Ancient history of Afghanistan

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 410–557
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Tanai coup attempt
 1990
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The ancient history of Afghanistan, also referred to as the pre-Islamic period of Afghanistan, dates back to the

Archaeological exploration began in Afghanistan in earnest after World War II and proceeded until the late 1970s during the Soviet–Afghan War. Archaeologists and historians suggest that humans were living in Afghanistan at least 50,000 years ago, and that farming communities of the region were among the earliest in the world.[1] Urbanized culture has existed in the land from between 3000 and 2000 BC.[1][2][3] Artifacts typical of the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze, and Iron ages have been found inside Afghanistan.[3]

Inhabited by

arrival of Islam in the 7th century, there were a number of religions practiced in modern day Afghanistan, including Zoroastrianism, Ancient Iranian religions,[4] Buddhism and Hinduism.[5] The Kafiristan (present-day Nuristan) region, in the Hindu Kush
mountain range, was not converted until the 19th century.

Stone Age

farming communities of the region were among the earliest in the world.[1]

indigenous people
were small farmers and herdsmen, as they are today, very probably grouped into tribes, with small local kingdoms rising and falling through the ages.

Bronze Age

Archaeological finds indicate the possible beginnings of the Bronze Age in Afghanistan, which would ultimately spread throughout the ancient world. It is also believed that the region had early trade contacts with Mesopotamia.[6]

Helmand Civilization (c. 3300–2350 BCE)

Main article: Helmand culture

The

Sistan and Baluchestan Province), predominantly in the third millennium BCE.[7][8]

Oxus Civilization (c. 2400–1950 BCE)

Main article: Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex
Bird-headed man with snakes; 2000–1500 BC; bronze; 7.30 cm; from Northern Afghanistan; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (USA)

The Oxus Civilization was a Middle Bronze Age civilization of southern Central Asia, also known as the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC). The civilization's urban phase or Integration Era,[9] was dated in 2010 by Sandro Salvatori to c. 2400–1950 BC.[10]

The inhabitants of the Oxus Civilization were sedentary people who practised irrigation farming of wheat and barley. With their impressive material culture including monumental architecture, bronze tools, ceramics, and jewellery of semiprecious stones, the complex exhibits many of the hallmarks of civilization. The complex can be compared to proto-urban settlements in the Helmand basin at Mundigak in western Afghanistan and Shahr-e Sukhteh in eastern Iran.[11]

Aryan Expansion

Main articles: Aria (region), Aryan, Arya (Iran), and Avestan period
Geographical horizon of the people of the Avesta during the Young Avestan period (c. 900-500 BCE).

The

Oxus Civilization
that played a key role in early Iranian or Aryanic civilization in Afghanistan.

Zoroastrianism spread to become one of the world's most influential religions and became the main faith of the old Aryan people for centuries. Dominated by Iranians, Zoroastrianism became the official religion upon the Iranian Plateau until the defeat of the Sassanian ruler Yazdegerd III c. 2,000 years after the founding of the Iranian religion.

The Indus Valley Civilization had a trading post in Shortugai[13][14] and material in part of ceramic figurines of snakes, humped bulls, and other items in Mundigak. Indic languages are spoken in much of the Indian subcontinent. According to recent studies, the Oxus Civilization was not a primary contributor to Indo-Aryan genetics.[15]

Classical antiquity

Medes Era (680–550 BCE)

Median Empire

The

Fars to the south. Median control of parts of far off Afghanistan would last until Cyrus the Great founded the Achaemenid Persian Empire
.

Achaemenid Era (550 BC–331 BCE)

The Achaemenid Empire under the rule of Darius the Great (522–486 BC)

In what is today southern Iran, the Persians emerged to challenge Median supremacy on the Iranian plateau. By 550 BC, the Persians had replaced Median rule with their own dominion and even began to expand past previous Median imperial borders.

Balkh had a special position in old Afghanistan, being the capital of a vice-kingdom. By the 4th century BC, Persian control of outlying areas and the internal cohesion of the empire had become somewhat tenuous. Although distant provinces like Balkh had often been restless under Achaemenid rule, Bactrian troops from Balkh fought in the decisive Battle of Gaugamela in 330 BCE against the advancing armies of the Ancient Macedonians.

Macedonian Invasion & Seleucid Empire (330–250 BCE)

Main articles:
Ancient Macedonia and Seleucid Empire
Administrative document from Bactria dated to the seventh year of Alexander's reign (324 BC), bearing the first known use of the "Alexandros" form of his name.

The Achaemenids were decisively defeated by Alexander and retreated from his advancing army of Greco-Macedonians and their allies. Darius III, the last Achaemenid ruler, tried to flee to Balkh but was assassinated by a subordinate lord, the Bactrian-born Bessus, who proclaimed himself the new ruler of Persia as Artaxerxes (V). Bessus was unable to mount a successful resistance to the growing military might of Alexander's army so he fled to his native Balkh, where he attempted to rally local tribes to his side but was instead turned over to Alexander who proceeded to have him tortured and executed for having committed regicide.

