The Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC) is the modern archaeological designation for a particular Middle Bronze Age civilisation of southern Central Asia in regions around the Caspian Sea and Aral Sea. This civilization is also known as the Oxus Civilization.

The civilization thrived between about 2500 BCE and 1700 BCE, though there is debate about details and interpretation of data.

Although commonly referred to as the “Oxus civilization” and formally designated as the “Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex” (BMAC), recent studies have questioned the geographic adequacy of these terms. While the traditional labels emphasise the concentration of major urban sites in Margiana and northern Bactria, new archaeological surveys and excavations show that the cultural core of this Bronze Age complex was considerably broader.

Significant sites have been documented across northeastern Iran, within the historical region of Greater Khorasan, including newly excavated settlements such as Tepe Chalow, Kalat-e Yavar, and Shahrak-e Firouzeh, along with numerous surveyed locations exhibiting characteristic BMAC material culture. On the basis of this wider distribution—extending from Sabzevar and Nishapur to the Murghab delta and Tajikistan—some scholars (e.g., Biscione & Vahdati) argue that “BMAC” and “Oxus Civilization” are overly restrictive, either overlooking formative areas or limiting the phenomenon to Bactria and Margiana.".Biscione, Raffaele, Vahdati, Ali, A. (2020). "The BMAC presence in Eastern Iran: State of Affairs in December 2018. Towards the Greater Khorasan Civilization?", in Bertille Lyonnet and Nadezhda A. Dubova (eds.), The World of the Oxus Civilization, Routledge, London and New York, p. 527-550: Because the full spread of sites corresponds closely to the historical expanse of Greater Khorasan and reflects long-term cultural continuity into the Iron Age and later periods, these authors propose the broader term “Greater Khorasan Civilization” (GKC) for this archaeological complex.

There are a few later (–1450 BC) sites in northern Bactria, today southern Uzbekistan,Kaniuth, Kai, (2016). "The Late Bronze Age Settlement of Tilla Bulak (Uzbekistan): A Summary of Four Years' Work" , in South Asian Archaeology and Art 2012, Volume 1, Brepols, p. 119: "Taken together, our dates suggest a timeframe of ca. 1950-1800 cal. BCE for phases 1–2 of Tilla Bulak, and, by extension, for the Sapalli Culture phase LB Ia and the transition to Ib." but they are mostly graveyards belonging to the BMAC-related Sapalli culture.Kaniuth, Kai, (2007). "The Metallurgy of the Late Bronze Age Sapalli Culture (Southern Uzbekistan) and its implications for the 'tin question'", in Iranica Antiqua 42, p. 26: "Northern Bactria (Southern Uzbekistan) has produced some monumental buildings, but nothing to rival the spectacular architectural or sepulchral finds of Margiana and Southern Bactria."Kaniuth, Kai, (2013). "A new Late Bronze Age site in Southern Uzbekistan", in South Asian Archaeology 2007, Volume I, Prehistoric Periods, BAR International Series 2454, p. 151: "A series of 26 radiocarbon dates from Dzarkutan established a time bracket of the 20th–15th centuries BC [for Sapalli culture], but these samples have not yet been published with reference to certain ceramic assemblages, so we lack a good resolution within this 500-year span (Görsdorf and Huff 2001)."Kaniuth, Kai, (2020). "Life in the Countryside: The rural archaeology of the Sapalli culture", in Bertille Lyonnet and Nadezhda A. Dubova (eds.), The World of the Oxus Civilization, Routledge, London and New York, p. 457: "The Sapalli culture, the local northern Bactrian variant of the Oxus Civilization, flourished from the 20th to the 15th century BC." A single BMAC site, known as Dashli, lies in southern Bactria, current territory of northern Afghanistan.Kaniuth, Kai, (2007). "The Metallurgy of the Late Bronze Age Sapalli Culture (Southern Uzbekistan) and its implications for the 'tin question'", in Iranica Antiqua 42, p. 26: "There is general agreement that the date of unprovenanced finds stretches back further than that of the 20th–18th-century BC graves scientifically excavated at Dashly-1 and 3 (Sarianidi 1976), and that they start in the last centuries of the third millennium BC." Sites found further east, in southwestern Tajikistan, though contemporary with the main BMAC sites in Margiana, are only graveyards, with no urban developments associated with them.Lyonnet, Bertille, and Nadezhda A. Dubova, (2020a). "Introduction", in Bertille Lyonnet and Nadezhda A. Dubova (eds.), The World of the Oxus Civilization, Routledge, London and New York, p. 1.

