The art of the region of Central-Asia is known for those who are interested in the

ethnography and archaeology of the ancient Central-Asia. Its ancient history was
very much investigated int he last century by the Russian archaeologists. They
excavated ancient ruintowns at Chorezm, Sogdiana, Bactria. If we view the map
we can extend the local sense of Central-Asia with regions neighboring the
district: in eastern direction with Eastern-Turkestan, and with the mountains
north of it: the Altai-Mountains. In the direction of South those Central-Asian
regions can be found where Aurél Stein took expeditions and excavations in the
recent Afganistan and Iran, where once the White Huns, the Heptalites had
empire and earlier the Kushanian Indoscythians also organized the district. In the
neighbor of Iran toward Western direction we find the Caspian-sea and the
Caucasus-Mountains and finally we close the circle with the Southern-Uralian and
Western-Siberian landscapes

Central Asian art is visual art created in Central Asia, in areas corresponding to
modern Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Afghanista
n, and parts of modern Mongolia, China and Russia.[3][4] The art of ancient and
medieval Central Asia reflects the rich history of this vast area, home to a huge
variety of peoples, religions and ways of life. The artistic remains of the region
show a remarkable combinations of influences that exemplify the multicultural
nature of Central Asian society. The Silk Road transmission of art, Scythian
art, Greco-Buddhist art, Serindian art and more recently Persianate culture, are all
part of this complicated history.

Silk Road

The Silk Road[a] was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second
century BCE until the mid-15th century.[1] Spanning over 6,400 km (4,000 mi), it
played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious
interactions between the Eastern and Western worlds.[2][3][4] The name "Silk Road"
was first coined in the late 19th century, but some 20th- and 21st-century
historians instead prefer the term Silk Routes, on the grounds that it more
accurately describes the intricate web of land and sea routes
connecting Central, East, South, Southeast, and West Asia as well as East
Africa and Southern Europe.[1]

Many artistic influences transited along the Silk Road, especially through
the Central Asia, where Hellenistic, Iranian, Indian and Chinese influence were
able to interact. In particular Greco-Buddhist art represent one of the most vivid
examples of this interaction. As shown on the 1st century CE Silk Road map, there
is no single road but a whole network of long-distance routes: mainly two land
routes and one sea route.

The first modern human occupation in the difficult climates of North and Central
Asia is dated to circa 40,000 ago, with the early Yana culture of northern Siberia
dated to circa 31,000 BCE. By around 21,000 BCE, two main cultures developed:
the Mal'ta culture and slightly later the Afontova Gora-Oshurkovo culture.[7]

The Venus figurines of Mal’ta (also: Malta) are several palaeolithic female
figurines of the Mal'ta–Buret' culture, found in Siberia, Russia.

At first glance what is obvious is that the Mal'ta Venus figurines are of two types:
full-figured women with exaggerated forms, and women with a thin, delicate
form. Some of the figures are nude while others have etchings that seem to
indicate fur or clothing. Conversely, unlike those found in Europe, some of the
Venus figurines from Mal’ta were sculpted with faces. Most of the figurines were
tapered at the bottom, and it is believed that this was done so they could have
been stuck into the ground or placed upright some other way. Placed upright they
could have symbolized the spirits of the dead, akin to "spirit dolls" used nearly
world-wide, including Siberia, among contemporary people

The Pazyryk culture is a Scythian[12] nomadic Iron Age archaeological culture (of
Iranian origin; c. 6th to 3rd centuries BC) identified by excavated artifacts and
mummified humans found in the Siberian permafrost, in the Altay
Mountains, Kazakhstan and nearby Mongolia. The mummies are buried in long
barrows (or kurgans) similar to the tomb mounds of Scythian culture
in Ukraine. Many artifacts and human remains have been found at this location,
including the Siberian Ice Princess, indicating a flourishing culture at this location
that benefited from the many trade routes and caravans of merchants passing
through the area.[14]

The remarkable textiles recovered from the Pazyryk burials include the oldest
woollen knotted-pile carpet known, the oldest embroidered Chinese silk, and two
pieces of woven Persian fabric (State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg). Red
and ochre predominate in the carpet, the main design of which is of riders, stags,
and griffins

In the case of the Scythians the characteristic art was produced in a period from
the 7th to 3rd centuries BC…In the earlier period Scythian art included very
vigorously modelled stylised animal figures, shown singly or in combat, that had a
long-lasting and very wide influence on other Eurasian cultures as far apart
as China and the European Celts

The Scythians worked in a wide variety of materials such as

gold, wood, leather, bone, bronze, iron, silver and electrum. Clothes and horse-
trappings were sewn with small plaques in metal and other materials, and larger
ones, including some of the most famous, probably decorated shields or wagons.

