British Academy: The UK's National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences

After Alexander: Central Asia Before Islam

Central Asia: west and east

John Boardman

Central Asia has deservedly become a prime object of historical and archaeological study, and also probably the most complex and difficult of any in the Old or New World, given the nature of its literary and archaeological sources. Its peoples were open to the influences and arrivals from all points of the compass, yet capable also of great originality, a product of the challenge of the environment as much as the result of migrations of people or ideas. The west was the source of most regular new inspiration, from Indo-Europeans to Islam, it might be; but the west was also the recipient of much from the east. Equally, the east was a source for much of importance for the development of culture in Central Asia, with the presence of a civilization in China almost as old as that of Mesopotamia and Persia. This paper deals in a summary way with some of the apparent (to an archaeologist) areas of influence, in both directions – notably in matters such as architecture, religion and iconography. The sources after Alexander were initially the Greek presence, and continuing interest and intrusions from both west and east. Some influences were long-lasting, though their content became much translated to serve different societies, offering case studies of re-interpretation of some complexity. Central Asia is a big place, but it is not simply its size that explains why it presents exceptional problems for the archaeologist and historian, at least down to early centuries AD.