Excavations at Mingtepa, a Sogdian Town near Samarkand

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Advances and New Perspectives in Central Asian Archaeology" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper presents the initial results of the excavations at Mingtepa, located ca. 20 km northeast of Samarkand, Uzbekistan. This site is presumed to be Kabudhan, a late antique and early medieval Sogdian town, attested in Chinese and Arabic sources. Mingtepa (Uzbek for “thousand hills”) covers an area of about 35 ha. On the northern side of the site, there is a distinctive double protective wall. The citadel (55–60 × 55–60 m) is located to the south of the site. It is surrounded on the north, east, and west by shahristan (inner city), and by a wall on the south side. Outside the walls of shahristan (especially to the east and west), the area of what is presumed to be rabad extends. A road running east-west divides the site into two halves. In 2021 and 2022, we launched two trenches in the shahristan area of the site. During these excavations, numerous artifacts, including pottery and terracotta fragments, were unearthed. These will be the main focus of this paper.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Advances and New Perspectives in Central Asian Archaeology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37164.0