Coins of Ancient Tokharistan

Abstract

The tamga signs images and titles engraved on coins represent symbols of ruling dynasties and the states they had founded and were as-sociated both with the territory in which they ruled and with their origin (ethnicity). In this regard, a particular interest is the caused by Old Tur-kic tamgas and titles (“Qaghan”, “Yabghu”, “Tegin”, “Tarkhan”) available on the Pre-Islamic Turkic coins of Tokharistan region (Southern Uzbekistan – Southern Tadjikistan – Northern Afghanistan) with Sogdian scripts. On the early medieval coins of Chach related to the Western Turkic Qaghan-ate (568–740), there are four types of tamgas – a lyre-shaped one with its varieties, a tamga in the form of two crossed swords, an anchor-form tamga and the diamond-form one, and the fact comes under notice that similar tamgas were engraved on the coins of the Northern Tokharistan of the same epoch. Appearance of these tamgas and titles on the territory of Chach and Tokharistan in the Early Middle Ages is directly related to poli- tical activities of the Western Turkic Qaghanate and ethno-cultural proces- ses which were taking place in Central Asia.