A new study of ancient written records shows that multilingual societies thrived across Hellenistic Central Asia for nearly a thousand years, with scribes regularly switching between languages and scripts to serve whichever empire happened to be in power.This substantial Cambridge Element is free for download until 20 May (so don't dawdle). The GR article is a good summary of it.Rachel Mairs, a researcher at the University of Reading, published the findings in “Writing in the Ancient World.” The study examines surviving texts from regions now known as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, covering the period from roughly the fifth century BC to the second century CE.
Mairs identifies four main written languages in the region: Aramaic and Elamite under the Achaemenid Persian Empire, Greek under Macedonian rule, and Prakrit under the Mauryan Empire from India.
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Language and Script in Achaemenid and Hellenistic Central AsiaFor more on the Emperor Ashoka and his edicts in Pali, Aramaic, and Greek, see here and links. For lots more on the texts from Persepolis in Aramaic, Old Persian, Elamite, etc., start here and follow the links. And for a bit more on the Bactrian Aramaic texts, see here. Cross-file under Aramaic Watch.Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 May 2026
Rachel Mairs
Summary
This Element examines – for the first time in a single volume – the written evidence from the 'Far East' of the Hellenistic world (Bactria, Sogdiana, Arachosia, Gandhara). It examines how successive invaders of this region, from Persia, Greece and India, left their linguistic and textual mark. It reviews the surviving Hellenistic-period written material from archaeological sites in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan in Aramaic, Greek and Prakrit.
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