Welcome to Sogtoberfest!

Camels bearing Sogdian Traders, Tang Dynasty. Source: Ancient Art: Art of Central Asia

Greetings to all on this, the first day of Sogtoberfest! If you have been following my Facebook page, you may have seen the build-up to this event. However, if you are a newcomer, I will briefly lay out my introduction to the Sogtoberfest celebration.

1.) What is Sogtoberfest about?
Sogtoberfest was an idea I had awhile back to raise awareness of the Sogdian people and, more specifically, Sogdian commerce and influence on the Silk Routes. Outside of scholarly circles, many people have little to no idea what a Sogdian is, let alone what they did or the way they left their mark on world history. It is with this in mind that I have sought to bring light to Sogdian accomplishments through my blog to my dear readers.

2.) Who were the Sogdians?
To be brief, the Sogdians were a group of Iranian-speaking peoples that settled in the area between the Oxus and Jaxartes Rivers (Amu Darya and Syr Darya). The Sogdians are attested in Achaemenid sources around the 6th century BCE (1). However, the area that the Sogdians inhabited showed signs of pre-Sogdian settlement as early as the 4th-3rd millennium BCE, at the site of Sarazam. The second site of early settlement was in the 15th century at Kok Tepe (2). The latter settlement at Kok Tepe endured "throughout the Iron Age, until the arrival from the north of the Iranian-speaking populations that were to become the Sogdian group" (3). Kok Tepe declined with the establishment of nearby Samarkand by the Sogdians (4). While no exact date can be ascribed to the arrival of the Sogdians, the Sogdians are named in the Younger Avesta as inhabiting an area called Gava, which correlates to Sogdiana (5). Etienne de la Vassiere notes that the Sogdian people have been attested in primary sources from the 6th c. BCE all the way down to the 10th c. CE, which is a whopping fifteen centuries of continuous existence as a distinct group (6).

Map of the location of Sogdiana. Note the presence of the Amu Darya on the left and the Syr Darya (not labeled) on the right. Source: Coins of Central Asia

3) What did the Sogdians do that was so important?
That is what we'll be discussing in-depth all month long! But in short, the Sogdian merchants were the primary caravan runners of the Silk Routes from the 5th - 8th centuries BCE (7). But beyond this, they served as intermediaries between cultures, which lead to the Sogdians providing the means by which Buddhism, Manichaeism, Christianity moved along the Silk Routes. Their influence on writing is still felt today as the Sogdian script, by way of Uighur transmission, endures as the written form of the modern Mongolian script. Though their surviving written records are few, their art and their influence on art of the time was profound. However, the subject of Sogdian art is vast and will require its own entry for further investigation.

An example of Mongol script. Source: Wikimedia Commons

I hope this has been an adequate introduction to Sogtoberfest and I hope everyone enjoys what I have in store for the blog. I wish you all a happy Sogtoberfest, and I am looking forward to this celebration.



Sources

1) De la Vassiere, Etienne. Sogdian Traders: A History. Trans. by James Ward. Vol. 10. Brill, 2005. pg. 2.

2) De la Vassiere, Etienne. "Sogdiana iii. History and Archaeology," Encyclopedia Iranica, online edition 2011. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/sogdiana-iii-history-and-archeology

3) Ibid.

4) Ibid.

5) Ibid.

6) De la Vassiere, Etienne. Sogdian Traders: A History. Trans. by James Ward. Vol. 10. Brill, 2005. pg. 2

7) De la Vassiere, Etienne. "Sogdian Trade," Encyclopedia Iranica, online edition 2004. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/sogdian-trade

Picture sources from Wikimedia Commons and from Taiyo Ltd: Ancient Art Gallery.