Surkh Kotal

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Coordinates: 36 ° 3 ′ 0 ″  N , 68 ° 34 ′ 0 ″  E

Map: Afghanistan
marker
Surkh Kotal​
Magnify-clip.png
Afghanistan

Surkh Kotal or Surch Kotal (also Tschaschma-i Schir or Chashma-i Shir or Sari-i Tschaschma or Sar-i Chashma ) is an archaeological excavation site in today's Afghanistan . During excavations from 1952 on, the remains of a fortress and a temple temple were uncovered, which is considered to be one of the models for the later development of the Indian temple. The temple complex was built by the Kushan ruler Kanischka (ruled around 100–126 AD, other dates possible) and probably served the dynastic cult of the Kushana kings.

Kuschana, standing stone figure of a princely man. He wears the long coat made of sheep's wool ( pustin ) and felt boots, typical of Afghanistan . Kanishka statues from Surkh Kotal are similar and of equally strict frontality, but as a sign of royal power they are lavishly decorated with jewelry and weapons, according to the finds from Mat near Mathura . - Musée Guimet , Paris

location

Surkh Kotal is located in the Pol-e Chomri district of the Baglan province , 12 (18) kilometers north of the provincial capital also called Pol-e Chomri and west of the road that leads via Robatak to the northwestern Mazar-i Sharif . The excavation site is located north of the Hindu Kush Mountains in the wide valley of the Amu-Darja , which, as the former Oxus, flowed through the middle of the historical Bactria landscape . Grain grows along its banks on fertile farmland that was already irrigated during the Kushan era. On the mountain slopes, soils of sandy loam, gravel and limestone predominate with little vegetation during the summer dry season. Another temple from the Kushana period was excavated in Pol-e Chomri in the 1950s.

Blueprint

Terraced complex with stairways on top of which the fire temple stood

Located on the lowest landing of a mountain slope, the elongated overall complex consisted of five terraces that rose from the fields of the plain, were connected by three wide staircases with over 100 steps each and a 150 meter long ramp and to the central sanctuary on the top, artificial leveled terrace. The terrace was fortified as an acropolis . The 11 x 11 meter main room ( cella ) of the temple was used for fire worship. The altar stood on a square stone base with a three-step staircase on the front in the east and columns a short distance apart near the four corners within the room. Limestone pedestals and pillars, showing Greek influence, were excavated and prepared in 1952–1953. A corridor was added to the cella on three sides. The fire temple originally had a roof construction made of horizontal wooden beams, which was replaced by semi-circular arches between the niche walls during a renovation in the 3rd or 4th century. The inner cella should have towered over the corridor. The building is in many ways similar to the Buddhist temple in Ak-Besim in northern Kyrgyzstan.

The large courtyard was protected by a wall made of mud bricks ( peribolos ) with projections to the outside. In the niches of these projections that opened onto the courtyard, limestone sculptures were set up, portraits that are interpreted as an ancestral gallery or a list of Kushana rulers. Examples are the stone fragment of a man in equestrian costume and a life-size headless stone statue of Kanischka. Other clay and plaster sculptures are poorly preserved. The inside of the wall was presented with a row of columns from which Attic stone bases were exposed. In the middle there was a hole to accommodate a wooden post, which was surrounded by a column of layered adobe bricks. The ceiling of this colonnade and the other buildings consisted of wooden beams covered with a layer of clay. These are forms of construction that can still be seen today in a similar way to traditional Afghan houses; There were already flat clay screed ceilings on multi-storey buildings in Mohenjo-Daro .

A smaller, square fire temple with a gallery added later on four sides was located on the south wall of the large courtyard (temple D) and a third temple was outside the fortification walls. Temple D had - unusual - an entrance in the east and an entrance in the south. A similar Buddhist temple from the 6th to 8th centuries in the citadel of Kafirkala (today in southwest Tajikistan) could have had two entrances for a certain period of time instead of the one that was usual for ancient Iranian temple architecture. At a distance of one kilometer on the other side of the valley, the presumed platform of a temple with remains of limestone capitals was found. A larger than life clay Buddha statue was worshiped there. A nearby housing estate that was related to the two temples can only be assumed.

Excavation history

The temple complex was uncovered in the foundations from 1952 to 1966 by the French archaeologist Daniel Schlumberger on behalf of the Delegation Archeologique Francaise en Afghanistan. Further explorations took place in the early 1970s under German leadership. Large-scale robbery excavations and the destruction by the Taliban regime in 2001 have left little of the site. The 1981/82 declaration as a UNESCO World Heritage Site did nothing to change this. Photos from 2003 show that the Fire Temple platform was undermined and looted.

Ceramics collected during the excavations in Surkh Kotal and at numerous other sites in the region were given the term "Kushana ceramics". Mainly forms of the Greek Bactrians were adopted, the differences to the Greek ceramics from Ai Khanoum in northern Afghanistan (Takhar province) are minor. Innovations are certain incised patterns and pot-bellied pots shaped without a potter's wheel.

