ABSTRACT
In this chapter, two scholars with different research backgrounds engage in a discussion about the phenomenon of ‘Sogdian Zoroastrianism.’ The discussants explore the knowledge of the first, a leading archaeologist, a Curator at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, and a specialist of the Sogdian language; and, of the other, who has journeyed to the former eastern Iranian lands of Central Asia in search of material findings and history of the rich and diverse pre-Islamic civilisations on the fabled Silk Roads. They start with the origins of the deity Qurbustu Tengri (Ahuramazda) among Mongols and South Siberian Turks, discuss attestations of Zoroastrian yazatas and Shahnameh heroes in Sogdian texts and iconographic pantheon, calendars of Sogdiana and Chorasmia, the ‘practical’ nature of Sogdian cults, fire temples, and funerary practices, and outline the most recent archaeological discoveries.
