SOGDIAN CITY OF PENJIKENT

For more than a thousand years, one of the largest and rich cités towns was sleeping beneath the hills of the Zéravshan river. His discovery in 1932 was due to the curiosity of a shepherd in the village of Khaïrabad, more than 60 km from the site of Penjikent. By digging in the ruins of the «kala-i-moug», the old castle of Abargar burying his house, the shepherd Djour Ali was probably hoping to find some gold coins, but the fate attributed him a braided basket and a silk sheet whose unusual inscriptions left the teacher in the school. This discovery occupied dozens of linguists, historians and archaeologists for several decades: It was the first text in sogdien discovered on the territory of Sogdiane.

Seventy-three documents were found and dated from the beginning of the th century. Some of them were commercial contracts, others of the administrative papers that recounted the story of Divachtich, the last Sogdien king of Penjikent who led the rebellion against the Arabs. Divachtich and his subjects fled Arab invaders and fled to the fortress of Abargar. But the king was finally captured and beheaded, and his head was sent to caliph.

The study of the Archives archives conducted the archaeological research towards the High Zéravshan and the Penjikent region. Excavations, actually begun after the Second World War, allowed to discover what some call "Pompeii of Central Asia." Although in ruins, the city was buried under a thick layer of land and no parasitic construction had come to destroy ancient harmony. A gold mine for Soviet archaeologists found numerous frescoes depicting the sogdien universe.

The site. A plan at the site entrance allows to understand the organization characteristic of sogdian cities, comprising four distinct areas: the citadel or residence of the king, the shakhristan or the fortified inner city, the flap or the outdoor and popular district, and the necropolis located away from the city. The dusty mounds that can be observed today will only become eloquent if you are accompanied by a good guide.

All the frescoes have been withdrawn and are now exposed to Tashkent or the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. However, one can see an authentic fresco and several reproductions in the museums of Penjikent.

A small museum at the entrance to the site shows reproductions of the frescoes and some objects found during excavations. It should be noted that the rediscovered frescoes are almost always destroyed in the face of the face, with Muslim conquerors having acharnés over any human representation they considered sacrilege. The few faces that can still be distinguished have surprisingly Asian traits. The first painting schools were set up in the middle of the middle of the th century by masters from China…

History. Flourishing since the Fifth century, the city had approximately 4 000 inhabitants on the eve of its destruction by the Arabs at the beginning of the th century. Penjikent was located on one of the shopping routes linking the mountainous regions of the high Zéravshan and Afrosiab (Samarkand), the capital of Sogdiane. The rich sogdiens merchants who lived there or had established desks were one of the ties of trade between China and the West. Many cultural and religious influences enrichissaient this refined society, which is found in the frescoes of temples and houses. The sumptuous merchant houses had two or sometimes three levels communicating by a large spiral staircase, and possessed a aïvan adorned with carved wooden pillars and a reception room decorated with frescos.

Each family had a family temple in the necropolis: a square construction of two meters on 2 m open on the sides.