Moving thousands of kilometers eastward from recently subdued Persia, the Macedonian leader

Aria, Drangiana, Arachosia (South and Eastern Afghanistan, North-West Pakistan) and Balkh (North and Central Afghanistan). One of the fiercest battles that he faced was in Herat. One of his top commanding officers was killed by the rebels and he had to go there himself. He couldn't defeat them in time and he ended up burning down the forest to finish the rebellion.[17]
Upon Alexander's death at the age of 32 in 323 BC, his empire, which had never been politically consolidated, broke apart as his companions began to divide it amongst themselves.

Alexander's cavalry commander, Seleucus, took nominal control of the eastern lands and founded the Seleucid dynasty. The majority of Macedonian soldiers of Alexander the Great wanted to leave the east and return home to Greece. Later, Seleucus sought to guard his eastern frontier and moved Ionian Greeks to many local groups) to Balkh in the 3rd century BC.

Greco-Bactrian Kingdom (c. 250–150 BCE)

Main article: Greco-Bactrian Kingdom
Coin of the Greco-Bactrian king Eucratides (171-145 BCE)

In the middle of the 3rd century BC, an independent, Hellenistic state was declared in

Graeco-Bactrian rule spread until it included a large territory which stretched from Turkmenistan in the west to the Punjab in India in the east by about 170 BC. Greek rule was eventually defeated by continual conflict with Iranian nomadic tribes (first the Scythians-Sakas, then the Tocharians, also known as the Yuezhi) but also the Parthians
in the middle of the 2nd century BC.

Parthian & Kushan Empire (150 BC–300 CE)

Main articles: Kushan Empire and Parthian Empire

In the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, the Parthians, a nomadic Iranian-speaking group, arrived in Western Asia. While they made large inroads into the modern-day territory of Afghanistan, about 100 years later another Iranian-speaking group from the north—called the Yuezhi by the Chinese—entered the region of Afghanistan and established an empire lasting almost four centuries, which would dominate most of the Afghanistan region.

Images of Zoroastrian Kushan worshippers
  • Kushan worshipper with Zeus/Serapis/Ohrmazd, Bactria, 3rd century AD.[18]
    Kushan worshipper with Zeus/Serapis/Ohrmazd, Bactria, 3rd century AD.[18]
  • Kushan worshipper with Pharro, Bactria, 3rd century AD.[18]
    Kushan worshipper with
    Pharro, Bactria, 3rd century AD.[18]
  • Kushan worshipper with Shiva/Oesho, Bactria, 3rd century AD.[18]
    Kushan worshipper with Shiva/Oesho, Bactria, 3rd century AD.[18]
  • Shiva-Oesho wall painting with fragment of a worshipper, Bactria, 3rd century AD.[19]
    Shiva-Oesho wall painting with fragment of a worshipper, Bactria, 3rd century AD.[19]

Kushans - one of the five aristocratic

Bactrians
. The
Ashoka
(c. 260 BC–232 BCE), reached its zenith in Central Asia. Though the Kushanas supported the worship of various local deities.

Sasanian Era (300–650 CE)

Main articles:
Sassanid Empire and Kushano-Sasanian Kingdom
Coin of Hormizd I Kushanshah, issued in Khorasan, and derived from Kushan designs

In the 3rd century, Kushan control fragmented into semi-independent kingdoms that became easy targets for conquest by the rising Iranian dynasty, the

Kushanshahs
. Sasanian control was tenuous at times as numerous challenges from Central Asian tribes led to instability and constant warfare in the region.

The disunited Kushan and Sasanian kingdoms were in a poor position to meet the threat several waves of

Hephthalites (or Ebodalo; Bactrian script ηβοδαλο) swept out of Central Asia during the 5th century into Bactria
and Iran, overwhelming the last of the Kushan kingdoms. Historians believe that Hephthalite control continued for a century and was marked by constant warfare with the Sassanians to the west who exerted nominal control over the region. By the middle of the 6th century the Hephthalites were defeated in the territories north of the Amu Darya (the Oxus River of antiquity) by another group of Central Asian nomads, the Göktürks, and by the resurgent Sassanians in the lands south of the Amu Darya. It was the ruler of western Göktürks, Sijin (a.k.a. Sinjibu, Silzibul and Yandu Muchu Khan) who led the forces against the Hepthalites who were defeated at the Battle of Chach (Tashkent) and at the Battle of Bukhara.

Other

Main article: Turk Shahis
Kushano-Hephthalite kingdoms
around 600 AD

The

Islamic conquest of Afghanistan
.

When Xuanzang visited the region early in the 7th century, the Kabul region was ruled by a Kshatriya king, who is identified as the Shahi Khingal, and whose name has been found in an inscription found in Gardez.

Archaeological remnants

Islamic conquest of Afghanistan
.