Wool felt was used for highly decorated clothes, tents and horse-trappings, and
an important nomad mounted on his horse in his best outfit must have presented
a very colourful and exotic sight. As nomads, the Scythians produced entirely
portable objects,

Margiana and Bactria belonged to the Medes for a time, and were then annexed
to the Achaemenid Empire by Cyrus the Great in sixth century BC, forming the
twelfth satrapy of Persia.[33][34]

Under Persian rule, many Greeks were deported to Bactria, so that their
communities and language became common in the area. The Greco-
Bactrians ruled the southern part of Central Asia from the 3rd to the 2nd century
BC, with their capital at Ai-Khanoum.[39][40][41]

The main known remains from this period are the ruins and artifacts of their city
of Ai-Khanoum, a Greco-Bactrian city founded circa 280 BC which continued to
flourish during the first 55 years of the Indo-Greek period until its destruction by
nomadic invaders in 145 BC, and their coinage, which is often bilingual,
combining Greek with the Indian Brahmi script or Kharoshthi.

Numerous artefacts and structures were found, particularly in Ai-Khanoum,

pointing to a high Hellenistic culture, combined with Eastern influences, starting
from the 280–250 BC period.[44][45][46] It seems the city was destroyed, never to be
rebuilt, about the time of the death of king Eucratides around 145 BC.[46]

Various sculptural fragments were also found at Ai-Khanoum, in a rather

conventional, classical style, rather impervious to the Hellenizing innovations
occurring at the same time in the Mediterranean world Due to the lack of proper
stones for sculptural work in the area of Ai-Khanoum,
unbaked clay and stucco modeled on a wooden frame were often used, a
technique which would become widespread in Central Asia and the East,
especially in Buddhist art. In some cases, only the hands and feet would be made
in marble.

A variety of artefacts of Hellenistic style, often with Persian influence, were also
excavated at Ai-Khanoum, such as a round medallion plate describing the
goddess Cybele on a chariot, in front of a fire altar, and under a depiction
of Helios

Some traces remain of the presence of the Kushans in the areas

of Bactria and Sogdiana. Archaeological structures are known in Takht-I-
Sangin, Surkh Kotal (a monumental temple), and in the palace of Khalchayan.
Various sculptures and friezes are known, representing horse-riding archers,
and, significantly, men with artificially deformed skulls, such as the Kushan
prince of Khalchayan (a practice well attested in nomadic Central Asia
The Kushano-Sasanian Kingdom is a historiographic term used by modern
scholars[66] to refer to a branch of the Sasanian Persians who established their
rule in Bactria and in northwestern Indian subcontinent (present day Pakistan)
during the 3rd and 4th centuries AD at the expense of the declining Kushans.
They captured the provinces of Sogdiana, Bactria and Gandhara from
the Kushans in 225 AD.[67] The Kushano-Sassanids traded goods such
as silverware and textiles depicting the Sassanid emperors engaged in hunting
or administering justice.

The Buddhist art of Bamiyan covers a period from the early centuries of the
Common Era, culminating with the building of the Buddhas of Bamiyan in the
6th-century AD.[116] monumental statues of Gautama Buddha carved into the
side of a cliff in the Bamyan valley of central Afghanistan, 130 kilometres (81 mi)
northwest of Kabul at an elevation of 2,500 metres (8,200 ft). Carbon dating of
the structural components of the Buddhas has determined that the smaller
38 m (125 ft) "Eastern Buddha" was built around 570 AD, and the larger 55 m
(180 ft) "Western Buddha" was built around 618 AD

Sogdian art

Sogdian art refers to art produced by the Sogdians, an Iranian people living
mainly in ancient Sogdia, present-day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and
Kyrgyzstan, who also had a large diaspora living in China. Its apex was between
the 5th and 9th centuries, and it consists of a rich body of pre-Muslim Central
Asian visual arts.

