DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36954#0193
NICHOLAS SIMS-WILLIAMS
THE SOGDIAN INSCRIPTIONS OF THE UPPER INDUS:
A PRELIMINARY REPORT
During September 1985 I had the opportunity to join the Pak-
German team in Chilas in order to study the inscriptions in
Middle Iranian languages found at various sites chiefly on the
banks of the Indus.* I was able to visit all such sites so far dis-
covered (except for a single inscription at an inaccessible location
opposite Chilas II). Altogether I recorded about 610 Middle
Iranian inscriptions, of which about ten are in Bactrian, two
Parthian, two Middle Persian, and the rest Sogdian. The most
important site by far is Shatial I, with about 560 Iranian inscrip-
tions.^
About one-third of this material was published previously by
Helmut HUMBACH. ^ Considering that HUMBACH was working
solely from photographs, many of them general views of the
rocks rather than details of the inscriptions, his decipherment is
on the whole remarkably accurate. Nevertheless, the readings can
1 I take this opportunity to express my gratefui thanks to Professor Karl
Jettmar for inviting me to take part in the expedition; to Dr. Volker The-
walt and the rest of the team for making me so welcome and for their in-
valuable cooperation in the recording of the Iranian inscriptions; and to
the British Academy, which (through the Corpus Inscriptionum Iranica-
rum) funded my visit to Pakistan.
2 Inscriptions from Shatial I will here be cited by their serial numbers (e.g.
34-70, that is, Rock 34, Inscription 70), those from elsewhere by the
name of the site alone.
3 HUMBACH, 1980: 201—228. For ease of comparison, the numbers as-
signed by HUMBACH (Nr. 1 to Nr. 137) will be cited here whenever
reference is made to an already published inscription.
131
THE SOGDIAN INSCRIPTIONS OF THE UPPER INDUS:
A PRELIMINARY REPORT
During September 1985 I had the opportunity to join the Pak-
German team in Chilas in order to study the inscriptions in
Middle Iranian languages found at various sites chiefly on the
banks of the Indus.* I was able to visit all such sites so far dis-
covered (except for a single inscription at an inaccessible location
opposite Chilas II). Altogether I recorded about 610 Middle
Iranian inscriptions, of which about ten are in Bactrian, two
Parthian, two Middle Persian, and the rest Sogdian. The most
important site by far is Shatial I, with about 560 Iranian inscrip-
tions.^
About one-third of this material was published previously by
Helmut HUMBACH. ^ Considering that HUMBACH was working
solely from photographs, many of them general views of the
rocks rather than details of the inscriptions, his decipherment is
on the whole remarkably accurate. Nevertheless, the readings can
1 I take this opportunity to express my gratefui thanks to Professor Karl
Jettmar for inviting me to take part in the expedition; to Dr. Volker The-
walt and the rest of the team for making me so welcome and for their in-
valuable cooperation in the recording of the Iranian inscriptions; and to
the British Academy, which (through the Corpus Inscriptionum Iranica-
rum) funded my visit to Pakistan.
2 Inscriptions from Shatial I will here be cited by their serial numbers (e.g.
34-70, that is, Rock 34, Inscription 70), those from elsewhere by the
name of the site alone.
3 HUMBACH, 1980: 201—228. For ease of comparison, the numbers as-
signed by HUMBACH (Nr. 1 to Nr. 137) will be cited here whenever
reference is made to an already published inscription.
131