History of Bukhara

Officially the city was founded in 500 BCE in the area now called the Ark. However, the Bukhara oasis had been inhabited long before. According to the Russian archaeologist E. E. Kuzmina, writing in 2007 in The Prehistory of the Silk Road, links the Zaman-Baba culture found in the Bukhara Oasis in the third millennium BCE to the spread of Indo-Aryansacross Central Asia. Since 3000 BCE an advanced Bronze Age culture called the Sapalli Culture thrived at such sites as Varakhsha, Vardan, Paykend, and Ramitan. In 1500 BCE a combination of factors—climatic drying, iron technology, and the arrival of Aryan nomads—triggered a population shift to the oasis from outlying areas. Together both the Sapalli and Aryan people lived in villages along the shores of a dense lake and wetland area in the Zeravshan Fan (the Zeravshan (Zarafshan) River had ceased draining to the Oxus). By 1000 BC both groups had merged into a distinctive culture. Around 700 BCE this new culture, called Sogdian, flourished in city-states along the Zeravshan Valley. By this time, the lake had silted up and three small fortified settlements had been built. By 500 BCE these settlements had grown together and were enclosed by a wall, thus Bukhara was born.

PERSIAN AND SASSANID EMPIRES

Gold 20-stater of the Greco-Bactrianking Eucratides (170-145 BC), the largest gold coin ever minted in antiquity.

Bukhara entered history in 500 BCE as vassal state or satrapy in the Persian Empire. Later it passed into the hands of the Alexander the Great, the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire, the Greco-Bactrians, and the Kushan Empire. During this time, Bukhara