Articles
The “Temple of the Oxus” in the Takhti-Sangin Settlement, Southern Tajikistan: A Temple Location Choice Hypothesis
Albert Golod
Vostok/Oriens '2013, №5
The article presents a hypothesis on the selection of the site for the erection of an ancient sanctuary currently known as “Temple of the Oxus” in the settlement of Takhti-Sangin in Southern Tajikistan. According to Boris Litvinsky and Igor Pichikyan who undertook official excavations of the site, it was constructed in “the very end of the fourth – beginning of the third century BCE.” They believed that the temple was located near the beginning of the Amu Darya River because it was a sanctuary of Water god and it was a place where had been an earlier sanctuary so far uncovered. I offer another hypothesis on the site selection. Images of the landscape and the geographic coordinates of the temple, the Panj River Canyon and Ridge Teshik-Tash were taken from Google Earth. I suppose that the Oxus temple was erected where it was because there was a possibility of performing astronomical measurements from the territory of the Oxus temple, built between the canyon of the Panj River and the passage through the ridge Teshik-Tash. The calculations have confirmed that it is possible, in the days of the equinox, to watch from the territory of the temple the sunrise through the light corridor of the canyon and the sunset at a certain point of the pass. We do not know who, when and under what circumstances discovered that place to watch simultaneously sunrise and sunset during the equinox, the light window of the canyon and the lowest point on the visible line of the pass through the ridge. I think that the unique opportunity to place the sanctuary of Oxus in such natural landmarks (sights) determined the selection of the site for the construction of the sanctuary.
Keywords: Takhti-Sangin, South Tadjikistan, Oxus temple, archaeoastronomy
Pages: С. 100–113
