ANTIQUITY

2nd century BC - 1st century AD
9th-11th centuries AD

A nameless mound in ancient Sogd

The monument is part of the group of burial mounds in the old riverbed of the Sazagan.
Preservation excavations were carried out in 1978 by O. I. Ibragimov. An undercut grave was found
under an earth mound containing scattered human and animal bones in a wooden coffin. After clearing
the skeleton the researchers found scraps of Chinese silk fabric – six small fragments of varying
quality. Three scraps were decorated with gold embroidery and were identified as being of Chinese
origin. Decorative elements of a waist set, in particular, an openwork buckle plate, are no less
important for dating. A buckle in the form of a bull’s head, which is moulded copy of a one from
the Tesin grave in Khakassia, deserves special mentioning. Other interesting items include horn and
bronze pins, a button plaque, iron triangular tanged arrowheads and a dagger. Broken vessels, a
bronze bracelet with an engraving, a silver fastening brooch in the form of a tortoise, and a
carnelian container for pigment to colour eyebrows were found within the mound. Close analogues to
these objects have been recorded in large numbers in Hun burial grounds in Transbaikal, Mongolia,
Khakassia, Tuva and Ordos, where they are dated from the 2nd to the 1st centuries BCE.

The Sazagan mound makes it possible to date the use of silk further back and expands its geography,
including it in the Zeravshan area of Sogd and reflecting traces of one of the branches of the
emerging Silk Road. It is quite obvious that the Zeravshan valley was an important cultural and
economic communicator between different regions. In the history of mankind, the Great Silk Road
exemplifies active trade, scientific and cultural exchange, which has remained a part of our
history in the memory of peoples. It is important that since the 2nd century BCE the region was a
part of the socio-cultural space covered by the Great
Silk Road.