Edge of an Empire – Andrew Lawler
Posted by imperiumiv on September 10, 2011 Today, Cheshm-e Shafa in northern Afghanistan lies spec*tacular views but a forlorn, end-of-the-world air. Broken stone walls once stood high upon a steep and barren hillside. Far below, a river snakes through a narrow defile, an empty highway hugging its banks. To the north lie the open steppes; in the south, the jagged peaks of the distant Hindu Kush mountain range rear up in the haze-
But during the fourth century b.c.. at the height of the Persian Empire, Cheshm-e Shafa was more than just a spot from which to view a dramatic landscape. It was an impressive fortification that controlled the strategic pass between the rugged plains of Central Asia and the road to the rich lowlands of India. The high walls may also have protected an important Zoroastrian temple and a long-lost city that lies just below. A team of French archaeologists has now begun the first comprehensive excavation of a site that offers a rare glimpse into the eastern half of one of the world’s great empires.
Edge of an Empire
An ancient Afghan fortress offers rare evidence of Persia’s forgotten eastern territories
by Andrew Lawler
The Persians who fortified this dramatic pass created what was, at the time, the world’s largest, wealthiest, and most ethnically diverse empire. Also called Achaemenids, after their founding father, Achacmcnes, this tribe of horsemen burst out of their native Iran in 550 b.c. after crushing their former rulers, the Medes. Under Cyrus the Great, the Achaemenids conquered Babylon, then the greatest city in the world, and began to expand toward the Mediterranean. By 522 b.c. Cyras’ son, Cambyses II, had conquered Egypt and pushed his empire’s boundaries as far south as today’s Sudan. Any dissent was quickly snuffed out with an iron fist, notes John Simpson, an archaeologist at the British Museum in London.
The Achaemenids were capable of more than impressive martial victories, however. Greek and Persian texts, as well as statues and friezes from the period uncovered during the past two centuries, point to a government careful to allow locals to retain their religions and traditions—Cyrus famously allowed the Jews to return from Babylon after their exile and rebuild their temple in Jerusalem. In some regions, such as Cyprus, local rulers were even permitted to continue their reign, as long as they provided rax revenues. “Ihe empire was based on a notion of pluralistic hegemony,” says Margaret Cool-Root, an archaeologist at the University of Michigan. “There were multiple centers, | and the king served as a kind of overarching deity for a vast multicultural arena.”
By ensuring peace and promoting trade, the Achaemenids I ushered in an unprecedented period of prosperity in a vast area half a millennium before Rome reached the apex of its power. At its peak, the empire covered three million square miles—more than that of either Rome or the Chinese Han Dynasty at their largest in die first century a.d. The raxes gathered from conquered peoples allowed the Achaemenids to create monumental cities, build dependable roads stretch*ing from Anatolia to Afghanistan, and construct caravan stops to protect and encourage merchants, as well as to ensure royal couriers could travel quickly across long dis*tances. Hie Royal Road, from Sardis in today’s Turkey to Susa in today’s Iran, provided regular way stations through I territory “free from danger,” says the fifth-century b.c. Greek historian Herodotus.
Most of what we know about the Persian Empire, however, comes from its western half. Greek authors on the empire’s western fringe wrote copiously about the Persians, whom they both admired and abhorred. And Achaemcnid monumental inscrip*tions, cablets, and carvings have been found primarily in their heartland around the old capital, Pasagardae, and the nearby ceremonial city of Persepolis
Iran as far as the I ndus River in today’s Pakistan—remain, by comparison, scarce. There have been tantalising glimpses of what further research may uncover. I he extraordinary Oxus Treasure, a collection of 170 gold piec*es found in southern Tajikistan and acquired by the British in the 1880s. demonstrates the power and wealth of the region in Achaemcnid times. Excavations in southern Afghanistan in the last century revealed several Achaemenid administrative buildings dating to the fourth century b.c., while digs at Akra in northwest Pakistan, which were cut short by the 2001 ter*rorist attacks, show a thriving Achaemcnid trade entrepot from the same era. But today much of the region remains off-limits to archaeologists because of war, logistics, or poli*tics, and textual clues arc still jfrustratingly few. “We know the west so well,” says Cool-Root. “Anything that peels back the layers in the cast is exciting.”
Archaeologist Nicolas Engel of the French mission in Afghanistan shows Afghan student Yama Hafiz a hole left by looters searching for Achaemenid- period artifacts.
Cheshm-e Shafa offers archaeologists a chance to do just that. T he site lies less than an hour’s drive from the ancient city of Balkh in northern Afghanistan, the metropolis long considered to be the capital of the vast Persian province called Bactria. At Cheshm-e Shafa. the Balkh River streams out of the Hindu Kush and pushes its way into the Central Asian plains at the narrow pass before flowing on to the Amu Darya, the ancient Oxus River. The high hills of the pass make it easily defensible.
Until recently, this location’s significance went largely unnoriccd by Westerners. Traveling through the pass just before World War II, Alfred Foucher, who founded the French archaeological mission to Afghanistan, noted briefly
that the locals called the sire Kafir Qualeh, or “Fortress of the Infidel.” He suspected it to be of great antiquity. “It dominates the valley on the old route to India, with walk * kilometer around,” he later wrote. “But whether it was captured by Alexander the Great when he arrived in Bactria m the fourth century b.c.J, none can say.”
