, with its capital of Afrasiab, was already noted for the sophistication and number of its.... sogdian mural

Murals discovered at the beginning of the 20th century at Samarkand, which are almost contemporary with those at Varakhsha, have been lost. The importance of these murals is wholly eclipsed by the slightly later works discovered recently in Sogdiana, such as the 7th-century works at Varakhsha. He is wasp-waisted in the manner of figures depicted in murals of Varakhsha and Pendzhikent. Although, in a series of rooms connected to it, some fragmentary religious paintings survived, the paintings in another temple are better preserved. More than 50 figures of this vast composition survive, some representing Sogdian noblemen, some a group of Turks. The men's single, close-fitting Sogdian tunics resemble garments depicted in paintings of the Buddhist temples of Bamian and eastern Turkistan, notably at Kizil and Kuca. The style and, in some cases, the subject matter of these Sogdian scenes must have influenced the illuminators of such Islamic Persian works as the Shah-nameh. By plac! ing light figures against dark or vivid backgrounds, Sogdian artists evolved a distinct form of . Details incorporated in Sogdian paintings proclaim the eclecticism of the society they depict and for which they were created. The helmets worn by the warriors in the Pendzhikent libation scene resemble those depicted in the murals of eastern Turkistan. These motifs often figure both on surviving textiles and on those recorded in the paintings. The murals at Varakhsha, for example, include motifs taken from textiles, and a 5th-century mural from Balalyk Tepe displays the head of a tusked, boarlike animal set in a roundel that is almost identical to that on a Sasanian fabric found at Astana in eastern Turkistan. Between the 5th and 7th centuries, the Sogdians made dried-brick caskets shaped like rectangular rooms to contain ossuaries, or urns for the bones of the dead. sogdian mural