Questions on the Date of the Hellenistic Pottery from Central Asia (Ai Khanoum, Marakanda and Koktepe)

Abstract

Abstract On the basis of recent research on the pottery and comparisons between three important sites with Hellenistic occupation in Central Asia, new dates are proposed for each of them. The article presents both the former data and hypotheses and the recent discoveries, including coins for Afrasiab/Samarkand, which lead to the new proposals. Changes in pottery style do not follow immediately Alexander’s conquest, and the first real Hellenistic shapes only appear under Antiochos I. After Antiochos III’s reconquest of Bactria, an important wave of new fashions in pottery style is introduced which lasted until Eucratides’ death and the end of the Greek domination, around the middle of the 2 nd century BC. Sogdiana hardly shows any of these novelties because it had already gained its independence.