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

After Alexander: Central Asia Before Islam

Termez on the Oxus

Pierre Leriche

Old Termez is the most important archaeological site of Northern Bactria, a historical region which covers the parts of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan that lie between the Oxus (Amu Darya) River and the range of mountains running westward from the Pamir-Himalaya. However, like most of the archaeological sites of the former USSR, it was barely known to researchers outside the Soviet Union, despite the fact that since 1926 it has been excavated by three archaeological expeditions. Apart from many Islamic monuments (Palace of the Termezshahs, the Chor Sutun mosque, several dwellings and workshops, etc.), these expeditions discovered the important Buddhist monasteries of Kara Tepe and Fayaz Tepe in the suburbs of the old town (plus a gigantic stupa at Zurmala) and, since the eighties, Hellenistic material in two deep soundings opened on top of the huge citadel that overhangs the river.

Nowadays, the site of Old Termez is being explored by a French-Uzbek expedition (headed by Dr. P. Leriche of the CNRS) and Dr. Sh. Pidaev of the Uzbek Institute of Archaeology) that began to work in 1993 on the citadel and later extended its activities in the lower town and on the Tchingiz Tepe and Dunya Tepe hills. The subsequent results were mostly related to the Islamic period of the site: part of the Shaybanid fortification on the top of the citadel, powerful fortifications of the pre Mongol period along the river, most notably at the south-east angle of the citadel, dwellings with metallurgical activity and a small Islamic necropolis in the lower town.
However, it is the Kushan period that offered the most significant discoveries: fortifications and a monumental building on the citadel, powerful ramparts and part of a high cultural platform on the Tchingiz Tepe hill and a huge monument along the Amu Darya River. This last unexpected discovery has been dramatically damaged by bulldozers, but its remains clearly show that it had, without any doubt, a religious purpose. The worship that actually took place in this building was probably that of the Kushan dynasty, but in the last period, the monument might have been transformed into a Buddhist temple.

The only period for which we haven't discovered any important monument is the most ancient one on the site (beginning of Hellenistic and end of pre-Hellenistic periods). But new researches, including soundings, have started in a new quarter of the site, i.e. the area at the north-west corner of the citadel.