Seventy years after Fouchcr’s visit, French mission chief Roland Besenval spotted Achaemenid potsherds while sur*veying the area in 2007. Though the results of radiocarbon daring of organic remains at the site arc not complete, based ‘ tc more t han 3.000 pottery sherds he collected. Besenval believes that the site dates from the sixth century b.c. A Persian presence in this distant eastern outpost at such an early stage of the empire, which only began around 550 b.c., surprises researchers. “This is tremendous archaeological evidence,” says Deborah Klimburg-Salter of the University of Vienna. It may also be an indication that the empire grew taster than once imagined.
The ancient city of Balkh Is said to have been the home of Zoroaster, founder of Zoroastrianism. This religion was likely practiced In Cheshm-e Shafa, loss than an hour’s drive from Balkh.
The size of Chrshm-e Siiafa, a tiered area covering more than a square mile, makes the task of excavation daunting, particularly in a region where the Taliban have recently made inroads. Since 2007, current French mission director Philippe Mar*quis has probed the walls of the high fort perched near the top of the eastern side of the gorge. On the steep slope on top of the hill. Marquis and his team have uncovered remains of massive fortification walls as well as the stone foundations of sturdy, rectangular- shaped Achaemenid-era buildings. For nearly two millennia after they were constructed, a succession of empires repaired and rebuilt the fortifications laid by the Achaemenids at this strategic point. The walls that stretch across the hillside and cling to high cliffs remained in use until the arrival of the Mongols in the thirteenth century A.D. Marquis says it remains unclear how large a popula*tion lived on the high terrace or what the buildings’ functions may have been. “Right now we can only say that there are numerous buildings of the Achaemenid period.” explains Marquis, “and that the site had a capacity to house a huge population.” The chain of walk that swoops down the northern side of the mountain also enclose what may be a very rare Achaemenid fire altar (see sidebar). And on the plain below, where the river tushes out of the pass, are the walled remains of a large and still mostly unexcavated settlement that may extend back to Persian times.
The well-preserved walls and houses high on the steep slopes of Cheshm-e Shafa were likely constructed In the Achaemenid period and reused for more than a thousand years.
Cheshm-e Shafa has yet to yield the dramatic artifacts, such as gold drinking vessels or clay tablets, that often characterize Achaemenid sites. There has been extensive looting, as evidenced by the pits covering the hillside that arc the work of poverty-stricken modern villagers eager to find stray coins or statues to sell. Foucher also mentions seeing “treasure hunters” during his visit, and the decades of invasion, civil war, and economic crisis make it challeng*ing to piece together what may have happened to this class of artifact. Nicolas Engel of the French mission says that local workers report that they have seen thin, hammered-
eoLi objects, including gold vessels and small gold plaques attached to clothing, emerge from the site during illegal digs. Smiilar vessels and plaques have appeared in Siberian burial rsounds dating to around the fourth century b.c., far from Achaemenid territory but a sign of its far reach, says Cool- Root, who adds that there is evidence that wooden doors of important Achaemenid buildings might have been covered with strips of gold.
With no texts and fcw artifacts beyond pot*sherds yet recovered from the site, Hngel and his colleagues are searching for other dues in histori*cal sources to determine what role Cheshm-e Shafa played during tl»c Achacmcnid period. Given the extent of the ruins, rxv suspect it may have served as the headquarters for die Persian governor, or satrap, of the province of Bactria.
Greek historians including Arrian refer to a Persian stronghold called Zariaspa. They also note that the city had i key role in the destruction of the Achaemenids and the rac of Alexander’s empire. It was here that the last Persian •acrap, Bcssus, was mutilated on orders from Alexander for bs role in assassinating his nemesis. King Darius. And it suy be the place where Alexander married Roxanna. the Afghan princess who bore him his only son.
Archaeologists at Cheshm-e Shafa havo uncovered a section of a well-built Achaemenid-period fortification wall close to what may have been a massive gate to the complex.
The Balkh River snakes through the pats at Cheshm-e Shafa on its way to the Amu Darya, a major river in Central Asia.
Most historians have long equated Zariaspa with the nearby city of Balkh. However, despite a century of digging, the site of Balkh has yet to yield definitive evidence of an Achaemenid past. In addition, the first-century b.c. Greek writer Strabo differentiates between Balkh and Zariaspa. And if Alexander went to Zariaspa to recover from illness, as Arrian asserts, then Cheshm-e Shafa may have been the better option. As late as the nineteenth century, Balkh was known for malaria outbreaks, while Chcshm-e Shafa offers dry and cool weather.
Until the French team finds more definitive evidence, Cheshm-e Shafa’s identity will remain a matter of debate. And it will not yield its secrets easily. The road to the site from the closest major city, Mazar-i-Sharif, is not always secure, and the archaeolo*gists working there must be gone well before nightfall. The dctcrioratmg security situation in northern Afghanistan is forcing the excavators to fly into Mazar-i-Shariffrom Kabul rather than drive the route across the Hindu Kusli. On top of that, winter comes early in this region. All these factors limit the amount of actual excavation time.
“Haste is the mother of failure.” Herodotus warned die Persian King Xerxes as he was contemplating war against the Greeks. “And for failure we always pay a heavy pricc.” But for scholars like Cool-Root, any new evidence, however scant and however long it takes to collcct, will begin to create a picture of a little-known part of one of the ancient world’s greatest empires.
Andrew Lawler is a contributing editor at Archaeology.
Large Achaemanid Fortification found in Afghanistan
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Originally Posted by Blatta Optima Maxima
