Sogdiana: Art and Archetecture

The Sogdian empire played an astonishingly large role during the beginning ages of the silk road. I call it astonishing because I had, shamefully, never even heard of Sogdiana before reading about it, and it turns out their diplomats backed the trade negotiations, thus being very important to all business there. Funny thing was though, they were neither a powerful state, nor closely allied with any other kingdoms, but they were one of the most advanced. They were best known for their Silk during this time, but they were much more then just influential on the Silk Road. They were an advanced state, and had large cities designed in ways that had not been seen elsewhere before.

Although the housing started off fairly simple, detached, single story houses, but then, as a few centuries went by, the houses grew more and more complex, so that by the eighth century, multi-story houses were seen. I find this interesting, because not may would think of then simple townspeople housing to be up to three stories, especially in houses made of mainly mud and clay. This is quite an achievement for this time, as multi-story houses were not normally seen, especially other then in the Palace, even if the palace was more then one level itself. And then I read how by this time, one in three houses had personal murals on their walls. This was mainly for the wealthy, but if one in three had murals, it is plain to see that Sogdiana was doing well at this time. These murals were seemingly important to the people, as they showed everything from Gods to daily life, and this art seems to bear similarities to various other countries outside of China, but blended it with their own unique style. It's amazing how much information one can pull out of a single painting, and as there were so many murals, there is a lot of information to be had, but unfortunately, what is hard to say is what religion these people followed. There were so many different depictions that is can be said that there was probably a medley of religions within the community, thus the many different religious art pieces and painting seen throughout the cities.

I found this society interesting because it was so different from all the others, and yet it still managed to thrive on it's own. It was not powerful, it had no real allies, and yet it ended up controlling a large part of the Silk Road. It's art is numerous and probably could be seen everywhere back when it thrived. I can picture the large murals adorning the walls of many a house, which is, again, a rare thing to see during this time. Usually the murals were reserved for royalty and the very high ranking alone, but here, many could enjoy it in places other then just the temples.

Sogdian Mural