Kanishka inscription

Even more important than ceramic finds, which, like the excavated sculptures, show the Greek influence on the Kushana culture, is the first larger Bactrian inscription found by the French in 1957. Her text was published by André Maricq, who was able to translate some words and phrases, including the name of the Kushana king Kanischka. The inscription is about the founding of a temple by Kanischka, which was abandoned due to lack of water. The temple cult was reintroduced when a well was dug in the year 31 of the reign of Kanishka, i.e. at the beginning of the reign of his successor Huvishka (beginning of the 2nd century). It is the most important Bactrian source to this day, inscriptions found later did not provide any further information. This "Kanischka inscription" contains 25 lines of Greek letters written in the Bactrian language . It is one of the earliest written sources in Afghan history and is in the Kabul Museum .

30 years older, i.e. from the first year of Kanishka's reign, is an inscription that was found in 1993 a few kilometers away near the main road on the Rabatak Pass of Mujahideen at the ruins of a medieval caravanserai. This Rabatak inscription on a stone slab weighing around 500 kg was translated by Nicholas Sims-Williams, professor at SOAS in London. It was made to mark the founding of a temple in Rabatak that had contained statues of gods and kings, and it explains at the beginning that Kanishka introduced the Bactrian language instead of Greek. The list of cities in northern India that belonged to the domain shows the largest expansion of the Kushana empire at that time. The Acropolis of Rabatak suffered severe damage from looting before it could be archaeologically examined.

Handling stamp

capital

The Kushanas in the area of ​​Gandhara are considered to be cultural mediators between the Sassanid- Iranian and Indian regions, where they were the first to mint coins and introduce the image of Buddha. They also had a decisive influence on the development of Indian architecture. Inscriptions and coins found in Surkh Kotal and the surrounding area show the Kushana lords as followers of Iranian religions, while Kharoshthi and Brahmi inscriptions found in northern India at the same time suggest followers of Buddhism under King Kanishka .

origin

The basic plan of the central temple comes from Iran. Circular temples were already in place in Iran at the time of the Achaemenids in the 6th to 4th centuries BC. Known for example the square fire temple of Susa , equipped with four inner columns and open to the east , as well as the Fratadara temple in Persepolis , which was later built under the Parthians (this one with entrance in the west). Another example of this design comes from the Greek-influenced Bactria in the same region: in the city ​​of Ai Khanoum on the Oxus and captured by Alexander , corridors around centrally located square temple rooms in a residential building in the southern part of the Greek city complex and in a palace were excavated. In the Bactrian city of Dilberjin in northern Afghanistan there was a rectangular temple with entrance from the broad side, which was built in the 2nd century BC. Was started. Due to the introduction of Buddhist cult images, a place was needed for their installation and this temple was found in the design.

Model for India

The concept of the square temple, as it was found ideally in Surkh Kotal, probably first came to Mathura and was the starting point for Buddhist cult buildings in the north Indian region of origin of this religion. In the Gupta dynasty that followed the Kuschanas , the first Hindu temples were built around 500 AD, according to the Indian idea of ​​a cult area as a cave ( Garbhagriha ) as low, square rooms (Temple No. 17 in Sanchi ). The large south Indian temple buildings also developed from the Buddhist temple together with the high roof attachment, which also came from the north.

Terrace system

From the level, a staircase could have led centrally to the top platform along the evenly rising mountain relief. Remains of buildings on the lower terraces are not recorded. The terraces, which were built with enormous excavation effort, create a cosmic overall plan for the entire complex, which is exactly east-facing. An artificial mountain is created, which in cosmogonic myths corresponds to a recreation of the primeval mountain in the center of the world. By working on the mountain, the creation and shaping of the world out of chaos is repeated. By performing the rites on the altar in the mountain sanctuary, the land is then finally incorporated into the domain. The symbolism of the cosmic mountain was as common in ancient Egypt as it was in all of Asia.

The sacrifice at the altar is a ritual act with which the act of creation is performed again and again later. There were offerings on the high altars carved out of the rock in Petra , the biblical "Altars on the high mountains" ( Jeremiah 17, 2) to the altars on the Temple Mountains , which spread to Southeast Asia with the Indian tradition. In Vedic sacrificial texts ( Brahmanas ) it is mentioned how the land is formally taken over by the fire sacrifice on the altar.

