THE KUSHAN KINGDOM: DYNASTIES, STATE, PEOPLE, LANGUAGE, WRITING SYSTEMS, BELIEFS
Description
The book-album Kushan Kingdom: Dynasties, State, People, Language, Writing Systems, Beliefs is dedicated to the history and culture of one of the greatest states in the ancient world, which was not inferior in importance to the Roman Empire and the state of the Han Dynasty. Only in the 19th century historians realized that a huge kingdom existed on the territory of Central Asia, Afghanistan and northern India from the 1st to the 3rd centuries. The founder of the Kushan Empire was Kujula Kadphises, who led a nomadic lifestyle in the vicinity of Guishuan (now Bekabad, Uzbekistan). The main emphasis in the volume is on the history and culture of the Kushans in the south of Uzbekistan (Surkhandarya region), where outstanding monuments created in the Kushan period are concentrated: Ayrtam, Dalverzintepa, Kampyrtepa, Old Termez (Karatepa, Fayaztepa) and Khalchayan. In this regard, the illustrative part presents masterpieces of Kushan art from national collections – the Institute of Art Studies under the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan, the State Museum of History of Uzbekistan, the State Museum of Arts of Uzbekistan. These include unique wall sculpture, fragments of wall paintings, dishes and much more. Perhaps the main evidence of the Kushan Kingdom is the original Kushan numismatics. Beautiful miniature images of rulers and deities, bilingual legends testify to the high aesthetic standards that the rulers of the Kushan state followed. Images of these coins, as well as jewelry and sculpture, can be seen in this volume. It also presents gold items from the famous Dalverzin treasure.