REGARDING THE MIDDLE ZERAVSHAN VALLEY

The Zeravshan River valley was not only a vast expanse of pastureland and the chief marketplace for buying and selling turquoise and other ornamental and semiprecious stones, it also contained polymetallic deposits of copper, lead, silver, and especially tin: The salient vector behind the rapid development of bronze metallurgy in the late prehistory (see Chapter 24). The most probable sources of tin in the 3rd and 2nd millennium were in western and northern Afghanistan, but, above all, along the Zeravshan (Besenval 1988; see Chapter 28, and also Chapter 29 for another point of view). Modern mineral surveyors found tin ore in the former, although no ancient mines have been identified there so far, whereas the oldest exploited tin mines in the ancient world were discovered in the latter, near the sites of Sarazm and Zhukov. These archaeological sites represent the physical gateway through which steppe cultures, with their horses and chariots (discussed in more detail later in the chapter), first arrived at the northern fringes of Central Asia. Their southward movement to the Zeravshan was not an accidental by-product of herding patterns but instead was intentional, motivated by the desire for trade, prestige, and riches. Thus, it may be conjectured that steppe herders from the north, possibly bearers of the Afanasievo and/or Kel’teminar culture, might have begun to purposely explore the vast southern Kazakh expanses and plains towards the Syr Darya, Amu Darya, and Zeravshan River valleys ca. 3000 BC or perhaps earlier. Social rivalry between steppe chiefs was the main motivation behind the quest for new sources of prestige valuables: The settlements at Sarazm and Zhukov were a logical consequence of this “hoard hunt.” Interactions with Central Asia commenced as an extension of rivalries between tribal chiefs and subsequently transformed into a relationship that fundamentally altered enmity, metal production, and ritual competition among steppe cultures.

Why has evidence of initial contact been discovered in this valley and not elsewhere? The abundant natural resources of the Zeravshan valley have already been discussed. Moreover, it is worth mentioning that this territory is the southernmost natural extension of the Eurasian steppe and pasturelands, as well as being adjacent to the high-evolved proto-urban centers of western Central Asia. The valley, as a gravitational force equidistant from two geographical and cultural areas, was crossed by a trade route connecting remote sources of lapis lazuli, turquoise, and other semiprecious stones to the most renowned workshops and marketplaces of the ancient Middle Asia world. Last but not least, one did not have to cross the Kyzyl Kum and Kara Kum Deserts to reach Zeravshan: thus domesticated camels were not needed. Both deserts served as an effective cultural barrier until roughly the 3rd millennium, at which time the domestication of the Bactrian camel began somewhere in Central Asia or Inner Mongolia (see pp. 750-752). The establishment of the earliest cattle herders along the piedmont plain of the Kopet Dagh mountain range would have been impossible or extremely difficult had it not been for the aforementioned domesticated “ship of the desert.”

The middle Zeravshan valley was, on the contrary, easily accessible. A path wound along the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, then along the northern side of the mountain pasturelands of southern Kazakhstan, subsequently across the well-watered Tashkent plain and then through the small “hunger steppe” around Jizzah, finally entering the large river valley in front of Samarkand. Prior to camel domestication, voyaging through Central Asia would have entailed cabotage: following large river valleys, floodplains, and foothills where men and animals could find water and fodder for survival during their journey. From this point of view, the destination of Sarazm and Zhukov were a sort of waypoint, in much the same way as Samarkand was when the Silk Road trade flourished between east and west, north and south across the Eurasian continent.