Seistan

The Nad-i Ali “Surkh Dagh” mound in the lower Helmand valley, Afghan Seistan, is known for its monumental brick platform, likely measuring ca. 50 x 50 x 35-40 m.'⁴ This site was originally dated by R. Ghirshman and G.E Dales to between the Median-Achaemenid and Parthian/Kushan to perhaps Sasanian periods until R. Besenval and Francfort (1994) reexamined the archives of these scholars and dated the platform to the Bronze Age. They observed that a jar found on top of the platform was typical Oxus material, while architectural features of this construction including brick sizes are consistent with those of other similar Bronze Age monuments, particularly at Tepe Hissar and Tureng Tepe. Additional ceramic fragments collected by W.A. Fairservis confirm the presence of a Bronze Age settlement at Nad-i Ali (Besenval and Francfort 1994: 10). Beyond this site, a series of artifacts - ceramics as well as stone vessels, an amulet, disks, “handbags,” and columns - collected by Dales in the Gardan Reg and at Godar-i Shah, as well as by N. Hammon in the former group of sites, connect to the Oxus and Indus civilizations while also showing relationships to southeastern Iranian Bronze Age cultural assemblages. In the Gardan Reg, these objects were associated with substantial remains of copper smelting and pottery making (Besenval and Francfort 1994: 10-11). The platform and other finds in Afghan Seistan substantiate with the evidence recorded in Kerman and Pakistan the existence of strong relationships between the Oxus Civilization and southern territories located hundreds of kilometers distant. This data might even reflect a stronger connection to the Central Asian civilization than in Kerman.

Across the border, in Iranian Seistan, Shahr-i Sokhta is famous for its expansive settlement dating to the third millennium BC. This site was occupied mostly before the Oxus Civilization emerged save perhaps for its last period, period IV, dating to between the late third and early second millennia BC (Salvatori and Tosi 2005). The chronology of this site is, however, still the topic of vivid discussion (see Cortesi et al. 2008; Jarrige, Didier, and Quivron 2011), and while Salvatori and Tosi (2005: 290) mention the presence of Oxus-related vessels in period IV, R. Biscione (1979: 2.94-295) emphasizes the lack of connection with Central Asia at that time. Hopefully, current fieldwork at this site, which has exposed new impressive constructions with massive walls with pilasters dating to period IV, will continue providing new information as to this period. So far, there is no mention in these recent excavations of Oxus-related material (Sajjadi and Moradi 2015). However, we learn from Biscione and A.A. Vahdati (see Chapter 19) that Oxus-related sites are recorded in Iranian Seistan.

Khurab

Khurab is located in the Bampur valley in the Seistan and Baluchistan province, approximately 400 km distant from Tepe Yahya and Shahr-i Sokhta. This site, excavated by M.A. Stein (1937), yielded burials of different dates from several trenches including some with typical third-millennium BC fine, painted ceramic vessels of types recorded from Kerman to Kech-Makran in southwestern Pakistan (see Wright 1989; Didier 2013), as well as some with Oxus-related material. In the latter group, Hiebert and Lamberg-Karlovsky (1992: 6) emphasize three tombs from trenches L, E, and D. They believe these are tombs of individuals from Central Asia because their ceramics have parallels in this area and none in the context of the Indo-Iranian borderlands. They observe that burial Li in trench L contains ceramics relating to the Oxus Civilization with more specific parallels at Dashly Tepe 3 (southern Bactria) dating to 1900-1700 BC (Stein 1937:121, fig. 42,pl. VI: L.i.276,pl. XV: L.i.278-279; Hiebert and Lamberg-Karlovsky 1992: 6, 7 fig. 2). In this burial, however, Stein also reported one painted bowl, decorated with “wing” or “palm” motifs, a decoration typical of assemblages dating to the third millennium BC in southwestern Pakistan and Iranian Seistan and Baluchistan province (Stein 1937: pl. XV: L.i.291).'⁵ This vessel type is dated to the first half of the third millennium BC further east in Kech-Makran and even limited to the period between 2800 and 2600 BC (Kech-Makran period Illb) according to A. Didier (2013). This certainly is in contradiction with the above-mentioned suggested dating to the early second millennium BC, unless one considers the unlikely possibility that this fine, brittle ceramic became an heirloom and did not break for centuries. This possibility would not however appear entirely unlikely if one were to envision that this ceramic remained untouched within one of the older graves present at Khurab and retrieved from that grave to be reused in burial Li. From trench E is a burial with 32 ceramics, two metal bowls, an alabaster jar, an agate bead with gold ferrules at both ends, and a shaft-hole axe decorated with a seated camel (Stein 1937: 121, fig. 41, pl. VI: E.i.252, pl. XVI: E.i.253-254, 256, pl. XVIII: E.i.251, 258, pl. XXXIV: 1, E.i.252, pl. XXXII: 15, E.i.254).The axe is composed of a copper-arsenic alloy with impurities consisting mostly of antimony and lead (Lamberg-Karlovsky 1969: 164-165). The ceramics are described as mostly unpainted by Stein (1937: 121) and were paralleled later with Oxus vessels (Hiebert and Lamberg-Karlovsky 1992: 6). Lastly, a burial from trench D also yielded unpainted ceramics, comparable to vessels from Central Asia (Hiebert and Lamberg-Karlovsky 1992: 6), particularly two conical cups (Stein 1937:120, fig. 39, pl. XV: D.245-246, pl. XXXIV: 2,0.245,4,0.246). However, again, painted ceramics are also recorded in this burial (Stein 1937: pl. XV: D.244,249-250, pl. XXXIII: 6, D.250, 8, D.244). Whiletwo of them (D.249-250) tend to more specifically connect to the painted assemblage from Shahdad, one jar (D.244) belongs to a general type found from Kerman to Kech-Makran and the Oman Peninsula and usually dated to the third millennium BC (Méry 2000; Didier 2013). In Kech-Makran, such vessel types and canisters with similar painted decorations are dated to between ca. 2800 and 2300 BC (Jarrige, Didier, and Quivron 2011: 29; Didier 2013); that is, before the Oxus Civilization. A copper or bronze bowl as well as preserved bread rolls and loaves in a ceramic were also found in this burial (Stein 1937: 120-121, pl. XVIII: D.247). This practice of using vessels with bread offerings at Khurab may be compared to an example from a burial at Sapalli Depe (Bactria), where a vessel contained grain or a porridge (Hiebert and Lamberg-Karlovsky 1992: 6; see also Askarov 1973: 46-47). From Khurab, Kohl (2001: 221) mentions a tall chlorite/steatite goblet with an incised decoration of “série récente” style (Stein 1937: pl. VI: F.i.263¹⁶); it parallels above-mentioned examples from Shahdad and Tepe Yahya IVA.