Most of the indigenous Zoroastrian and non-indigenous Greek, Hellenistic, Buddhist, Hindu and other cultures were replaced by the coming of Islam and little influence remains in Afghanistan today. Along ancient trade routes, however, stone monuments of the once flourishing Buddhist culture did exist as reminders of the past. The two massive sandstone

archaeologists have located frescoes, stucco decorations, statuary, and rare objects from as far away as China, Phoenicia, and Rome
, which were crafted as early as the 2nd century and bear witness to the influence of these ancient civilizations upon Afghanistan.

One of the

Medicine Buddha Sūtra, and the Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra.[33]

In 2010, reports stated that about 42 Buddhist relics have been discovered in the Logar Province of Afghanistan, which is south of Kabul. Some of these items date back to the 2nd century according to Archaeologists. The items included two Buddhist temples (Stupas), Buddha statues, frescos, silver and gold coins and precious beads.[34][35]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "Afghanistan: VII. History (Archived)". John Ford Shroder. University of Nebraska. 2009. Archived from the original on October 31, 2009. Retrieved 2009-10-31.
  2. ^ "The Pre-Islamic Period". Library of Congress Country Studies on Afghanistan. 1997. Retrieved 2010-08-16.
  3. ^ a b Dupree, Nancy Hatch (1977). An Historical Guide To Afghanistan. Vol. 2. Edition. Afghan Air Authority, Afghan Tourist Organization. p. 492. Retrieved 2010-08-23.
  4. ^ https://ri.urd.ac.ir/article_43974.html
  5. ISBN 9780801464898
    . At the time of the first Muslim advances, numerous local natural religions were competing with Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and Hinduism in the territory of modern Afghanistan.
  6. ^ Warwick Ball, 2008, 'The Monuments of Afghanistan: History, Archaeology and Architecture': 261, London.
  7. ISBN 9780748699179
    , pp. 161–259.
  8. ^ Vidale, Massimo, (15 March 2021). "A Warehouse in 3rd Millennium B.C. Sistan and Its Accounting Technology", in Seminar "Early Urbanization in Iran".
  9. ISBN 978-1-83860-976-4
    .
  10. ^ Salvatori, Sandro, (2010). "Thinking Around Grave 3245 in the 'Royal Graveyard' of Gonur (Murghab Delta, Turkmenistan)", in: On the Track of Uncovering a Civilization. A volume in honor of the 80th-anniversary of Victor Sarianidi, p. 249: "Summing up we can now date the MBA 2400/2300-1950 BCE and the LBA 1950–1500 BCE and to recognise a very strong chronological correlation between the southern Central Asia MBA and the late Umm an-Nar period."
  11. ^ Kohl 2007, pp. 186–187.
  12. ^ "Autochthonous Aryans-corr.doc" (PDF).
  13. ^ The Ancient Indus: Urbanism, Economy, and Society. pp.1
  14. ^ Kenoyer, Jonathan Mark (1998). Ancient cities of the Indus Valley Civilization. pp.96
  15. PMID 31488661
    .
  16. ISBN 9789645981998
    .
  17. ^ Hotak, Zalmay (2017). History, 11th grade (in Persian). Kabul, Afghanistan: Ministry of Education.
  18. ^ a b c Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition.[full citation needed]
  19. ^ "Panel fragment with the god Shiva/Oesho". Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  20. ^ Ernst Herzfeld (1974). Archaeologische Mitteilungen aus Iran. Dietrich Reimer. p. 143. Archived from the original on 2021-12-29.
  21. ^ Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran. Verlang von D. Reimer. 1974. p. 143. Archived from the original on 2021-12-29.
  22. ISBN 978-0-85773-477-8. Archived from the original
    on 2021-12-29.
  23. ^ Bulletin. Medelhavsmuseet. 1977. p. 60. Archived from the original on 2021-12-29.
  24. ISBN 978-0-684-15625-5. Archived from the original
    on 2021-12-29.
  25. ISBN 978-1-4738-8318-5. Archived from the original
    on 2021-12-29.
  26. ISBN 978-0-8047-8854-0. Archived from the original
    on 2021-12-29.
  27. ISBN 978-3-11-027231-4. Archived from the original
    on 2021-12-29.
  28. ISBN 978-1-56639-832-9. Archived from the original
    on 2021-12-29.
  29. ISBN 978-0-393-07089-7. Archived from the original
    on 2021-12-29.
  30. ^ Hotak, Zalmay (2017). History, 10th grade (in Dari). Afghanistan: Ministry of Education.
  31. ^ Shahi Family. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 16 October 2006.
  32. ^ Dehghanpisheh, Babak (December 31, 2001). "Rebuilding the Bamiyan Buddhas". nbcnews.com. Retrieved November 27, 2021.
  33. ^ a b "Schøyen Collection: Buddhism". Archived from the original on 10 June 2012. Retrieved 5 February 2013.
  34. ^ "42 Buddhist relics discovered in Logar". Maqsood Azizi. Pajhwok Afghan News. Aug 18, 2010. Archived from the original on 17 March 2010. Retrieved 2010-08-23.
  35. ^ "Afghan archaeologists find Buddhist site as war rages". Sayed Salahuddin. News Daily. Aug 17, 2010. Archived from the original on 18 August 2010. Retrieved 2010-08-16.

Other sources

External links

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