Greeks and Kushans in Central Asia: From Coins and Archaeology to History

Abstract

International audienceCoins form a significant corpus of evidence that allow the archaeologists, historians, and numismatists to reconstruct the past. Coins are not just money; they are symbols of wealth and power, and sometimes convey complex political messages. In addition to archaeological evidence, numismatical evidence is in Central Asia central to understanding the emergence and culmination of the Hellenistic and Kushan societies (4th century BCE – 3rd century CE), as there is virtually no available written source dating to these periods in this region. This lecture focuses on the evolution of the Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek kingdoms as well as the Kushan Empire through their coinages. It examines the varied types of messages that coins convey, together with the latest archaeological discoveries relating to these periods in Central Asia