Koktepe I

  General Description   "Pre-Achaemenid period. Before the arrival of Iranian peoples in Central Asia, Sogdiana had already experienced at least two urban phases. The first was at Sarazm (4th-3rd m. BCE), a town of some 100 hectares has been excavated, where both irrigation agriculture and metallurgy were practiced (Isakov). It has been possible to demonstrate the magnitude of links with the civilization of the Oxus as well as with more distant regions, such as Baluchistan. The second phase began in at least the 15th century BCE at Kok Tepe, on the Bulungur canal north of the Zarafsan River, where the earliest archeological material appears to go back to the Bronze Age, and which persisted throughout the Iron Age, until the arrival from the north of the Iranian-speaking populations that were to become the Sogdian group. It declined with the rise of Samarkand (Rapin, 2007). Pre-Achaemenid Sogdiana is recalled in the Younger Avesta (chap. 1 of the Vidēvdād, q.v.) under the name Gava and said to be inhabited by the Sogdians. ^[1]
"Archaeologists are now generally agreed that the Andronovo culture of the Central Steppe region in the second millennium BC is to be equated with the Indo-Iranians. However, no matter how pastorally oriented these people’s culture probably was, they were no nomads. They lived in permanent houses, not on wagons or in tents as the earliest nomads are known to have done." ^[2]

According to Claude Rapin, for "the complex question relating to the Early Iron Age in Central Asia" read this (and another 2001 work)
Francfort, H. -P. 1989. Fouilles de Shortugai. Recherches sur l’Asie central protohistorique, Memoires de la Mission archeologique francaise en Asie centrale 2, Paris.

"it can be provisionally assumed that the two earlier Iron Age phases distinguished at Koktepe could represent the first manifestations of local agricultural development. Maurizio Tosi has proposed that for the southern slopes of the Zerafshan valley, along the Dargom canal, this economic system could have developed from an earlier period, when irrigation was limited to the natural flows of water from the foothills (Koktepe I period), to a later irrigation system, mainly exemplified by the excavation of the great canals deriving from the Zerafshan, the Bulungur and the Dargom (Koktepe II period)." ^[3]


"As was the case for various earlier constructions, both monuments were abandoned during a period of nomad invasions, possibly in the sixth century BC. (We know, for instance, that east of the Caspian Sea Darius I had to fight Scythian nomads like those represented by their king Skunkha illustrated as a defeated prisoner on the relief of Behistun)." ^[4]
 ??? - 1000 BCE Koktepe I
1000 - 750 BCE Chronological gap
750 - 550 BCE Koktepe II "sacred courtyard area" "strongly fortified courtyards" ^[4]
550 - ??? BCE Scythians? "nomadic establishment" ^[4]
 ??? - ??? BCE Koktepe IIIa "totally different expression of monumental urbanism" ^[4] - could be Archaemenid

Koktepe IIIa
"The next period is represented at Koktepe by the construction of two platforms with religious and political functions ... and by a huge fortification wall built in the plain around the site." ^[4]
"this rampart seems to have been built at the same time as the fortification that surrounds the plateau of Afrasiab ... Both walls not only protected monumental buildings, but also encircled a large open area, probably for the surrounding population to shelter with their cattle when necessary. This conception is characteristic of Central Asian urbanism near the steppe areas (Francfor 2001), and is also apparent in later cities, such as Ai Khanum or Taxila-Sirkap." ^[4]
"The sacred function of the monument, probably related to early Zoroastrianism (or at least to a local cult affiliated to the Indo-Iranian complex), is confirmed by the evidence of a ritual of foundation performed just before its construction." ^[5]

Early Iron Age settlement C14 dated to second-half of second and beginning of first millennium BCE. ^[6]

