This polity is named after an ancient settlement site at Sarazm, located in modern Tajikistan. The period runs from its initial settlement around 3500 BCE to the site’s abandonment c. 2000 BCE.
[1]
This period at Sarazm represents the first urban phase in Sogdiana and has yielded evidence of ceramic production, agriculture, irrigation and metallurgy.
[2]
Ceramic evidence, along with the presence of seashells, suggests that contacts were maintained with different areas of Central Asia.
[3]
[4]
Population and political organization
Due to the nature of the remaining evidence, the political organization of Sarazm is not known. While 100 hectares have been excavated at the site, the settlement area expanded and contracted throughout its existence, making a definite population estimate difficult for this period.
[2]
[1]: (Anthony 2010, 420) Anthony, David W. 2010. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/7MNNVQRA.
[2]: (de la Vaissière 2011) Vaissière, É. de la. 2011. “Sogdiana III: History and Archeology.” Encyclopædia Iranica. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/sogdiana-iii-history-and-archeology. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/9AS4QQVB.
[3]: (Masson 1992, 232) Masson, V. M. 1992. “The Bronze Age In Khorasan and Transoxania.” In History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume I: The Dawn of Civilizations: Earliest Times to 700 B.C., edited by A. H. Dani and V. M. Masson, 225-46. Paris: UNESCO. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/JZ5DSUEB/q/masson.
[4]: (Isakov 1994, 4-5) Isakov, A. 1994. “Sarazm: An Agricultural Center of Ancient Sogdiana.” Bulletin of the Asia Institute 8: 1-12. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/NWVCFNW7.
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| Year Range | Sarazm (tj_sarasm) was in: |
|---|---|
| (3500 BCE 2001 BCE) | Sogdiana |
"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." [1]
[1]: De la Vaissière, Encyclopedia Iranica online, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/sogdiana-iii-history-and-archeology
"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." [1]
[1]: De la Vaissière, Encyclopedia Iranica online, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/sogdiana-iii-history-and-archeology
Sarazm "is an archaeological site bearing testimony to the development of human settlements in Central Asia, from the 4th millennium BCE to the end of the 3rd millennium BCE."
[1]
"Sarazm probably was abandoned around 2000 BCE, just at the Namazga V/VI transition. On the lower Zeravshan, the smaller villages of the Zaman Baba culture probably were abandoned about the same time as Sarazm."
[2]
[1]: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1141
[2]: (Anthony 2010, 420) Anthony, David W. 2010. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World. Princeton University Press.
km squared. "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." [1]
[1]: De la Vaissière, Encyclopedia Iranica online, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/sogdiana-iii-history-and-archeology
Inhabitants.
35ha at Seshat conversion 50-200 per ha would give a range of 1750-7000 people.
Sarazm was a mudbrick city that eventually covered 35ha.
[1]
"This was a long-lasting and prosperous proto-urban metropolis, at the north-eastern extremity of a vast area stretching from Mesopotamia to the Indus and the Iranian plateau"
[2]
[1]: (Anthony and Brown 2014, 63) Anthony, David W. Brown, Dorcas R. Horseback Riding and Bronze Age Pastoralism in the Eurasian Steppes. in Mair, Victor H. Hickman, Jane. eds. 2014. Reconfiguring the Silk Road: New Research on East-West Exchange in Antiquity. University of Pennsylvanian Press.
levels.
"Proto-urban Site of Sarazm"
[1]
"The ruins demonstrate the early development of proto-urbanization in this region."
[1]
There were other settlements in addition to Sarazm.
[2]
"All those findings prove that Sarazm, following the first nucleation of the mid-to-late fourth millennium BC, developed into a proto-urban centre supplying manufactured goods to its own population as well as those of a vast hinterland."
[3]
[1]: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1141
[2]: (Anthony and Brown 2014, 63) Anthony, David W. Brown, Dorcas R. Horseback Riding and Bronze Age Pastoralism in the Eurasian Steppes. in Mair, Victor H. Hickman, Jane. eds. 2014. Reconfiguring the Silk Road: New Research on East-West Exchange in Antiquity. University of Pennsylvanian Press.
[3]: (Sarazm Management Plan 2005, 22)
"Buildings remains are numerous at Sarazm. They comprise housing, workshops for craftsmen, storage (granaries), as well as palatial and cult buildings. All are mainly built with earth-brick (adobe) that allowed flexibility in the architecture with a variety of uses, sizes and shapes." [1] Three types of monumental buildings were found at Sarazm: a religious building, a palatial complex and a communal granary. [2]
[1]: (Sarazm Management Plan 2005, 17)
[2]: (Razzokov and Kurbanov 2005: 19) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/IDTTJNJT.
