Merv, Turkmenistan
Background and further information:
Merv was one of the major ancient cities of southwest Central
Asia and was controlled by a succession of Iranian, Greek, Turkish
and Central Asian rulers and governors. It is situated in the
modern state of Turkmenistan which was formerly part of the Soviet
Union. Intermittent American, Russian and Soviet archaeological
excavations have been conducted at the site since 1890. From
1992-2000 nine seasons of excavations and surveys were conducted as
part of the International Merv Project [IMP] - a collaboration
between the British Museum, University College London and the
former Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan jointly represented and
respectively directed by Dr St J. Simpson (Department of the
Ancient Near East), Dr G. Herrmann and Dr K. Kurbansakhatov. The
archaeological significance of Merv chiefly lies in the information
it can provide on the interrelationship of politics, geography and
material culture at a major city site at the interface of Central
Asia and Iran. Important insights have been made into how the city
developed over a long period and how significant changes were made
to the use of space.
The excavations have also revealed the exceptionally and
unexpectedly well preserved fortifications, including one of the
finest Seleucid city walls to be discovered. Two residential areas
belonging to the Sasanian period were excavated, one in the citadel
and the other in the lower city. These have provided important well
stratified and closely dated groups of artefactual and
environmental material which are among the first of their type to
be recovered from a major Sasanian site. The discovery of cotton
seeds from 5th century and later contexts is the first occasion
that remains of this crop have been identified at a Sasanian site
and suggest that cotton textile manufacture was an important
economic component of the city. The discovery of a 9th-10th century
workshop specialising in the manufacture of crucible steel was
another major achievement as this was not only the earliest to be
identified but also confirms in detail the technical processes
described by Early Islamic writers. Further excavations conducted
in the medieval city revealed drastic rebuilding of the exceptional
fortifications and the aftermath of the overwhelming Mongol sack of
Merv in 1221 which precipitated a considerable decline in the
standard of living in the former Seljuk citadel.
The city of Merv appears to have been founded by Cyrus the Great
(559-530) when this region was part of the eastern Achaemenid
empire. The Achaemenid remains are deeply buried beneath later
occupation levels but appear to be limited to that part of the site
known today as Erk Kala. This is not the earliest period of
occupation in the Merv oasis however. Other archaeological surveys
and excavations in the northern part of the oasis have revealed
extensive remains of village and urban life beginning in the 3rd
millennium BC. During this time the region flourished as part of a
distinctive Bronze Age culture known as the Bactria-Margiana
Archaeological Complex [BMAC] which enjoyed close links with that
of eastern Iran.
Despite some later secondary sources, there is no reliable
evidence that Alexander the Great (356-323) ever visited Merv
although he certainly campaigned to the north and east following
his overthrow of the Achaemenid Empire. However, the city continued
to be occupied during the following Seleucid period when it was
officially refounded in his own name by Antiochus I (281-261) as
Antioch Margiana. During this period the city was drastically
enlarged with the construction of new Greek-style fortifications
enclosing a roughly rectangular city measuring more than two
kilometres across. It is likely that other features of Greek
cities, such as gymnasia and theatres, were also constructed - as
in the case of the city at Ai Khanum in northern Afghanistan - but
if so these still remain to be discovered.
The previous settlement at Erk Kala now became a separately
fortified citadel for the lower city, which is known today as Gyaur
Kala. Occupation continued here without a break for the following
thousand years throughout the Greco-Bactrian, Parthian and Sasanian
periods. The complete sequence of Sasanian coins struck at Merv not
only indicate that the city was taken during the latter part of the
reign of Ardashir I (ca 220-240) but that it remained under direct
Sasanian rule throughout this four-hundred year period. Textual and
archaeological evidence also indicates that the city was populated
with a diverse range of religious faiths ranging from the official
Zoroastrian religion to Nestorian Christians, Buddhists and
Manichaeans. The last Sasanian ruler, Yazdgard III (633-651) was
murdered close to the city and the Sasanian military governor
[marzban] Mahawayh b. Mafanah b. Fahd surrendered to the
approaching Arab army.
This marks the beginning of the Arab Conquest of Central Asia
and a further chapter in the history of the city. Merv initially
served as a springboard for the further advances of the Arab army
into Central Asia and attracted Arab settlers and probably early
converts to Islam. The area of the old Sasanian city in Gyaur Kala
was gradually abandoned to become an industrial suburb with ceramic
and metal workshops east of the new city which developed between
the Raziq and Majan canals. Nevertheless Merv achieved some
political spotlight in February 748 when Abu Muslim (d. 750)
established a new Abbasid dynasty at Merv, from where he directed
his armies to conquer Iran and Iraq and establish a new capital at
Baghdad. Thereafter Merv remained a provincial capital except for a
brief period from 813 to 818 when it effectively became capital of
the Islamic world during a period of temporary residency by the
caliph al-Ma'mun. From the 9th to early 11th centuries Merv was
governed by successive Tahirid and Samanid rulers but remained
secondary in importance to the regional capital of Nishapur in
Iranian Khurasan.
The great revival in the fortunes of Merv was under the Seljuks
who established it as an eastern capital from 1037 to 1157. The
golden age of this period was the reign of Sultan Sanjar (d. 1157),
whose tomb still dominates the centre of the medieval city-site of
Sultan Kala. Sanjar also established a new citadel which was
located at the northeast corner of the city. This is now called
Shahriyar Ark and traces of various ruined buildings survive
inside. The close of his reign was marked by misfortune as he was
captured by Ghuzz Turkmen tribesmen and held in captivity for three
years while his city was pillaged. The decades following his death
were marked by further political struggles between the
Khwarazmshahs and the Ghurid rulers of northern Afghanistan but
these were brought to a dramatic end in February 1221 when a Mongol
army commanded by Tolui, son of Genghis Khan, besieged Merv. Its
surrender was followed by the slaughter of most of the inhabitants
according to Islamic writers. Despite reoccupation under the
Ilkhanids, the city never seriously recovered. After the death of
Timur in 1405, his son Shah-Rukh (d. 1447) rebuilt the dam on the
river Murghab and founded a new town a short distance south of
Sultan Kala at a spot known as Abdulla Khan Kala after the
Shaybanid Uzbek ruler Abd Allah b. Iskander (1006-1583/88) and next
to the present town of Bayram Ali. This flourished for a century
under the Timurids but thereafter was caught up in political and
military struggles between the Safavids and Uzbeks.