Yemshi Tepe, also Emchi-Tepe or Imshik, is an ancient circular fortress in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

, 5 kilometers to the northeast of the city of

Sheberghan Sheberghān or Shaburghān ( Uzbek, Pashto, fa, شبرغان), also spelled ''Shebirghan'' and ''Shibarghan'', is the capital city of the Jowzjan Province in northern Afghanistan. The city of Sheberghan has a population of 175,599. It has four ...

.It is about 100 kilometers west of

Balkh ), named for its green-tiled ''Gonbad'' ( prs, گُنبَد, dome), in July 2001 , pushpin_map=Afghanistan#Bactria#West Asia , pushpin_relief=yes , pushpin_label_position=bottom , pushpin_mapsize=300 , pushpin_map_caption=Location in Afghanistan ...

, the capital of ancient

Bactria Bactria (; Bactrian: , ), or Bactriana, was an ancient region in Central Asia in Amu Darya's middle stream, stretching north of the Hindu Kush, west of the Pamirs and south of the Gissar range, covering the northern part of Afghanistan, southwe ...

. The city occupies around 20 hectares, and was built probably by a

Hellenistic period In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in 3 ...

foundation at the time of the

Kushan Empire The Kushan Empire ( grc, Βασιλεία Κοσσανῶν; xbc, Κυϸανο, ; sa, कुषाण वंश; Brahmi: , '; BHS: ; xpr, 𐭊𐭅𐭔𐭍 𐭇𐭔𐭕𐭓, ; zh, 貴霜 ) was a syncretic empire, formed by the Yuezhi, i ...

in the first centuries after the birth of

Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, names and titles), was ...

. It was deceased in the Sassanid period, therefore its ancient name is unknown. The shape of the city was round, about 500 meters in diameter, and had walls with several gates. In the north of the city there was a kind of a castle and next to it a luxurious building that probably served the local rulers. At the end of the 1960s, Afghan-Soviet excavations took place in the city, and a Greek ostracon and various statues were found among other things. According to the Soviet archaeologist Sarianidi in 1985: The circular fortification has a circumference of 1.5 km, and a surface of 18 ha."In the west near Shibergan we find the core of the Kushan town of Emchi Tepe ( 18 ha , ramparts with a circumference of 1 . 5 km )" in The round shape of the settlement is rather typical of the structure of Bactrian fortifications of the 1st millennium BCE, such as the fortresses of

Merv Merv ( tk, Merw, ', مرو; fa, مرو, ''Marv''), also known as the Merve Oasis, formerly known as Alexandria ( grc-gre, Ἀλεξάνδρεια), Antiochia in Margiana ( grc-gre, Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐν τῇ Μαργιανῇ) and ...

. Yemshi Tepe is in close proximity (about 500 metres) to the archaeological burial site of

Tillya Tepe Tillya tepe, Tillia tepe or Tillā tapa ( fa, طلا تپه, literally "Golden Hill" or "Golden Mound") is an archaeology, archaeological site in the northern Afghanistan province of Jowzjan Province, Jowzjan near Sheberghan, excavated in 1978 by ...

, dated to 50 BCE-50 CE: it is thought that the rulers of Yemshi Tepe were a branch of the

Kushans The Kushan Empire ( grc, Βασιλεία Κοσσανῶν; xbc, Κυϸανο, ; sa, कुषाण वंश; Brahmi: , '; Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, BHS: ; xpr, 𐭊𐭅𐭔𐭍 𐭇𐭔𐭕𐭓, ; zh, wikt:貴霜, 貴霜 ) was a Sync ...

who were buried in the nearby Tillya Tepe

tumuli A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones buil ...

. Yemshi Tepe is generally described as "a Kushan town"."The Kushan town of Emchi Tepe..." in Yemshi Tepe Tillya Tepe map

Literature

* VI Sarianidi : Bactrian Gold. From the Excavations of the Tillya-Tepe Necropolis in Northern Afghanistan. Aurora, Leningrad 1985, p. 7. *Warwick Ball: Archaeological Gazetteer of Afghanistan. = Catalog des sites archéologiques d'Afghanistan. Éditions Recherche sur les Civilizations, Paris 1982, p. 96 (Synthèse 8).

References

{{Central Asian history Central Asia Bactria Archaeological sites in Afghanistan Former populated places in Afghanistan Kushan Empire