"Sarazm also demonstrates the existence of commercial and cultural exchanges and trade relations with peoples over an extensive geographical area, extending from the steppes of Central Asia and Turkmenistan, to the Iranian plateau, the Indus valley and as far as the Indian Ocean." [1] "Sarazm demonstrates the existence of inter-regional trade and cultural interchanges over long distances across Central Asia. This was a long-lasting and prosperous proto-urban metropolis, at the north-eastern extremity of a vast area stretching from Mesopotamia to the Indus and the Iranian plateau." [1] "The Proto-urban Site of Sarazm is one of the places that gave birth to and saw the development of the major trans-Eurasian trade routes." [1]
"This centre of settlement, one of the oldest in Central Asia, is situated between a mountainous region suitable for cattle rearing by nomadic pastoralists, and a large valley conducive to the development of agriculture and irrigation by the first settled populations in the region." [1] "perhaps at other settlements, eating bread made from wheat grown in irrigated fields (Isakov 1994, Isakov et al. 1987, Lyonnet 1996)." [2]
[1]: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1141
[2]: (Anthony and Brown 2014, 63) Anthony, David W. Brown, Dorcas R. Horseback Riding and Bronze Age Pastoralism in the Eurasian Steppes. in Mair, Victor H. Hickman, Jane. eds. 2014. Reconfiguring the Silk Road: New Research on East-West Exchange in Antiquity. University of Pennsylvanian Press.
"Buildings remains are numerous at Sarazm. They comprise housing, workshops for craftsmen, storage (granaries), as well as palatial and cult buildings. All are mainly built with earth-brick (adobe) that allowed flexibility in the architecture with a variety of uses, sizes and shapes." [1]
[1]: (Sarazm Management Plan 2005, 17)
"The town played a regional role over a long period and on a very large scale in the working of metals, particularly tin and copper, and the associated development of handicrafts to produce tools, ceramics, and jewellery." [1]
"The Proto-urban Site of Sarazm had connections with the steppes of Central Asia, and in addition with the Turkmenian, proto-Elamite, Mesopotamian, and Indus worlds." [1] "The Proto-urban Site of Sarazm is one of the places that gave birth to and saw the development of the major trans-Eurasian trade routes." [1]
Sintashta culture is also in Central Asia (essentially follows the Sarazm 2100-1800 BCE) but I don’t think there is enough here to infer present as Sarazm was not between the northern steppe and the forest zone:"One of the signature innovations of the Sintashta culture was the appearance of heavily fortified permanent settlements, with ditches, banks, and substantial palisade walls, in the steppes southeast of the Urals, beginning a shift from mobile to settled pastoralism that was adopted soon afterward across the northern steppe zone both to the east and the west. The late 3rd milennium BC was a time of intensified conflict and intensified interchange between the people of the northern steppes and the forest zone. Conflict and competition for shrinking marsh resources essential for wintering-over pastoral herds probably led to the sedentarization of the formerly mobile pastoralists of the steppes." [1]
[1]: (Anthony and Brown 2014, 66) David W Anthony. Dorcas R Brown. Horseback Riding and Bronze Age Pastoralism in the Eurasian Steppes. Victor H Mair. Jane Hickman. eds. 2014. Reconfiguring the Silk Road: New Research on East-West Exchange in Antiquity. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Philadelphia.
Inferred absent for defensive stone walls. A stone wall has been found surrounding a funerary enclosure but this may be considered part of a building: "No large necropolis has yet been found at Sarazm, but excavation IV led to the discovery of a funerary enclosure with a round plan (15 m in diameter) surrounded by a stone wall. (see general plan of the excavation IV)." [1]
[1]: (Sarazm Management Plan 2005, 20)
Inferred absent for defensive stone walls. A stone wall has been found surrounding a funerary enclosure but this may be considered part of a building: "No large necropolis has yet been found at Sarazm, but excavation IV led to the discovery of a funerary enclosure with a round plan (15 m in diameter) surrounded by a stone wall. (see general plan of the excavation IV)." [1]
[1]: (Sarazm Management Plan 2005, 20)
Sintashta culture is also in Central Asia (essentially follows the Sarazm 2100-1800 BCE) but I don’t think there is enough here to infer present as Sarazm was not between the northern steppe and the forest zone:"One of the signature innovations of the Sintashta culture was the appearance of heavily fortified permanent settlements, with ditches, banks, and substantial palisade walls, in the steppes southeast of the Urals, beginning a shift from mobile to settled pastoralism that was adopted soon afterward across the northern steppe zone both to the east and the west. The late 3rd milennium BC was a time of intensified conflict and intensified interchange between the people of the northern steppes and the forest zone. Conflict and competition for shrinking marsh resources essential for wintering-over pastoral herds probably led to the sedentarization of the formerly mobile pastoralists of the steppes." [1]
[1]: (Anthony and Brown 2014, 66) David W Anthony. Dorcas R Brown. Horseback Riding and Bronze Age Pastoralism in the Eurasian Steppes. Victor H Mair. Jane Hickman. eds. 2014. Reconfiguring the Silk Road: New Research on East-West Exchange in Antiquity. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Philadelphia.
