Athanasia Chrysafis Biska

Viktor Sarianidi is a leading archaeologist who has dedicated his career to the study of the archaeological remains in the area of what is known today as the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex (Turkmenistan, northern Afghanistan, southern Uzbekistan and western Tajikistan).

Sarianidi's excavations revealed numerous monumental structures at many different sites, including the necropolis of Tillya Tepe, where 20,000 gold pieces where unearthed and the necropolis of Gonur, the largest ever to be found in the East, yielding some 3,000 tombs (3rd and 2nd millennium BC).

The archaeological complex was given a Greek name, Bactria (now northern Afghanistan)– a civilization related to the Cretan-Mycenean culture, some 1,500 years before Alexander the Great, according to Sarianidi, and Margiana, which was the Greek name for the Persian satrapy of Margu, in today's Turkmenistan. Dating to the Bronze Age, the city-state of Margiana is believed to have been Alexander the Great¢s capital while in Turkmenistan.

"The world has four centres of ancient civilization: the Aegean, Mesopotamia, India and China. Here, we discovered the fifth," says the archaeologist. Born in 1929 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Victor Sarianidi is of Pontian Greek descent.

In 1996, he moved to Greece where he currently lives. He has received several honors in Greece and abroad and is the author of twenty books, among which, "The Necropolis of Gonur."

American Foreign Service Association: Turkmen Archaeology: A Central Asian Surprise