Archäologie. Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient‐Gesellschaft, 133, pp. 251–332.
56 Sens, U. (2009). Kulturkontakt an der östlichen Schwarzmeerküste: Griechische Funde des 6. bis 4. Jahrhunderts v. Chr. in Kolchis und Iberien: Kontexte und Interpretationen (ZAKS Schriften 15). Langenweißbach: Beier & Beran.
57 Smirnov, J.I. (1909). Vostočnoe serebro: Atlas’ drevnej serebrjanoj izolotoj posudy vostočnago proischoždenija. Sankt‐Petersburg: Arkheologičeskaja komissija.
58 Smirnov, J.I. (1934). Akhalgorijskij klad. Tiflis: Izdanie Muzeja Gruzii.
59 Stronach, D., Thrane, H., Goff, C., Farahani, A. (2010). Erebuni 2008–2010. In A. Kosyan, A. Petrosyan, and Y. Grekyan (eds.), Urartu and its Neighbors: Festschrift in Honor of Nikolay Harutyunyan in Occasion of his 90th Birthday, 22–24 September, 2009, Yerevan (Aramazd. Armenian Journal of Near Eastern Studies Vol. 2), pp. 99–133.
60 Summerer, L. (2006). Bemerkungen zum silbernen Kalbskopfrhyton in der Ermitage. In S. Conrad, R. Einicke, A.E. Furtwängler, et al. (eds.), Pontos Euxeinos. Festschrift für M. Oppermann (ZAKS Schriften 10). Langenweißbach: Beier & Beran, pp. 135–143.
61 Ter‐Martirossov, F.I. (2001). The typology of the columnar structures of Armenia in the Achaemenid period. In Nielsen, I. (ed.), The Royal Palace Institution in the First Millennium BC: Regional Development and Cultural Interchange between East and West (Monographs of the Danish Institute at Athens, 4). Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, pp. 155–163.
62 Treister, M. (2007). The Toreutics of Colchis in the 5th–4th centuries BC. Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia, 13, pp. 67–107.
63 Tsetskhladze, G.R. (1993/1994). Colchians and the Persian empire: the problems of their relationship. Silk Road Art and Archaeology, 3, pp. 11–49.
64 Tsetskhladze, G.R. (1994). Colchians, Greeks and Achaemenids in the 7th–5th centuries BCE: a critical look. Klio, 76, pp. 78–102.
65 Tsetskhladze, G.R. (2001). Georgia III. Encyclopaedia Iranica, 10 (5), pp. 470–480.
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FURTHER READING
1 Gagoshidze, J. (1997). Materialien zur Geschichte der Goldschmiedekunst im alten Georgien. Boreas, 20, pp. 123–136. Describes the development of goldsmiths' art in Iron Age Georgia.
2 Khatchadourian, L. (2016). Imperial Matter. Ancient Persia and the Archaeology of Empires. Oakland: University of California Press. The last account and a well‐balanced evaluation of Achaemenid traces in Armenia and in neighboring regions.
3 Kipiani, G. (1993). Arkhitektura Grusii antichnovo perioda: Arkhitekturnyie detali (The Architecture of Georgia in the Ancient Period – Architectural Details). Tbilisi: Chelovneba. An excellent account of ancient Georgian architectural sculpture.
4 Knauß, F.S. (2009). “Medismos” in Kolchis. In R. Einicke, S. Lehmann, H. Löhr, et al. (eds.), Zurück zum Gegenstand: Festschrift für Andreas E. Furtwängler (ZAKS Schriften 16). Langenweißbach: Beier & Beran, pp. 291–305. A detailed analysis of Colchian toreutics in Achaemenid times.
5 Lordkipanidze, O. (1991). Archäologie in Georgien: Von der Altsteinzeit bis zum frühen Mittelalter (Quellen und Forschungen zur Prähistorischen und Provinzialrömischen Archäologie 5). Weinheim: VCH‐Verlagsgesellschaft. Still gives the fullest account of the archeological evidence.
