Afrasiyab is the oldest part and the ruined site of the ancient and medieval city of Samarkand. It was located on high ground for defensive reasons, south of a river valley and north of a large fertile area which has now become part of the city of Samarkand. The habitation of the territories of Afrasiyab began in the 7th–6th century BC, as the centre of the
Sogdian culture. The term
Qal’a-ye Afrasiab ('Castle of Afrasiab') appeared in written sources only towards the end of the 17th century. The name is popularly connected with the mythical King
Afrasiab. Scholars consider Afrasiab to be a distortion and a corrupted form of the Persian word
Parsīāb (from
Sogdian Paršvāb), meaning "beyond the black river", the river being
Sīāhāb or
Sīāb, which bounds the site to the north.
Afrā is the poetic form of the Persian word
Farā (itself a poetic word), which means 'beyond, further', while Sīāb comes from
sīāh meaning 'black' and
Āb meaning 'water; river; sea' (depending on the context). First archaeological excavations were carried out in Afrasiyab in the late 19th century, by
Nikolay Veselovsky. In the 1920s, it was extensively excavated by the archaeologist
Mikhail Evgenievich Masson who placed artifacts found at the site in the Samarkand museum. His archaeological study revealed that a
Samanid palace had once been located at Afrasiyab. It was again actively excavated during the 1960-70s.
The town helmet, copper alloy, Afrasiyab, Samarkand, 6th–1st century BC. The area of Afrasiyab covers about 220 hectares, and the thickness of the archaeological strata reaches 8–12 metres. The town Afrasiyab had the form of an
isosceles triangle, the base angle of which was looking to the south. Afrasiyab originated on the natural hill, that was intersected by numerous hollows, and the town itself was surrounded by high walls, which now look like a massive clay-built erection 40 meters high inside. The most long part of the town was 1.5 kilometers in width. The entrance to the town located in the middle part of the eastern wall. There were towers in Afrasiyab, the maximum length of which was 3,34 kilometers, and the remains of which was found on some places of the surrounding wall. Water to the town was generated in the water channels, earthenware pipes, and wells. So, it means that a lot of place was occupied by reservoirs, the biggest of which had a capacity of about a million gallons of water and was located near the southern wall. No remains of traced streets were found, as the buildings around collapsed and ruined so narrow and crooked traces. Unbaked bricks on wooden framework, with clay molding were used to build the houses. Some of them had windows with gypsum lattices set with small pieces of glass. There were found a lot of coins. On the base of them different dates of occupation of Afrasiyab was determined, which was mostly done by Viatkin. The found coins belonged to the Sasanids, some to the
Bukhar Khudahs, and some to the Umaiyad and the Abbasid caliphs. In a large quantities the Samanid coins were found, the less common were coins of the Khwarazm Shahs, and the least frequent coins were Karakhanid's and Seljuk's ones. The coins of Mongke was the latest found coins. All of these found and researched coins show that Afrasiyab was inhabited from the fourth or fifth to the thirteenth century. Remarkable murals show
Varkhuman, the king of
Samarkand, in the 7th century AD. He is seen being visited by embassies from numerous countries, including
China. File:Samarkand Afrasiab (Marakanda) Palace Fresco 7th-8th cent Sogdian Chamberlains & Interpreter Introduce Tibetan Messengers.jpg|Afrasiab Palace Fresco 7th-8th century. Sogdian Chamberlains & Interpreter Introduce Tibetan Messengers File:Chinese Embassy (left) and Turkish delegates (right) on the murals of Afrasiab, Samarkand.jpg|Afrasyab Chinese Embassy (left), carrying
silk and a string of
silkworm cocoons, and Turkish delegates (right), recognizable by their long plaits. File:Samarkand Afrasiab (Marakanda) Palace Fresco 7th-8th century detail.jpg|Afrasiab Palace Fresco 7th-8th century (detail of a horserider). File:Wall painting at the Ambassador’s Hall in Afrosiab, Samarkand.jpg|Wall painting at the Ambassador's Hall in Afrosiab File:Turkish dignitaries visiting king Varkhuman, One of them is labeled as coming from Argi, Karashahr in modern Xinjiang. 7th century CE.jpg|Turkish dignitaries visiting king
Varkhuman in
Samarkand. One of them is labeled as coming from Argi (
Karashahr in modern
Xinjiang). They are recognizable by their long plaits. Arabs besieging the city of Samarkand, captured in 722 CE, Palace of Devastich (706-722), Penjikent mural.jpg|Arabs besieging the city of
Samarkand, captured in 722. Palace of
Devastich (706-722),
Penjikent mural. File:Decorated niche, 750-825 CE, Afrasiab, Samarkand.jpg|Decorated niche from the Abbasid mosque of Afrasiab,
Samarkand in
Sogdia, 750-825.
Crafts . The most used pottery in Afrasiyab was glazed pottery, which included the most common forms like plates and dishes, pitchers. But there were also found different types of pottery. The biggest part was the unglazed pottery, which was wheel-made, well fired, and simply ornamented in harmony with its purpose, which shows the master's skills. It included large vessels, several kinds of pitchers, jugs, saucers, and bowls. The less perfect and inferior pottery was also found, which is the second type. The surfaces of the handmade pitchers and pots were carefully polished and covered with markings in the form of parallel lines, diamonds, crisscrosses, and spirals. According to Vfatkin this pottery relates to the period of the Tripolje culture. There also were found the numerous terra-cotta slabs and miniature altars, which were covered inside and outside with a beautiful stamped floral ornamentation. The altars bore pictures of birds, columns, and the Arabic inscription "praise to God". Also there was produced glass, that was made into small, exquisitely fashioned flasks, phials, tumblers, mugs, wineglasses, goblets, spoons, jugs, carafes, and bottles. There were found tombstones for which there were used large river flagstones up to a meter in length. Most of them referred to the twelfth, less to the thirteenth, and much less to the fourteenth century. Each tombstone bore an inscription engraved in Arabic and showed the name of the person buried and the year of burial; some of the stones were decorated with arabesques. On one stone there was no inscription, only the engraved profile of a head wearing a castellated crown, as appears on the coins of the Bukhar-Khudats. At the other end of the stone an elephant and a bird were engraved. File:Samarqand Afrasiab cemetery2.jpg|Cemetery in Afrasiyab File:Samarqand Afrasiab cemetery1.jpg| == See also ==