Vakhsh culture

"Like all other archaeological cultures, there is no unanimity concerning the Indo- Iranian or Indo-Aryan ethnic identification of these burials either. Lyonnet wonders why, if they had been Indo-Aryans who had provoked or appeared at the time of the collapse of the Bactria and Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC), Namazga, and Harappan civilizations, they did not continue to foster the links between these regions, which had previously been connected for millennia. Rather, these connections collapse at this time (Lyonnet 1993, 83). She underscores the extreme paucity of metal objects found in the graves, which "is rather odd for a culture considered to come from the Andronovo people, famous for their metallurgy" (Lyonnet 1994a, 430). Moreover, "no trace of the horse is found, there is no evidence of any social differentiation, and, altogether, the material is rather poor" (430). As far as she is concerned, "if we are dealing with intruders, as some features suggest, and if it is certain that they are not Andronovians, we do not have enough evidence to identify them as Indo-Aryans. We can only compare their movement to the textually known much later migrations of two other groups, who, coming from 'the steppes,' went through Central Asia into India." These are the Kusanas around the beginning of our era, and the White Huns in the fifth century A.D.: "All these nomads, albeit at different periods, took exactly the same path, used exactly the same areas for their cemeteries consisting of kurgans that all look alike from the outside" (430)."

"Tribes that bury their dead in kurgans (which are so common over vast geographic and temporal expanses) have been migrating into India throughout its history, but these have not induced language shift across the entire north of the subcontinent. So one is hardly compelled to interpret the scanty evidence of the Bishkent and Vakhsh cultures as evidence of the arrival of a new language group on its way to Indo-Aryanize North India. Like the Andronovo culture, this culture does not enter the subcontinent either. Moreover, Piankova (1982) dates the graves to the last quarter of the second millennium, which is far too late for migrants who are supposed to already have completely settled down and written the hymns in the Indian subcontinent by this time, even allowing the lowest possible dates proposed by scholars for the Rgveda. Moreover, anyone prepared to gloss over the absence of horse bones in these sites cannot then deny the presence of the Indo-Aryans in the Indus Valley Civilization on these particular grounds."

"Mallory (1998) feels comfortable enough ascribing some form of Indo-Iranian identity to the Andronovo culture but admits that, "on the other hand, we find it extraordinarily difficult to make a case for expansions from this northern region to northern India . . . where we would presume Indo-Aryans had settled by the mid-second millennium BCE" (191). Referring to the attempts at connecting the Indo-Aryans to such sites as the Bishkent and Vakhsh cultures, he remarks that "this type of explanation only gets the Indo-Iranian to Central Asia, but not as far as the seats of the Medes, Persians or Indo-Aryans" (192). He points out that suggesting an Indo-Aryan identity for the BMAC requires a presumption that this culture was dominated by steppe tribes. However, "while there is no doubt that there was a steppe presence on BMAC sites, . . . this is very far from demonstrating the adoption of an Indo-Iranian language by the Central Asia urban population" (192)."

"“Recent discoveries and radiocarbon dates provide good evidence to consider anew the Vakhsh culture of southern Tajikistan. This “culture” is almost exclusively identified by its burials under kurgans (“classical Vakhsh culture”) except for one settlement, and by its handmade pottery. A detailed classification of the pottery coupled with the available dates or comparisons is presented here. It can now safely be dated between the second half of the 3rd millennium and the 17th century BC as shown by radiocarbon dates and is thus contemporary with the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC). A few Vakhsh pots have been found in southern Bactria up to Herat and parallels can also be found in graves from Gonur Depe. It has no connection with the Andronovo culture but presents affinities with communities of the Altai-Xinjiang area.”"