Amphithéâtre Maurice Halbwachs, Site Marcelin Berthelot
Open to all
-

Abstract

These attempts at recovery were soon overwhelmed. In Tokharestān, the Armenian historian P'awstos Buzand mentions two crushing defeats of the Sassanid army for the possession of Bactria, first around 367 and then around 375, anachronistically referring to the opponents as "Kushans". Towards the end of the century, newcomers arrived south of the Hindukush, not necessarily exactly the same as those referred to on the western front as "Chionites". All we have on them are coins bearing the legend Alkhan or Alkhon, of uncertain explanation; Viennese numismatists want to see them as a separate confederation.

These waves of invasions, some of which came from the Altaic regions, inevitably affected Sogdiana, but there are no accounts of this (not even Chinese ones, as Chinese diplomacy lost contact at the time). On the basis of changes in ceramics alone, archaeologists admit that in the 4th and5th centuries there were population displacements during a brief, violent crisis. Boris Marshak and Valentina Raspopova have put forward the most advanced ideas: the occupation of grazing land led to a domino effect on the land, and the rustic ceramics known as "Kaunchi" attest to the repopulation of urban oases by populations from the foothills [7].

References

Events