Far East Kingdoms

Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex / Oxus Civilisation (Bronze Age) (Central Asia)
c.2200 - 1700 BC

Third & Second Millennium BC Cultures Early Africa (Intro) Early Americas (Intro) Early Asia (Intro) Early China (Intro) Early Europe (Intro) Early Near East (Intro) Early Oceania (Intro)

The city states of Sumer formed one of the first great civilisations in human history (see feature link). This Near Eastern civilisation emerged a little way ahead of that of Africa's ancient Egypt, and up to a millennium before that of the Indus Valley culture.

Southern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and the western edge of Iran) was subjected to permanent settlement during the Pottery Neolithic. The neighbouring region of Elam emerged during the late fifth and early fourth millennia BC. To its east there also emerged a series of small cities and regional states.

These stretched across the Iranian plateau which reached towards the modern Pakistan border, and northwards into central Iran. They also connected with similar advanced settlements on the southern coast of the Caspian Sea, such as at Tepe Hissar, and others which emerged to the north-east of that, such as those of the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex, otherwise referred to as the 'Oxus Civilisation', or BMAC for ease of use.

This complex was largely centred on the later provinces of Bactria and Margiana, but it also extended into surrounding later provinces. It is partially overlapped by the more recently-proposed concept of the Greater Khorasan civilisation, which can be used to detail BMAC-like finds across central and southern Afghanistan and in north-eastern Iran to succeed the more limited Helmand culture.

Following the fading of the Kel'teminar around 3000 BC, towards its end migrating Zamin-Babis tribes seemingly evolved the fundamental points of the BMAC as they moved eastwards to form what is sometimes referred to as the Suyargan culture. This is often treated as a precursor to the BMAC, or even a sub-division of it, but its emergence post-dates the emergence of the BMAC by about two centuries (although the BMAC's own emergence is sometimes extended to about 2250 BC).

After a gap of around a millennium and-a-half, the Kel'teminar in the north was succeeded by the Tazabagyab culture which itself was a southern expression of the now-dominant Andronovo horizon. This formed the core of Indo-Iranian occupation to the north of the BMAC, although the people of the BMAC itself were indigenous natives, not Indo-Iranians, and the BMAC originated though influences other than those of the Kel'teminar.

Archaeological finds are constantly being made, and archaeological cultures are frequently being updated with new information. Get in touch here if this page also requires updating.

Principal author(s): Page created: Page last updated:

(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information from Encyclopaedia Britannica (Eleventh Edition, Cambridge (England), 1910), from Historical Atlas of the Ancient World, 4,000,000 to 500 BC, John Heywood (Barnes & Noble, 2000), from Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East, Michael Road (Facts on File, 2000), from The Archaeology of Elam, D T Potts (Cambridge University Press, 1999), from The Elamite World, Javier Álvarez-Mon, Gian Pietro Basello, & Yasmina Wick (Eds, Routledge, 2018), from Cultural Relationships Beyond the Iranian Plateau: The Helmand Civilization, Baluchistan and the Indus Valley in the 3rd Millennium BC, E Cortesi, M Tosi, A Lazzari, & M Vidale (CNRS Editions, 2009), and from External Links: Demographic considerations regarding the settlement and necropolis of Shahr-i Sokhta, E Ascalone & P F Fabbri (E Ascalone & S M S Sajjadi (Eds), Excavations and Researches at Shahr-i Sokhta 2, Pishin Pajouh, 2022, pp 523-554, and available via Academia.edu), and The Archaeological Evidence for OIT – I (Brown Pundits).)

c.2200 BC

An indigenous Bronze Age culture emerges in Central Asia between modern Turkmenistan and down towards the Oxus (otherwise known as the Amu Darya), the somewhat nebulous region called Transoxiana.

This is the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex, or 'Oxus Civilisation' in the later provinces of Bactria and Margiana, often abbreviated as BMAC or the Oxus polity.

Ancient Merv, the capital of Persian and Greek Merv/Margiana (now in Turkmenistan), was eventually abandoned just like its even more ancient forebear shown here, Gonur Tepe (Gonordepe), which was a major city of the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex until the River Murghab changed its course to leave it high and dry (click or tap on image to view full sized)

Margiana (now largely in Turkmenistan) is the likely heartland of this civilisation as the majority of urban settlements are located there, with apparently later extensions into Bactria and most often only with cemeteries being found by archaeology.

By the time of the BMAC's appearance, the Helmand culture settlement at Shahr-e Sokhta has already been abandoned, around 2350 BC, while its sister city of Mundigak has preceded it around 2400 BC to signal an end to this culture. Its territory borders that of the soon-to-emerge Greater Khorasan civilisation which covers BMAC-like archaeological finds outside of specific BMAC territory.

