Kushan Settlements, Homes and Household Provisioning

Life in the Kushan Empire depended on the relationship between a dwelling, its neighbourhood and the countryside that supplied it. A prosperous household needed space for receiving guests and keeping possessions. Craftspeople needed places to work, while food and water had to reach people who were not themselves growing crops. Excavated towns in northern Bactria, the region on both sides of the Amu Darya in modern Afghanistan and Central Asia, show these activities fitting into a larger urban landscape during the first to third centuries CE.

The clearest examples include Dalverzin Tepe in the Surkhan Darya valley and ancient Termez near that river’s junction with the Amu Darya. Their houses and pottery reveal differences between wealthy and modest dwellings, the practical uses of clay vessels and the infrastructure connecting households with water, farms and workshops.

On this page5 sections

Houses within a fortified town

Dalverzin Tepe grew from an earlier fortified settlement into a substantial Kushan town. Its lower city occupied a rectangle approximately 650 by 500 metres, with a separately defended citadel at its southern edge. A citadel was the fortified stronghold within or beside a town, used for authority and defence. Dalverzin’s walls, towers and ditch protected residential quarters as well as religious buildings and places of production.

The inhabited area contained streets, substantial houses, smaller dwellings and water reservoirs. Large residences stood in the central area, while more modest accommodation and craft activity occupied other quarters. Potters worked near the southern outskirts, where workshops and kilns have been excavated. The town therefore brought several kinds of activity close together: household residence, worship, administration and the manufacture of goods used locally or exchanged elsewhere.

Two especially large residences, known to archaeologists as DT5 and DT6, show how wealthy owners arranged their buildings. Excavators assigned these labels to distinguish the buildings. A columned porch led into a vestibule, or entrance room, and then a reception hall. Corridors separated the rooms used for receiving visitors from living and working spaces. This arrangement let the household admit guests to an impressive front section while keeping other activities farther inside.

Building and using domestic space

Much of Dalverzin’s construction used sun-dried mud brick or compacted earth. Mud brick was made by shaping damp clay-rich earth and allowing it to dry; unlike fired brick, it did not require a kiln. Wooden beams supported ceilings, and builders also used brick vaults and arches. Stone column bases and other decorative details gave the grander houses a more elaborate appearance without changing the predominantly earthen fabric of the buildings.

A house could contain working rooms and a domestic sanctuary as well as living accommodation. The sanctuary was a place for worship within the home. Excavators identified small prayer rooms and features interpreted as niches for a sacred fire. These findings place religious activity beside ordinary household tasks, rather than confining it to the town’s large temples.

The gold hoard recovered from one residence gives a different view of household resources. It included jewellery and gold bars, some marked with their weight in Kharoshthi, a script used in the northwestern Indian subcontinent. Such a deposit belonged to a household with considerable wealth and connections to systems of valuation beyond the immediate town.

Water access and drainage

Dalverzin stood near the Surkhan Darya, a tributary of the Amu Darya. Its urban water arrangements included reservoirs and channels. Galina Pugachenkova, who directed the excavations, described underground aqueducts supplying its houses. Here an aqueduct means a channel carrying water to where it was needed. Her account connects this infrastructure with the excavated dwellings themselves.

Archaeological discussions also identify an underground drainage or sewerage system at Dalverzin. Bringing water into a settlement and taking wastewater away were different tasks. Reservoirs could hold a supply, channels could distribute it, and drains could remove water from inhabited areas. Keeping these systems working required maintenance in addition to the construction of walls and houses.

Water for the wider settlement came within a landscape of irrigated cultivation. Nearby towns and villages depended on river water diverted through canals. A household’s access to food was consequently tied to water management beyond its own door, including the upkeep of channels serving the surrounding fields.

Pots for storing, cooking and serving

Clay vessels were among the most useful household objects. Their forms helped them serve different purposes: jars could hold supplies or liquids, open vessels gave access to their contents, and bowls, cups and plates were used for serving and eating. Excavated sets from Dalverzin include carefully made ceramics as well as the remains of the workshops that produced pottery.

The early Kushan pottery from ancient Termez provides a more detailed comparison. Excavations east of its citadel recovered plates, bowls, cups and jars from occupation layers assigned to the Hellenistic and early Kushan periods. Many vessels carried a red or brown slip, a thin coating of fine clay applied to the surface before firing. This treatment changed their appearance and finish; it was distinct from the glassy coating produced by a glaze.

The Termez research also separates cooking vessels from finer common wares. Pots used near a fire had a different job from cups or presentation dishes. The presence of these different forms helps reconstruct a sequence of household tasks: retaining supplies, preparing food and bringing portions to people. Their excavated contexts and clay composition also let researchers investigate where pottery was made and how vessels circulated between settlements.

Villages and food from fields and herds

Smaller settlements formed part of the same northern Bactrian landscape. Kushan-period villages such as Shor Tepe and Mirzakul Tepe had square plans enclosed by walls, while Ak-kurgan had a less regular arrangement. A surrounding wall therefore belonged to some villages as well as to the larger towns. These places added a rural network of inhabited settlements to the farms and pastures supporting urban life.

Northern Bactrian households belonged to an agricultural economy combining cultivation with livestock. Regional evidence for the Kushan period includes wheat, barley and millet, together with fruit growing and animal husbandry. Grain needed processing before it could become food, while storage vessels helped households keep part of their supply between harvests or purchases. Supplies and containers linked cultivation with the recurring work of preparing meals.

Animal bones from Kushan Zartepa, another town in the Surkhan Darya region, are dominated by sheep and goats, followed by cattle. The assemblage also includes smaller numbers of pigs, asses, horses and camels. These animals served different purposes. Sheep and goats provided meat, milk, wool or hair; cattle supplied food and could provide traction; pack animals supported transport.

Farming and household provisioning connected town residents with the oasis around them. Cultivators and herders supplied products, potters made containers, and carriers moved goods between places of production and consumption. A home thus formed one part of a working network. Its layout, water connections and everyday vessels show how Kushan urban life was sustained through repeated practical tasks.