Köktepe I:
" L’objet le plus ancien de Koktepe est un poids discoïdal en pierre muni d’une anse datable du XVIIIe siècle av. n. è. Cette trouvaille isolée d’un instrument cultuel suppose le voisinage d’un site du bronze moyen que l’on ne peut identifier pour le moment, car les périodes les plus anciennes de l’occupation de la plaine du Zerafshan ne sont pour l’essentiel représentées aujourd’hui que par le site de Sarazm (Lyonnet 1996) et des trouvailles funéraires isolées (Avanesova 2010).
Le milieu urbain au début de l’occupation de Koktepe est celui d’une agglomération relativement dense composée de maisons à pièces multiples construites en piséau-dessus du sol, plus rarement creusées dans le sol naturel, mais vers la fin de cette période, l’habitat n’est plus représenté que par des huttes légères (figures 6-7). Le développement économique repose alors encore sur une agriculture sèche qui pourrait avoir été périodiquement secondée par les eaux d’un torrent de montagne (communications orales de B. Rondelli et M. Isamiddinov). Durant cette première phase, le site s’inscrit dans le contexte de la céramique modelée peinte caractéris-tique de la culture de Burgulûk (oasis de Tashkent), qui fait elle-même partie de la civilisation qui, du Turkménistan au Xinjiang, s’étend dans la période de transition entre l’age du bronze et l’age du fer, du dernier tiers du IIe millénaire au début du Ier millénaire av. n. è. (époque dite « de Yaz I ») (Lhuillier 2010 ; Lhuillier, Isamiddinov, Rapin 2012 ; Lyonnet, ce volume)." ^[7] During its first phase, Kok Tepe was part of the Burguluk culture, which corresponds to the Yaz I civilization from Turkmenistan to Xinjiang (last third of the second millennium BCE- beginning of the first millennium BCE)
"Pre-Achaemenid period. Before the arrival of Iranian peoples in Central Asia, Sogdiana had already experienced at least two urban phases. The first was at Sarazm (4th-3rd m. BCE), a town of some 100 hectares has been excavated, where both irrigation agriculture and metallurgy were practiced (Isakov). It has been possible to demonstrate the magnitude of links with the civilization of the Oxus as well as with more distant regions, such as Baluchistan. The second phase began in at least the 15th century BCE at Kok Tepe, on the Bulungur canal north of the Zarafšān River, where the earliest archeological material appears to go back to the Bronze Age, and which persisted throughout the Iron Age, until the arrival from the north of the Iranian-speaking populations that were to become the Sogdian group. It declined with the rise of Samarkand (Rapin, 2007). Pre-Achaemenid Sogdiana is recalled in the Younger Avesta (chap. 1 of the Videvdad, q.v.) under the name Gava and said to be inhabited by the Sogdians. ^[1]

Transition period between Kok01 and Kok02:"Sur le plan stratigraphique, la fin de cette première période vers la fin du IIe ou le début du Ier millénaire est apparemment marquée par une interruption de la céra-mique peinte. D’après les vestiges d’une épaisse couche organique présente partout sur le site, cette période pourrait avoir été celle d’une population semi-sédentaire, peut-être assez nombreuse, qui se serait installée à Koktepe avec du bétail. ^[8]
transition period: starting in the late 2nd millennium BCE/early 1st millennium BCE
no more painted ceramic
thick organic layer found stratigraphically on the whole site: semi-sedentary population, living on Koktepe with their animals.
Edward Turner’s interpretation of pre-Achaemenid Sogdiana (Koktepe in particular):
’The essential tension was the sedentary population needed (their irrigated) fields for growing crops, nomads needed land for grazing. so the "strongly fortified courtyards" is a manifestation of this tension.
another reason for fortification would be that wave/s of invasion/destruction had happened before:
"By 1600 BCE, peoples carrying the Andronovo cultural package had displaced, if not destroyed, the Bactrian/Margiana towns".
then the Yaz I replaced the Andronovo - UzKok01. (destruction then as well?)
if the inhabitants within the UzKok02 courtyards were Scythians they had probably invaded then settled c750 BCE, presumably causing some destruction of the previous culture.
an important line of evidence for invade/destroy/replace also is that it is likely that about 800 BCE the nomadic tribes around Central Asia began to use armies of horseback archers. the fact the sedentarized Scythians built fortifications must reflect the increased danger from the Steppe.
their identity lasted until either the Achaemenid or until another wave of Scythians destroyed their culture c550 BCE’.

[1]: (De la Vaissière, Encyclopedia Iranica online, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/sogdiana-iii-history-and-archeology)

[2]: (Beckwith 2009, 49) Beckwith, Christopher I. 2009. Empires of the Silk Road. A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present. Princeton University Press. Princeton.

[3]: (Rapin 2007, 35) Rapin, Claude. "Nomads and the Shaping of Central Asia: from the Early Iron Age to the Kushan Period." in Cribb, Joe. Herrmann, Georgina. 2007. After Alexander: Central Asia before Islam. British Academy.

[4]: (Rapin 2007, 36) Rapin, Claude. "Nomads and the Shaping of Central Asia: from the Early Iron Age to the Kushan Period." in Cribb, Joe. Herrmann, Georgina. 2007. After Alexander: Central Asia before Islam. British Academy.

[5]: (Rapin 2007, 37) Rapin, Claude. "Nomads and the Shaping of Central Asia: from the Early Iron Age to the Kushan Period." in Cribb, Joe. Herrmann, Georgina. 2007. After Alexander: Central Asia before Islam. British Academy.

[6]: (Lhuillier and Rapin 2013) Lhuillier, J. Rapin, C. Handmade painted ware in Koktepe: some elements for the chronology of the early Iron Age in northern Sogdiana. Wagner, Marcin ed. 2013. Pottery and Chronology of the Early Iron Age in Central Asia. Warszawa.

[7]: (Rapin and Isamiddinov 2013, 124-125)

[8]: (Rapin and Isamiddinov 2013, 126)