research notes
The Middle Asian
Interaction Sphere
n the early 1920s Sir
I
TRADE AND
John Marshall’s investiga-
C O NTAC T I N T H E 3 R D
tions of the ancient cities
M I L L E N N I U M BC of Mohenjo-daro and
B Y G R E G O RY L. P O S S E H L Harappa (now located in
Pakistan) resulted in the discov-
ery of the Indus civilization
(2500–1900 BC). This was an
astounding event for the Indian
subcontinent, effectively pushing
the history of ancient India back
to the 3rd millennium BC, long before the arrival of Alexander
the Great in 326 BC.
These objects document long-distance contact in the MAIS: (a) an
impression of an Indus “unicorn” seal thought to come from Tell Umma;
(b) an Indus “unicorn” seal from Mohenjo-daro; (c) one of the seals pub-
lished by Gadd (now on display in the British Museum) showing an Indus
script and animal device on a Persian Gulf–style seal; and (d) the Indus
elephant seal from Gonur Depe (compiled from images supplied by
Maurizio Tosi, Gregory L. Possehl, and Viktor Sarianidi).
on the south by the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea. During
his excavations, Marshall recovered materials from across this
region at both Early Bronze Age cities.
Similarly, during the 1920s and 30s, the full richness of the
Mesopotamian and Elamite civilizations was coming to light at
such sites as Tell Asmar, Tell Agrab, Kish, Susa, and especially
the Royal Tombs at Ur. These excavations in Mesopotamia also
revealed materials such as seals, beads, and pottery from the
Indus civilization. In fact, the famous cloak of beads from
Marshall’s discovery also brought about important Queen Puabi’s Tomb at Ur is probably made up largely of
insights into the interaction and trade between distant lands Indian beads, particularly those of carnelian. Clearly, these dis-
Gregory L. Possehl
stretching from Mesopotamia to the Persian Gulf, the Iranian tant peoples were contemporaries and known to one
Plateau, and Central Asia. This part of the world can be called another—but how?
“Middle Asia”—the region between the Indus River and the In the 1930s the British Assyriologist C. J. Gadd began
Mediterranean Sea bounded on the north by Central Asia and to look at this interaction. In a famous paper entitled
40 vo lu m e 4 9 , n u m b er 1 expe d i t i on
“Seals of Indian Style venture capitalist merchants obtained exotic products such as
Found at Ur” he copper, other metals, wood, pearls, and even animals via mar-
brought together a itime commerce. Mesopotamian religious cults and the bur-
series of seals that he geoning population of elite citizens consumed these items as
felt were foreign to objects of ostentatious display.
Mesopotamia and The texts that Oppenheim reviewed contained many refer-
had an Indian “look” ences to three lands beyond the “Lower Sea” or Persian Gulf—
to them. Although Dilmun, Magan, and Meluhha. When these lands appear
some of Gadd’s seals together in cuneiform literature they apparently are always in
do have glyptics with this order, or the reverse, strongly suggesting a spatial sequenc-
Indus writing and ing, as in a boast by Sargon the Great (2334–2279 BC) inform-
some are probably of
Beads from Queen Puabi’s Tomb at Ur
adorned her cloak.
Indian workman-
ship, others came not
from India but from sites in the Persian Gulf—an area whose
Bronze Age archaeology was virtually unknown at the time.
The MAIS encompassed numerous cultural regions (inspired by a map
by Maurizio Tosi).
ing us that ships from Meluhha, Magan, and Dilmun docked
Sites across Middle Asia have revealed BMAC, or BMAC-like, artifacts
in the harbor of his capital of Akkad.
(adapted from figure 10.8 in Fredrik T. Hiebert. Origins of the Bronze Age Dilmun was both a Persian Gulf trading center—today’s
Oasis Civilization in Central Asia. Cambridge, MA: Peabody Museum of island nation of Bahrain and the nearby shore of Saudi
Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, 1994).
Arabia—and a place of considerable cultural significance to
the Mesopotamians—the purported entrance to their
During the 1930s, archaeologists also identified Indian Underworld. Magan, to the east of Dilmun, was a land of cop-
materials alongside Mesopotamian artifacts on the Iranian per, today home to the Sultanate of Oman and probably some
Penn Museum (top), Gregory L. Possehl (maps)
Plateau at sites such as Hissar, where they found Indian-etched or all of the United Arab Emirates. Even farther east, was the
carnelian beads. This suggested that interesting things were Indus civilization of the subcontinent—Meluhha—now in
going on in this vast region during the Bronze Age. But World Pakistan and northwest India. Cuneiform documents also
War II brought archaeological fieldwork in the greater Near inform us that some people in Mesopotamia called themselves
East and South Asia to a virtual halt, and the finds were still too “Son of Meluhha,” and there are references to Meluhhan vil-
thin on the ground for it all to be pieced together. lages and granaries. We even have the personal cylinder seal of
After the war, A. Leo Oppenheim’s article, “Seafaring Shu-ilishu, a translator of the Meluhhan language (Expedition
Merchants of Ur,” brought attention to the substantial 3rd mil- 48(1):42-43).
