 | |
| Geographical range | Southern Tajikistan |
|---|---|
| Period | Bronze Age |
| Dates | ca. 2800–2400 BC |
The Bishkent culture or Beshkent culture is a Bronze Age archaeological culture of southern Tajikistan, recently dated to c. 2800 – 2400 BC. It is primarily known from its cemeteries, which appear to have been used by mobile pastoralists, but currently considered to be a small group of people moving towards Tajikistan from Swat valley or Baluchistan, just as it was found in the early necropolis of Tulkhar.[1]
The Bishkent culture has been seen as a possible contributor to the Swat culture, which in turn is often associated with early Indo-Aryan movements into northwest India.
- ^ Sotnikova 2024, p. 644: "[T]he Early Tulkhar Necropolis (South Tajikistan) [is] often used to prove active contacts between the steppe livestock-farming Andronovo people and the settled crop-farming Central Asia people...The Tulkhar cremated burials appeared a lot earlier, namely no later than in the early 3rd millennium BC. The new dates also throw a shadow of doubt over the Andronovo people participating in establishment of the Bishkent culture...".