The civilisation was named BMAC by the Soviet archaeologist Viktor Sarianidi in 1976 when he was excavating in northern Afghanistan (1969–1979).Vassar College WordPress, (10 May 2017). "Dashly": "Viktor Sarianidi (1929–2013), a Russian archaeologist born in the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, discovered the sites [in northern Afghanistan]. His works are famous, but somewhat difficult to find in English. He, along with his collaborators from the Soviet Academy of Sciences in Moscow, excavated the sites from 1969 to 1979, halting work when Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan (Salvatori, 2000:97)." Sarianidi's excavations from the late 1970s onward revealed numerous monumental structures in many sites, fortified by impressive walls and gates. Reports on the BMAC were primarily published in Soviet journals.See Sarianidi, V. I. 1976. "Issledovanija pamjatnikov Dashlyiskogo Oazisa," in Drevnii Baktria, vol. 1. Moscow: Akademia Nauk. A journalist from The New York Times wrote in 2001 that during the years of the Soviet Union, the findings were largely unknown to the West until Sarianidi's work began to be translated in the 1990s.John Noble Wilford, (13 May 2001). "In Ruin, Symbols on a Stone Hint at a Lost Asian Culture", in New York Times. However, some publications by Soviet authors, like Masson, Sarianidi, Atagarryev, and Berdiev, had been available to the West, translated in the first half of 1970s, slightly before Sarianidi labelled the findings as BMAC.Kurbanov, Aydogdy, (14 September 2018). "A brief history of archaeological research in Turkmenistan from the beginning of the 20th century until the present", in ArchéOrient.Atagarryev E., and Berdiev O.K., (1970). "The Archaeological Exploration of Turkmenistan in the Year of Soviet Power", East and West 20, pp. 285–306.Masson, V.M., and V.I. Sarianidi, (1972). Central Asia: Turkmenia before the Achaemenids, London, Thames and Hudson. [Reviewed in: Kolb, Charles C., (1973). American Anthropologist, Vol. 75, Issue 6, December 1973, pp. 1945–1948.], p. 1945: "The [Middle] Bronze Age...2000-1600 B.C...(Namazga V) is the period of an urban revolution based on an Anatolian model of limited (or no) irrigation agriculture and retarded social development...Namazga-depe (170 acres) is the production and probable governmental center, while Altin-depe (114 acres) is a second capital. Specialization in ceramics, metallurgy, monumental architecture (including the Altin-depe ziggurat), wealth-based class stratification, internal and external trade, and vestiges of a symbol system...A sudden and gradual cultural decline began about 1600 B.C., and Namazga-depe shrank to three acres while Altin-depe was completely abandoned..."Levine, Louis D., (1975). "Review to: Masson, V. M., and V. I. Sarianidi. Central Asia: Turkmenia before the Achaemenids (1972)" , in The American Historical Review, Volume 80, Issue 2, April 1975, p. 375.

Origin and chronology

The civilisation's urban phase or Integration Era was dated in 2010 by Sandro Salvatori to –1950 BC,Salvatori, Sandro, (2010). "Thinking Around Grave 3245 in the 'Royal Graveyard' of Gonur (Murghab Delta, Turkmenistan)", in: On the Track of Uncovering a Civilisation. A volume in honor of the 80th-anniversary of Victor Sarianidi, p. 249: "Summing up we can now date the MBA 2400/2300-1950 BC and the LBA 1950–1500 BC and to recognise a very strong chronological correlation between the southern Central Asia MBA and the late Umm an-Nar period." but a different view is held by Nadezhda A. Dubova and Bertille Lyonnet, –1700 BC.Lyonnet, Bertille, and Nadezhda A. Dubova, (2020b). "Questioning the Oxus Civilization or Bactria- Margiana Archaeological Culture (BMAC): an overview" , in Bertille Lyonnet and Nadezhda A. Dubova (eds.), The World of the Oxus Civilization, Routledge, London and New York, p. 32.: "...Salvatori has often dated its beginning very early (ca. 2400 BC), to make it match with Shahdad where a large amount of material similar to that of the BMAC has been discovered. With the start of international cooperation and the multiplication of analyses, the dates now admitted by all place the Oxus Civilization between 2250 and 1700 BC, while its final phase extends until ca. 1500 BC..."Lyonnet, Bertille, and Nadezhda A. Dubova, (2020a). "Introduction", in Bertille Lyonnet and Nadezhda A. Dubova (eds.), The World of the Oxus Civilization, Routledge, London and New York, p. 1 : "The Oxus Civilization, also named the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (or Culture) (BMAC), developed in southern Central Asia during the Middle and Late Bronze Age and lasted for about half a millennium (ca. 2250–1700 BC)..."

Italian archaeologists, like Massimo Vidale and Dennys Frenez, support Sandro Salvatori's hypothesis that Namazga V is the beginning of the ultimate urban phase called BMAC, belonging to the Integration Era (c. 2400–1950 BC).Vidale, Massimo, 2017. Treasures from the Oxus, I.B. Tauris, p. 8: "...Soviet scholars [excavated] Namazga Depe [belonging to] the Regionalization and Integration Eras. This latter (phases Namazga IV and V) encompasses the replacement of the Bronze Age cities of the early and mid third millennium BC by large palace-centred fortified compounds surrounded by secondary urban clusters in the late third millennium..." On the other hand, Russian and French archaeologists Nadezhda Dubova and Bertille Lyonnet consider there was a gap between the end of Namazga III phase and the beginning of BMAC in Margiana, and that most of the sites both in Margiana and Bactria were founded on virgin soil only around 2250 BC lasting until 1700 BC.Lyonnet, Bertille, and Nadezhda A. Dubova, (2020b). "Questioning the Oxus Civilization or Bactria- Margiana Archaeological Culture (BMAC): an overview" , in Bertille Lyonnet and Nadezhda A. Dubova (eds.), The World of the Oxus Civilization, Routledge, London and New York, p. 20.: "...Though some authors consider that the Oxus Civilization could be an ultimate development of the Namazga culture...there is in fact a gap in our knowledge of a few hundred years in Margiana between the end of the NMG III period and the beginning of the BMAC, and the great majority of the sites in Bactria and Margiana are founded upon virgin soil."

Etymology The region was first named Bakhdi in Old Persian, which then formed the Persian satrapy of Marguš (perhaps from the Sumerian term Marhasi),Hiebert, Fredrik Talmage (1994): Origins of the Bronze Age Oasis Civilization in Central Asia, p. 12 the capital of which was Merv, in modern-day southeastern Turkmenistan. It was then called Bāxtriš in Middle Persian, and Baxl in New Persian. The region was also mentioned in ancient Sanskrit texts as or . The modern term Bactria is derived from Ancient Greek (), modern Balkh.

Early Food-Producing Era