M. Minardi | Akateeminen Kirjakauppa

Ancient Chorasmia was a polity which belonged to the Indo-Iranian
cultural koine of Central Asia. It was situated at the northern borders
of these territories surrounded by deserts, thus relatively isolated as
an "oasis" during its long history. After the pioneering work of Soviet
archaeologist S.P. Tolstov and colleagues in the region (correspondent
with parts of today's Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan), the polity has been
neglected and since then the idea of its cultural isolation in the frame
of Central Asian antiquity acknowledged by scholars. But the history of
this ancient Persian "nation" is a history of exchanges and
interrelations, closely related with the social and cultural development
of the whole Central Asian region and of the Eurasian Steppes. This book
is centred on the study of these external relations and considers their
impact on the inner development of the polity during a time span of ca.
six centuries. The chosen timeframe corresponds with the period
beginning with the emergence of true settled civilisation in Ancient
Chorasmia - with its integration in the Achaemenid sphere of influence -
and ends with the expansion of the Kushan Empire in Central Asia - after
the advance of the Hellenistic civilisation. This volume presents new
hypotheses on the historical position of Chorasmia within Central Asia,
challenging the current established chronology which needed to be
revisited in the light of the most recent scholarly and field works on
the subject.