6 Ludwig, N. (2010). Ostgeorgische Fundplätze des 1. Jahrtausends v. Chr.: Die Keramik (ZAKS Schriften 20). Langenweißbach: Beier & Beran. The most exhaustive survey of Iron Age pottery of this region.
7 Smirnov, J.I. (1934). Akhalgorijskij klad. Tiflis: Izdanie Muzeja Gruzii. A meticulous study of the content of a rich Colchian burial.
CHAPTER 23 The Empire's Northeast
Claude Rapin
Extending to the east of the Caspian Sea and beyond the Hindukush range, the northeastern part of the Achaemenid Empire belongs, from a cultural point of view, to the Iranian world from the second millennium BCE. Its area covers the present northeastern Iran, northern Afghanistan, and part of the five Central Asian republics issued from the USSR. From its conquest by Cyrus and Darius I during the last third of the sixth century BCE until the expedition of Alexander the Great which concluded the reign of Darius III, the territory from an administrative point of view was distributed between Hyrcania, Parthia, Aria, Margiana and Bactria, Sogdiana, Chorasmia, and the northeastern peripheral Saka/Scythian territories (Vogelsang 1992).
Socioeconomic Context
The region is shared between sedentary populations dwelling along a net of irrigated oases and agro‐pastoral and nomadic populations aligned along the foothills or in the large steppic areas bounding the oases.
To the west, the Parthian and Margian territories stretched between the Kopet Dagh and the Kara‐kum desert encircling the Murghab delta, while to the northwest, on the delta of the Amu‐darya between the desert and the Aral sea, Chorasmia constituted a deeply sedentarized peripheral extension of the empire (Kidd and Betts 2010). To the east, along the Oxus frontier (Wakhsh river and Amu‐darya), Bactria and southern Sogdiana formed a densely inhabited area (the “Bactro‐Sogdian depression”) centered on Bactra. To the northeast, the natural resources of the Zeravshan enriched Samarkand, one of the largest cities of the empire. Beyond Sogdiana, between the Tamerlan's Gates and the Syr‐darya/Iaxartes frontier, the Scythian satrapies (Saka Tigraxauda and Haumavarga) acted from the Aral to the Pamirs as an intermediary over the trans‐Asiatic steppic belt (the Massagetes cannot be clearly located, however).
The deserts and the mountain ranges did not constitute any barrier for international contact. Several passes across the Hindukush connected the Oxus basin with the Indian world through the crossroads of Kapisa/Begram (future Alexandria on the Caucasus). Among the passes that crossed the Hissar and Alai ranges to the north, the Sogdian Iron Gates near Derbent (Rapin 2018) were the easiest way between Bactra and Maracanda/Samarkand.
The data relating to the occupation of the territory and its economic and administrative organization rely mainly on surveys and excavations (Koshelenko 1985; Francfort 2005; Lo Muzio 2017). Particular attention has been devoted to the irrigation development from the Bronze Age in Afghanistan (see the French researches in northeastern Afghanistan) and in the Central Asian republics (Francfort and Lecomte 2002). Besides the agricultural and pastoral economy, the region was inserted in the international system of exchanges thanks to its precious mineral deposits (see, for instance, the decoration of the palace of Darius at Susa or the luxurious tableware made of stones of eastern origin). In fact, the local excavations have provided rare testimonies of luxurious productions since the jewelry used mainly gold (see infra the treasures of the Oxus, of Mir‐Zakah 2, and of Takht‐i Sangin). The Achaemenid commercial exchanges seem to have been rather limited. To the north, along the lower Syr‐darya, in Kazakhstan and Russia, precious merchandises dating to the very end of the Achaemenid or the beginning of the Hellenistic period are concentrated in the aristocratic burials of the upper classes of the nomad population shattered from the Ural to Altai and Siberia (see Francfort 2005, 2013). Even at the end of the Achaemenid period, the scarcity of coin finds to the north of the Hindukush shows that, in contrast to the Indian world, these regions were less monetarized, a situation which lasted until the Hellenistic period.
Chronological Frame
The Central Asian components of the Achaemenid Empire appear as a heterogeneous synthesis of cultural, social, economic, and political trends. The unity of the region as a part of this