A stepped plinth increases the importance of the plaza, it becomes a symbol of spiritual ascent and bridges the separation between the worldly and the divine sphere. The first kneeling takes place in front of him and not on him. The pedestal is already part of the holy place, and in the ascent one approaches the center of the world. The huge terraces thus become the stepped base of the Temple Mount.

literature

  • Warwick Ball: The Monuments of Afghanistan. History, Archeology and Architecture. IB Tauris Publishing House, London 2008. ISBN 1-85043-436-0
  • ADH Bivar: The Kaniska Dating from Surkh Kotal. In: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 26, No. 3, 1963, pp. 498-502
  • Gerard Fussmann: Surkh Kotal. Temple of the Kushana period in Bactria. Materials on general and comparative archeology. CH Beck, Munich 1983
  • Robert Göbl : The three versions of the Kaniška inscription from Surkh Kotal. New edition of the texts on verb. technical-epigraphic and palaeographic basis. Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1965
  • Walter B. Henning: Surkh-Kotal and Kaniṣka. In: Journal of the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft Vol. 115, No. 1, 1965, pp. 75–87
  • Karl Jettmar : To the sanctuary of Surkh-Kotal. In: Central Asiatic Journal, Vol. 5, No. 3, 1960, pp. 198-205
  • Daniel Schlumberger : The Hellenized Orient . Holle Verlag, Baden-Baden 1980, pp. 60-67, ISBN 3873552027
  • Daniel Schlumberger, Marc Le Berre, Gerard Fussman: Surkh Kotal en Bactriane I. Les temples . MDAFA 25, Paris 1983
  • Daniel Schlumberger: The excavations at Surkh Kotal and the problem of Hellenism in Bactria and India. In: Proceedings of the British Academy. Vol. XLVII, London 1961, pp. 77-95
  • Daniel Schlumberger: Surkh Kotal in Bactria. In: Archeology, Vol. 8, No. 2, June 1955, pp. 82-87

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Volker Thewalt: Photo staircase, 1974
  2. ↑ Volker Thewalt: Photo of the exposed platform of the central temple from 1974. Corresponds to the condition after the excavation at the end of 1953. Volker Thewalt: Photo detail, column base next to platform, 1974
  3. ↑ Klaus Fischer : Creations of Indian Art. Verlag DuMont, Cologne 1959, p. 130 contains the basic plan of the system.
  4. ^ Grégoire Frumkin: Archeology in Soviet Central Asia. ( Handbook of Oriental Studies, 7th section: Art and Archeology, 3rd volume: Innerasien, 1st section) EJ Brill, Leiden / Cologne 1970, p. 37
  5. ↑ Fischer, Schöpfungen, Plate 34
  6. ^ Heinrich Gerhard Franz: Common temple in Central Asia and India. In: Jakob Ozols, Volker Thewalt (Ed.): From the East of the Alexander Empire. Peoples and cultures between Orient and Occident. Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India. DuMont documents, Cologne 1984, p. 133
  7. ↑ Boris A. Litvinskij, VS Solovjev: Kafyrkala. Early medieval town in the Vachš Valley, southern Tadžikistan. (Materials for General and Comparative Archeology, Volume 28) CH Beck, Munich 1985, p. 22
  8. ^ Society for the Preservation of Afghanistan's Cultural Heritage ( Memento from July 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (photos from 2000 and 2003)
  9. ↑ Jean-Claude Gardin: The Origins of Kushana Pottery. In: Jakob Ozols and Volker Thewalt (ed.): From the East of the Alexander Empire. Peoples and cultures between Orient and Occident. Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India. DuMont documents, Cologne 1984, pp. 110–126
  10. ^ Nicholas Sims-Williams: New Documents in Ancient Bactrian Reveal Afghanistan's Past. (PDF; 107 kB)
  11. ↑ Helmut Humbach: The Kanishka inscription from Surkh Kotal. A testimony to the younger Mithraism from Iran. Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 1960
  12. ^ Archeology: Museum Under Siege. The Plunder Continues. Photo of the Kanischka inscription in the entrance area of ​​the damaged Kabul Museum in May 1998. On the right, the preserved lower part of the Kanischka statue.
  13. ↑ Photo of the Kanischka inscription by Surkh Kotal ( memento of the original from July 9, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gengo.lu-tokyo.ac.jp
  14. ↑ Nicholas Sims-Williams: Further Notes on the Bactrian Inscription of Rabatak, with an Appendix of the Names of Kujula Kadphises and Vima Taktu in Chinese. (PDF; 1.2 MB) In: Ders. (Ed.): Proceedings of the Third European Conference of Iranian Studies. Part 1: Old and Middle Iranian Studies. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, Wiesbaden 1998, pp. 79-92
  15. ^ Nicholas Sims-Williams: Bactrian Documents from Ancient Afghanistan. ( Memento of the original from June 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gengo.lu-tokyo.ac.jp
  16. ↑ Abdul Wasey Feroozi: The Impact of War upon Afghanistan's Cultural Heritage. (PDF; 444 kB) p. 14f
  17. ^ Klaus Schippmann : The Development of the Fire Temple. 1972
  18. ^ Heinrich Gerhard Franz: Common temple in Central Asia and India. In: Jakob Ozols, Volker Thewalt (Ed.): From the East of the Alexander Empire. Peoples and cultures between Orient and Occident. Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India. DuMont documents, Cologne 1984, pp. 127-142.
  19. ↑ sacred-texts.com: Satapatha Brahmana VII, 1.1. English translation by Julius Eggeling, 1894
  20. ↑ Mircea Eliade : Cosmos and History. The myth of the eternal return. Insel Verlag, Frankfurt 1984, p. 23