lennium BC maritime activities in the Persian Gulf and Around the same time that this trade and interaction was
beyond. According to ancient cuneiform texts Mesopotamian being identified along Middle Asia’s southern shores, Soviet
w w w. mu s eu m . u pen n . e du / expe d i t ion 41
archaeologists began excavating on Middle Asia’s northern Indus Valley, the Iranian Plateau, and even at sites on the
periphery at the southern edge of Central Asia. In the 1960s an southern shores of the Persian Gulf.
interesting set of observations emerged from these excava- Since the 1960s excavations on the Iranian Plateau at such
tions. First, beginning in the 4th millennium BC, the people of places as Tepe Yahya, Shahr-i Sokhta, Shahdad, and Jiroft have
southern Central Asia shared a pottery style called “Quetta also added to the corpus of finds linking the Indus civilization
Ware” with the people of Baluchistan far to the south. Along with the BMAC and Mesopotamia. For example, the burial of
with female figurines and occasional compartmented seals, a BMAC personage at Quetta and the French excavations at
this style of pottery persisted until the early centuries of the Sibri, a BMAC settlement, indicate that BMAC peoples trav-
2nd millennium BC, suggesting long-term interaction north eled in the Greater Indus Valley and even took up residence
and south. there. Further evidence has been identified by sifting through
Second, at Altyn Depe in Turkmenistan, the Soviets found the reports and materials from old excavations from such
two provincial-style Indus seals, along with much ivory (pre- places as Bampur, Khurab, Khinaman, and Nishapur in Iran,
sumably from elephants), which was also apparently from and Kulli and Mehi in Pakistani Baluchistan. Now, more easily
India. Their discoveries were all found in correct chronological recognized, we see that each of these sites produced BMAC
sequence dating to the second half of the 3rd millennium BC, materials that were missed when originally published.
indicating that Altyn Depe was contemporary with the Indus By the end of the 20th century it had become quite apparent
cities. Furthermore, this also provided evidence for Middle that this entire region had witnessed a period of new economic
Asian interaction stretching north to the Oxus civilization and political configurations during the 3rd millennium BC. To
which, in a second phase beginning at about 2200 BC, occu- better understand this important phenomenon in world his-
pied inland river delta oases such as Margiana. We now refer to tory and to bring it all together as a single dynamic, in 2002 I
the material culture of this second phase in Central Asia as the coined the term “Middle Asian Interaction Sphere” or MAIS in
Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex, or BMAC. my book, The Indus Civilization: A Contemporary Perspective.
During the 1980s, excavations in Margiana by the Russian Interaction spheres have a long and distinguished history in
archaeologist Viktor Sarianidi at the city of Gonur Depe, archaeology since the concept has been useful in dealing with
uncovered the plan of a complex, well-defended settlement, the sorts of long-distance interactions that the peoples of
with rich graves and the entire range of BMAC artifacts. He Middle Asia seem to have enjoyed. But no two interaction
also found one very fine Indus stamp seal with an elephant. spheres are the same; nor are they unchanging over protracted
Judging by its style, this seal was probably made in the Indus periods of time. Archaeologists therefore continue to docu-
region and brought or traded to Gonur. The site also has a ment the shifting dynamics of this important set of interna-
great deal of ivory, and some artifacts have an Indus “look” to tional relationships, leading the way in systematically investi-
them, especially the gaming sticks or dice. Further evidence for gating and furthering our understanding of the MAIS.
trade or interaction between Margiana and Middle Asia can be
seen in all the BMAC material found throughout the Greater
gregory l. possehl is Professor of Anthropology at the
University of Pennsylvania and the Curator-in-Charge of the
Museum’s Asian Section.
For Further Reading
Gadd, C. J. “Seals of Ancient Indian Style Found at Ur.” Proceedings
of the British Academy 18 (1932):191-210.
Oppenheim, A. Leo. “Seafaring Merchants of Ur.” Journal of the
American Oriental Society 74 (1954):6-17.
Possehl, Gregory L. “Meluhha.” In The Indian Ocean in Antiquity,
edited by Julian Reade, pp. 133-208. London: Kegan Paul International
in association with the British Museum, 1996.
Viktor Sarianidi
Possehl, Gregory L. The Indus Civilization: A Contemporary
Perspective. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira, 2002.
, Ancient Oriental Kingdom in the Old
Sarianidi, Viktor I. Margus:
Delta of the Murghab River. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan:
The site of Gonur Depe looks like a citadel from the air.
Türkmendöwlethabarlary, 2002.
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