Sogdians are best known for their painting, although they excelled also in other
fields, such as metalworking and music

The Sogdians loved to recount stories, and their art is much "narrative" in
nature. They lived in houses on whose walls they hung wood carvings and
painted refined murals. Because the purpose of the Sogdians was to convey
narrative, they would include only the essentials, setting the scene with lines,
blocks of color, and a few landscape elements, creating an "easy-to-read two-
dimensionality that helps advance the progress of the depicted tale."
For their dwelling places, the Sogdians preferred to produce paintings and wood
carvings. Sogdian wall paintings are bright, vigorous, and of remarkable beauty,
but they also tell about Sogdian life. They reproduce, for example, the costumes
of the day, the gaming equipment, and the harness. They depict stories and
epics drawing on Iranian, Near Eastern (Manichaean, Nestorian) and Indian
themes.

The Penjikent murals are another known example of Sogdian painting,

discovered in Panjakent (ancient Sogdania, present-day Tajikistan), and now on
display at the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, and in the National
Museum of Antiquities of Tajikistan in Dushanbe. These murals are the earliest
known Sogdian murals, dating to the late 5th to early 6th century AD. In them,
scenes of festivals abound. It is also thought that the narrative of the Iranian
Shahnameh and the epic cycle of Rostam is mirrored in a series of murals
("Rustemiada", "Blue Hall") at Penjikent dating to the first half of the 8th
century.[1]

The Afrasiab paintings of the 6th to 7th centuries in Samarkand, Uzbekistan

offer a rare surviving example of Sogdian art. The paintings, showing scenes of
daily life and events such as the arrival of foreign ambassadors, are located
within the ruins of aristocratic homes. It is unclear if any of these palatial
residences served as the official palace of the rulers of Samarkand. [134] The
oldest surviving Sogdian monumental wall murals date to the 5th century and
are the Penjikent murals, Tajikistan.[135] In addition to revealing aspects of their
social and political lives, Sogdian art has also been instrumental in aiding
historians' understanding of their religious beliefs.

Isalamic

The Muslim conquest of Transoxiana was the 7th and 8th century conquests,
by Umayyad and Abbasid Arabs, This started a period of prosperity, from the
8th to the 14th century, known as the Islamic Golden Age, which also affected
the arts of Central Asia

Arab period (7–8th centuries)

Islamic art diffused in Central Asia with the rule of Umayyad and Abbasid Arabs.
Buildings following Islamic standard were built throughout the land, such as the
Abbasid mosque of Afrasiab in Samarkand circa 750–825 CE.[163]

Abbasid power finally waned, and local Iranian dynasties were established,
creating an Iranian Intermezzo, blending Islamic art with Persian culture, during
the 9th and 10th centuries. The Iranian dynasties corresponding to the Iranian
Intermezzo are
the Tahirids, Saffarids, Sajids, Samanids, Ziyarids, Buyids and Sallarids.[16

Turkic dynasties (9–13th centuries)

[edit]

See also: Turco-Persian tradition

With the rise of Turkic dynasties in Central Asia, Persian art started to evolve to
adapt to the tastes of the new Turkic ruling class: in paintings, the composition
of narrative scenes remains unchanged, but nomadic clothing, physical traits
and power symbols (such as the bow and arrow) are now depicted. From the
mid-12th century, beauty standards too evolve, with round and serene faces
with almond-shaped eyes becoming uniquitous in artistic representations

Ghaznavids (977–1186)

The Ghaznavid dynasty was a Persianate[178] Muslim dynasty

of Turkic mamluk origin,[179][a][180] at their greatest extent ruling large parts
of Iran, Afghanistan, much of Transoxiana and the northwest Indian
subcontinent from 977 to 1186

Seljuks (1037–1194

The Seljuk Empire (1037–1194 AD) was a high medieval Turko-Persian Sunni
Muslim empire, originating from the Qiniq branch of Oghuz Turks. At its
greatest extent, the Seljuk Empire controlled a vast area stretching from
western Anatolia and the Levant to the Hindu Kush in the east, and from Central
Asia to the Persian Gulf in the south.

Khwarazmians (1077–1231)

The Khwarezmian Empire was the last Turco-Persian Empire before the Mongol
invasion of Central Asia.