Editing Samarkand (section)

===Early history===
{{see also|Timeline of Samarkand}}

Along with [[Bukhara]],<ref>Vladimir Babak, Demian Vaisman, Aryeh Wasserman, ''Political organization in Central Asia and Azerbaijan: sources and documents'', p.&nbsp;374</ref> Samarkand is one of the oldest inhabited cities in [[Central Asia]], prospering from its location on the trade route between China and Europe. There is no direct evidence of when it was founded. Researchers at the Institute of Archaeology of Samarkand date the city's founding to the 8th–7th centuries BC.

[[Archaeology|Archaeological]] excavations conducted within the city limits (Syob and midtown) as well as suburban areas (Hojamazgil, Sazag'on) unearthed 40,000-year-old evidence of human activity, dating back to the [[Upper Paleolithic]]. A group of [[Mesolithic]] (12th–7th millennia BC) archaeological sites were discovered in the suburbs of Sazag'on-1, Zamichatosh, and Okhalik. The Syob and Darg'om [[canal]]s, supplying the city and its suburbs with water, appeared around the 7th–5th centuries BC (early [[Iron Age]]).

From its earliest days, Samarkand was one of the main centres of [[Sogdia|Sogdian]] civilization. By the time of the [[Achaemenid Empire|Achaemenid]] dynasty of Persia, the city had become the capital of the Sogdian [[satrapy]].