Rachel Mairs. “New Discoveries of Documentary Texts from Bactria: Political and Cultural Change, Administrative Continuity”

Mairs presents to a wide (not only papyrological) audience three major corpora of documentary texts from Bactria (present-day northern Afghanistan) in the Aramaic, Greek, and Bactrian languages published in the last two decades. The textual evidence, dating from the 5th century BCE to the 5th century CE, allows us to ‘trace the administrative history of Bactria through successive regime changes’, from the Achaemenid province to an independent Graeco-Bactrian state and to the Kushan heartland...

A Black Dog from Marzič: Legends and Facts about Anzob Plague

none2According to doctor Levin’s report, at the end of August 1898 in the village of Marzič (about 20 km from Anzob) a boy called Šukur (age 12) fell ill and died after 3 days. Then his brother called Šakir (age 9) fell ill and died. A woman from Anzob called Ašur Bibi helped to wash the body of Šakir. She came back to Anzob and died after 3 days. Some of the people present at her funeral fell ill and died some days later. As soon as the news of the plague reached Samarkand a military expedition and a doctor were sent to Anzob. The expedition arrived in Anzob on October, 3rd, 1898. In less than one month 237 inhabitants of Anzob died. The population of the village before the plague was 387noneBasello G. P.; Ognibene P.Basello G. P.; Ognibene P