UpdateBot at 11:43, 1 July 2022

2022-07-01T11:43:39Z

New page

{{Short description|Archaeological site near Denov, Uzbekistan}}
{{multiple image|perrow=2|total_width=350|caption_align=center
| align = right
| direction =horizontal
| header=Khalchayan
| image1 = KushanHead.jpg
| caption1 = Head of a [[Yuezhi]] prince (Khalchayan palace, [[Uzbekistan]]). 1st century BCE<ref>{{cite book |title=KHALCHAYAN – Encyclopaedia Iranica |page=Figure 1 |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/khalchayan#prettyPhoto[content]/0/}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=View in real colors |url=http://warfare.tk/Ancient/Khaltchayan-Armour_bearer.htm}}</ref>
| image2 = Saka warrior Termez Achaeological Museum.jpg
| caption2 = A [[Saka]] warrior, as a defeated enemy of the Yuezhi, Khalchayan. 1st century BCE<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Abdullaev |first1=Kazim |title=Nomad Migration in Central Asia (in After Alexander: Central Asia before Islam) |journal=Proceedings of the British Academy |date=2007 |volume=133 |pages=87–98 |url=https://www.academia.edu/6864202 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Greek Art in Central Asia, Afghan – Encyclopaedia Iranica |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/greece-viii#prettyPhoto[content]/7/}}</ref><ref>Also a Saka according to this source: [https://i.pinimg.com/originals/bf/c2/42/bfc242271c38d714044837d179faab53.jpg]</ref>
| footer=<center>
{{Location map
| West Asia#South Asia#Uzbekistan
| width = 330px
| float = center
| border =
| caption = Location of Khalchayan in [[Central Asia]].
| alt =
| relief = yes
| AlternativeMap =
| overlay_image =
| label = Khalchayan
| label_size =
| position =
| background =
| mark =
| marksize =
| link =
| lat_deg = 38.289498842
| lon_deg = 67.973996104
}}</center>
}}
'''Khalchayan''' (also ''Khaltchaïan'') is an archaeological site, thought to be a small palace or a reception hall, located near the modern town of [[Denov]] in [[Surxondaryo Region]] of southern [[Uzbekistan]]. It is located in the valley of the [[Surkhan Darya]], a northern tributary of the [[Oxus]] (modern [[Amu Darya]]).

==Reliefs==
The site is usually attributed to the early [[Kushans]], or their ancestors the [[Yuezhi]]/[[Tocharians]]. It was excavated by [[Galina Pugachenkova]] between 1959 and 1963. The interior walls are decorated with clay sculptures and paintings dated to the mid-1st century BCE, but they are thought to represent events as early as the 2nd century BCE.<ref>"It is possible to attribute the Khalchayan reliefs to the first century BC archaeologically, but the historical events reflected in them belong to an earlier period, i.e. to around the middle of the second century BC. " {{cite journal |last1=Abdullaev |first1=Kazim |title=Nomad Migration in Central Asia (in After Alexander: Central Asia before Islam) |journal=Proceedings of the British Academy |date=2007 |volume=133 |page=91|url=https://www.academia.edu/6864202 |language=en}}</ref> Various panels depict scenes of Kushan life: battles, feasts, portraits of rulers.

Some of the Khalchayan sculptural scenes are thought to depict the Kushans fighting against a [[Saka]] tribe.<ref name="KA"/> The Yuezhis are shown with a majestic demeanour, whereas the Sakas are typically represented with side-wiskers in more or less grotesque attitudes.<ref name="KA">"The knights in chain-mail armour have analogies in the Khalchayan reliefs depicting a battle of the Yuezhi against a Saka tribe (probably the Sakaraules). Apart from the chain-mail armour worn by the heavy cavalry of the enemies of the Yuezhi, the other characteristic sign of these warriors is long side-whiskers (...) We think it is possible to identify all these grotesque personages with long side-whiskers as enemies of the Yuezhi and relate them to the Sakaraules (...) Indeed these expressive figures with side-whiskers differ greatly from the tranquil and majestic faces and poses of the Yuezhi depictions." {{cite journal |last1=Abdullaev |first1=Kazim |title=Nomad Migration in Central Asia (in After Alexander: Central Asia before Islam) |journal=Proceedings of the British Academy |date=2007 |volume=133 |page=89 |url=https://www.academia.edu/6864202 |language=en}}</ref>

==Influences==
[[File:Gandhara, testa di bodhisattva, 190-210 dc ca..JPG|thumb|upright|left|The head of a Bodhisattava said to resemble [[:File:KushanHead.jpg|the portrait of the prince]] from Khalchaya. [[Philadelphia Museum of Art]].<ref name="BR"/>]]
{{main|Kushan art}}
According to Benjamin Rowland, the art of Kalchayan of the end of the 2nd century BCE is ultimately derived from [[Hellenistic art]], and possibly from the art of the cities of [[Ai-Khanoum]] and [[Nisa, Turkmenistan|Nysa]], but it also has similarities with the later [[Greco-Buddhist art|Art of Gandhara]] and may even have been at the origin of its development.<ref name="BR"/>

Rowland particularly draws attention to the similarity of the ethnic types represented at Khalchayan and in the art of Gandhara, and also in the style of portraiture itself.<ref name="BR">{{cite journal |last1=Rowland |first1=Benjamin |title=Graeco-Bactrian Art and Gandhāra: Khalchayan and the Gandhāra Bodhisattvas |journal=Archives of Asian Art |date=1971 |volume=25 |pages=29–35 |jstor=20111029 |issn=0066-6637}}</ref> For example, Rowland find a great proximity between [[:File:KushanHead.jpg|the famous head of a Yuezhi prince]] from Khalchayan, and the head of Gandharan [[Bodhisattva]]s, giving the example of the Gandharan head of a Bodhisattva in the [[Philadelphia Museum of Art]].<ref name="BR"/> The similarity of the Gandhara Bodhisattva with the portrait of the Kushan ruler [[Heraios]] is also striking.<ref name="BR"/> According to Rowland the Bactrian art of Khalchayan thus survived for several centuries through its influence in the art of Gandhara, thanks to the patronage of the [[Kushans]].<ref name="BR"/>

[[File:Khalchayan statuette, 1st century BCE (detail).jpg|thumb|Another terracotta statue from Khalchayan, 1st century BCE-1st century CE. [[ Termez Archaeological Museum]].]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
*"Les Saces", Iaroslav Lebedynsky

==Further reading==
*[[Galina Pugachenkova|G. A. Pugachenkova]]. . ''"The Sculpture of Khalchayan"''. Moscow, 1970.
*[[Galina Pugachenkova|G. A. Pugachenkova]]. ''"Khalchayan"''. Tashkent, 1966.

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050405005559/http://grifterrec.com/coins/kushan/heraios.html "A Comparison of Images of Kushans from Coins and Sculpture"], with images from Pugachenkova (1970) ''The Sculpture of Khalchayan''.{dead link}
* [http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/khalchayan "Khalchayan"], ''[[Encyclopædia Iranica]]''.
{{Central Asian history}}
[[Category:Archaeological sites in Uzbekistan]]
[[Category:Kushan Empire]]
[[Category:Surxondaryo Region]]
{{coord|38|17|37|N|67|58|44|E|type:landmark|display=title}}

Khalchayan - Revision history

UpdateBot at 11:43, 1 July 2022