Sintashta culture is also in Central Asia (essentially follows the Sarazm 2100-1800 BCE) but I don’t think there is enough here to infer present as Sarazm was not between the northern steppe and the forest zone:"One of the signature innovations of the Sintashta culture was the appearance of heavily fortified permanent settlements, with ditches, banks, and substantial palisade walls, in the steppes southeast of the Urals, beginning a shift from mobile to settled pastoralism that was adopted soon afterward across the northern steppe zone both to the east and the west. The late 3rd milennium BC was a time of intensified conflict and intensified interchange between the people of the northern steppes and the forest zone. Conflict and competition for shrinking marsh resources essential for wintering-over pastoral herds probably led to the sedentarization of the formerly mobile pastoralists of the steppes." [1]
[1]: (Anthony and Brown 2014, 66) David W Anthony. Dorcas R Brown. Horseback Riding and Bronze Age Pastoralism in the Eurasian Steppes. Victor H Mair. Jane Hickman. eds. 2014. Reconfiguring the Silk Road: New Research on East-West Exchange in Antiquity. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Philadelphia.
"The reasons for the abandon of Sarazm by its inhabitants have not yet been identified. Hypothesis include migration of the population, epidemic disease, attack of this prosperous settlement which wasn’t fortified, ..., but none could really be verified." [1]
[1]: (Razzokov and Kurbanov 2005: 12) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/IDTTJNJT.
"At any rate the Ferghana valley has yielded up a rich store of bronze and silver objects of clearly southern origin. The trove includes a pin with a double-helical head and a mace with a sculptural group representing the milking of a cow and the suckling of a calf. The residents of the southern oases may have been attracted to the Ferghana valley by its tin deposits so vital for metalworking in the Bronze Age." [1]
[1]: (Masson 1992, 242-244)
"More than 150 metal artefacts (bronze: axes, arrowheads, knives, spears, hair pins, needles, lead blocks for export, lead stamps; silver and gold jewels) and numerous artefacts made of stone (grinding grains, leather, wood, showcases, bow and arrows, tools, marble cups and goblets) were found." [1]
[1]: (Razzokov and Kurbanov 2005: 22) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/IDTTJNJT.
absent before the gunpowder era
"Composite bows are known from both Mesopotamia and the Great Steppe from the III millennium BCE. The Scythian bow was different from the Mesopotamian one primarily in its overall dimensions - it was smaller so that it could be used from the horseback. At the same time, self bows were also in use, but because of their large size they were not suitable for use by horse riders." [1]
[1]: Sergey A Nefedov, RAN Institute of History and Archaeology, Yekaterinburg, Russia. Personal Communication to Peter Turchin. January 2018.
"At any rate the Ferghana valley has yielded up a rich store of bronze and silver objects of clearly southern origin. The trove includes a pin with a double-helical head and a mace with a sculptural group representing the milking of a cow and the suckling of a calf. The residents of the southern oases may have been attracted to the Ferghana valley by its tin deposits so vital for metalworking in the Bronze Age." [1]
[1]: (Masson 1992, 242-244)
"The unusually rich metal inventory recovered from Sarazm [...] include daggers". [1]
[1]: (Isakov et al 1987: 90) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/EF2N2FE2.
"More than 150 metal artefacts (bronze: axes, arrowheads, knives, spears, hair pins, needles, lead blocks for export, lead stamps; silver and gold jewels) and numerous artefacts made of stone (grinding grains, leather, wood, showcases, bow and arrows, tools, marble cups and goblets) were found." [1]
[1]: (Razzokov and Kurbanov 2005: 22) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/IDTTJNJT.