In the Land of a Thousand Cities: Evaluating Patterns of Land Use in Bactria through Survey and Remote Sensing

Abstract

Bactria, a region today comprised of parts of Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, has historically been the homeland for a wide range of cultural groups that have produced a palimpsest of archaeological sites. Focusing on those parts of Bactria within the northern provinces of Afghanistan, this paper draws on decades worth of archaeological survey and excavation to investigate the history of land use in this region and its relationship to the highly variable landscape. Periods of increase and decline in site frequency are identified which, through analysis of topographic, environmental, and ecological data derived from remote sensing, are examined in respect to where increases are occurring and how that may reflect land-use and subsistence strategies of different groups. By doing so, a better understanding of how these different groups historically utilized the landscape is achieved, while also emphasizing the significant changes that occurred during transitions between different historical periods.