Lands of Asia layouts (Eng) 26.11.21

2 .5
different states – Graeco-Bactrian and Parthian, which included the
southern regions of Central Asia – suggests that at least two kinds of
taxes were levied: a monetary one and one paid in kind.
10. There was a well-developed administrative apparatus for tax collection,
employing officials of different ranks who ensured revenue collection,
accounting and the inspection of revenues.
It is probable that the same systems of administration, the nature of tax collections
and sources of taxation were also in place in the ancient states of Central Asia in the
first centuries AD, but there is little information about this so far.
Economic documents relating to the palace of the Khorezmshahs in Toprak-
Kala, dating from the 3rd century AD, provide a list of what would appear to be tax
revenues from individuals, taxes that were paid in flour, wine and livestock in specific
quantities, deposited in the king’s ‘treasury’
Documents of a similar type were found in a room of a large family residence at
the city-site of Kampyrtepa, in a layer dating from the first half of the 2nd century AD,
but they are in very poor condition.
The hoard of gold objects from Dalverzintepa, believed to have been buried in
the early 3rd century AD, may provide important material for study, although some
of the objects in it (jewellery) are undoubtedly from an earlier period. Among other
objects, the hoard contains 21 gold bars making up two groups: Group 1 has bars
measuring 85x24–25x20 mm, weighing between 876.2 and 877.8 grams. Group 2
has bars measuring 68x16x16–17 mm, weighing between 358.1 and 449.7 grams.
Ten of these bars have inscriptions in Kharoshthi which, according to the scholar
M. Vorobyova-Desyatovskaya’s reading, indicate the weight of each of the bars in
staters, drachmas and dhane, as well as proper names and possibly the titles of official
positions, and also the word shramana, which denotes a Buddhist monk. Here is a
translation of the three clearest examples:
1. 51 staters, 1 drachma, 2 dhane. Given by Mithra.
2. 25 staters, half a drachma. [From the] chief. Given by Mithra.
3. 50 staters. From Kalyana. [Delivered by] shramanas.
Several suggestions have been made about the interpretation of the content of
the inscriptions and the purpose of the bars themselves. According to Vorobyova-
Desyatovskaya, given the specific nature of the Dalverzin inscriptions, the name
Mithra must have belonged to one of the officials of the Kushan treasury. At the
same time, E.V. Zeymal suggested that the formulation ‘Mitrena dite’ used in the
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