance. According to the Khorezmian king, his state extended
as far as that of the Colchis (a people of Georgian descent, who at that time had their
own state in western Georgia) and the Amazons in the north.
Even taking into account some exaggeration of this information (given by
Herodotus), we can nevertheless assume that the Khorezmian kingdom at that time
constituted a fairly extensive state stretching westward to the Caspian Sea, where its
peoples could have come into contact with the Colchis.
A recent study of the site of Kalalygyr II in historical Khorezm suggests that trade
relations with the regions bordering the Caspian Sea did indeed exist.
At the turn of the 3rd–2nd century BC, the independent states of Bukhara
and Sogdia emerged. Their rulers minted coins in imitation of Antiochus I and
Euthydemus, with legends in distorted Greek, later followed by those in Sogdian.
At the same time, another kind of state was being established in Dayuan (Fergana).
The confederative Kangju states were also formed at this time, and included
central and northern parts of Transoxiana.
The fifth period spanned the second half of the 2nd century BC to the beginning of
the 1st century AD.
The Graeco-Bactrian kingdom fell under pressure from the Saka or Sarmatian
tribes (Asii/Asiani, Pasiani, Sakarauli) as they advanced from northern and central
regions of Transoxiana and then from the Tokharians (Yuezhi) who came to Sogdia
and Bactria fleeing from the Huns (Xiongnu) who came from Inner Asia.
This period is distinguished by the existence throughout the territory of
Transoxiana of a type of statehood that we can define as the Kangju-Yuezhi type.
It combined nomadic principles of governance with the traditions of statehood
that were already present here. Yuezhi-Tokharians gradually settled in Sogdia and
Northern Bactria, later capturing the whole of Northern Bactria and establishing
their capital in Bactra (present-day Balkh in Northern Afghanistan). They created
a distinctive confederative state consisting of five independent principalities. These
principalities had the right to mint their own coins, which were mostly silver.
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