ABSTRACT
This chapter inquires into the character of the various regions north of Bactria (Sogdiana, Chorasmia, Ferghana, Middle and Lower Syr-Darya) as an extensive and heterogeneous frontier closely connected with the vast Central Eurasian steppe lands. The inhabitants of these frontier regions north of Bactria were in contact with – and partially ruled by – the political regimes of Alexander, the early Seleukids and the Greeks in Bactria. However, they were not only connected with and influenced by their neighbours to the south, but also – and probably much more intensively – the various nomadic groups based in the vast steppe lands of Central Eurasia further to the north and north-east: from the southern Urals to the Mongolian Plateau. These multifaceted contacts are mirrored in the formation of complex elite networks across large parts of Central Eurasia and had constant repercussions on the main historical developments in the regions north of Bactria during the Hellenistic and post-Hellenistic periods.