Indo-European tribes in the form of Indo-Iranians soon integrated themselves into the BMAC, especially along its northern edge. These tribal people are, principally, of the Andronovo horizon in Central Asia.

Elamite cities on the plain to the east of Sumer benefited from direct contact, but cities with more easterly locations also swiftly caught up, connected into a network of trading routes which stretched east to the Indus and north to Hissar and the BMAC (click or tap on map to view at an intermediate size)

It may also be elements of the Oxus culture - or Andronovo Indo-Iranians who feed off the BMAC's progressive nature - which form the 'spiral cities' of the Kazakhstan steppe. Items which so far have been recovered from recent exploration in this region include make-up equipment, a chariot, and numerous pieces of pottery.

The artefacts are daubed in swastikas (symbols of the sun and of eternal life). Evidence of ritual horse burials are also found, which ties in with ancient Indo-Aryan texts which describe the animals being sliced up and buried with their masters.

c.2200 - 2100 BC

The spheres of influence of the Marhashi state and the BMAC's Oxus polity seemingly have grown considerably. This eventually affects in depth the geopolitical interactions of the eastern Iranian plateau. A silver vessel of unknown provenience, but stylistically ascribed to the court art of the Oxus, speaks of an armed conflict between these two regional powers.

Proto-Elamite inscriptions from the site at Jiroft (possible capital of Marhashi) have fairly recently been found at the Konar-Sandal subsection of the site, dating to somewhere between 3000-2500 BC

This vessel documents a clash between the Oxus polity and the expansionism of an early Marhashi state, with the latter now becoming powerful enough to represent a threat both to its north-eastern neighbours and to Akkad in the west. Marhashi prisoners become propaganda representations on court art for Akkad and the Oxus polity.

A clash or clashes for control of the local north-south trade routes along which important copper outcrops could be mined, clashes in which warriors from Marhashi are defeated, may take place not far from Shahdad.

It seems that the Simashki rulers may end up seeking alliances with the Oxus polity in order to aid their own resistance to Marhashi dominance. That policy is maintained by their successors, the Eparti kings.

Located at the end of a small delta on a dry plain in central-eastern Iran, to the north of Jiroft and Tepe Yahya, Shahdad was excavated by an Iranian team in the 1970s

c.2000 BC

The climate has been changing across the Near East and into southern Central Asia and northern South Asia. The Sumerian civilisation is brought to an end, as is the already-weakened Jiroft culture. From around this time onwards the same changes greatly affect the BMAC, denuding it of water as the rains decline.

The people of the BMAC are gradually forced to migrate away, abandoning many of their cities, just as the people of the Indus Valley civilisation are being forced to do the same thing. The changes may take a century or two to become fully apparent though, and the Oxus polity appears not to be at all weakened at first.

At about the same time the Indo-Iranian Suyargan culture forms, feeding off the BMAC's cultural and technological advances. It centres itself around the Aral Sea, near the Amu Darya delta within what will later be known as Chorasmia as a successor to the Kel'teminar.

The sedentary fishermen of the semi-desert and desert areas of the Karakum and Kyzyl Kum deserts and the deltas of the Amu Darya and Zeravshan rivers in ancient Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan formed the region's first Neolithic expression: the Kel'teminar culture

c.1970? BC

With the apparent end of the line of Simashki rulers, their replacements are the stronger Eparti rulers. Under them the Elamites swiftly rise to become a regional power, one which is contemporaneous with the Old Babylonian empire.

They often threaten conquest both against Babylon and the other Amorite city states of Mesopotamia, such as Isin. At the same time their court at Anshan now adopts BMAC-related images, symbols and, presumably, formal Oxus court garments.

Possibly the use of Linear Elamite writing may be part of a wider picture in which Elam enjoys strong relations with the Oxus polity at the expense of Marhashi's waning importance.

1800 - 1700 BC

With the now-clear weakening of the Oxus polity and its fading as a political force, Indo-Iranian groups become dominant across Bactria and Margiana and, over time, some of their descendants enter Iran to found states such as those of the Mannaeans, the Median empire, and early Persia.

The River Oxus - also known over the course of many centuries as the Amu Darya - was used as a demarcation border throughout history - it was also a hub of activity in prehistoric times, providing a home to the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex, or Oxus Civilisation

Some go even farther and even earlier to form the Mitanni empire. Others cross the rivers of modern Afghanistan and the Hindu Kush mountains and enter India between 1700-1500 BC. They eventually form their own kingdoms there such as Magadha, plus Kalinga, and the Kaurava state.