Le croisement des sources écrites permet de restituer des confins parthes comprenant la Margiane, l’Arie, la Drangiane, l’Arachosie, une partie de la Bactriane et la vallée de l’Indus. La rareté et l’ambiguïté des sources avaient fait négliger les indications sur la Bactriane et envisager l’indépendance des autres régions à partir du Ier siècle de notre ère. Les récents renouvellements de la documentation, en particulier numismatique et archéologique, concernant l’Asie centrale et le nord-ouest de l’Inde, et les progrès accomplis par la critique des sources permettent aujourd’hui de reconsidérer la question. L’objectif de notre enquête consiste à explorer l’hypothèse d’une intégration politique de cet espace à l’empire parthe, occupé en partie par des populations réputées scythes et dont les pratiques monétaires sont habituellement interprétées comme le témoignage d’une indépendance politique. La reconstitution d’un corpus adéquat, la relecture critique des sources écrites et la reconsidération du matériel disponible montrent que la réinterprétation des données permet d’intégrer celles-ci de façon plus cohérente dans une synthèse d’ensemble enrichie. Cette étude, en faisant intervenir des « Sakas-Parthes » de Bactriane, des Parthes « scythisés » de Margiane et des « Indo-Sako-Parthes » dans les régions sud-orientales, veut montrer que la question de l’origine ethnique est de peu d’intérêt pour rendre compte de la culture et des pratiques politiques de groupes que leur position géographique frontalière vouait à avoir un peuplement ethniquement mêlé et à subir de puissants effets d’acculturation communs aux pays voisins et constamment renouvelés. / Intersecting written sources allows a restitution of Parthian eastern borders comprising Margiana, Aria, Drangiana, Arachosia, one part of Bactria, and the Indus Valley. The rarity and the ambiguity of sources had caused us to neglect the indications pertaining to Bactria and to envision the independence of the other regions from the 1st century of our era. The recent revival of sources -- in particular numismatic and archeological ones -- concerning central Asia and north-west India, as well as the progress accomplished by the criticism of sources allow us today to reconsider this statement. Our investigation aims at exploring the hypothesis of a political integration of these regions to the Parthian Empire, partly occupied by populations known as Scythian, whose monetary practices are usually interpreted as a mark of political independence. The reconstitution of an adequate corpus, the critical re-evaluation of the written sources, as well as the reconsideration of the available material allow us to reinterpret the data and to integrate them in a more consistent way within an overall improved synthesis. This study involves so called Bactrian 'Saka-Parthians', Margian 'scythianized Parthians' and south-oriental 'Indo-sako-Parthians'; it seeks to demonstrate that the issue of ethnical origin is of little interest to understand the cultural and political practices of these groups, which, due to their geographical position on the frontier, were doomed to have an ethnically mixed population and to undergo powerful acculturation effects which were common to neighbouring countries and which where constantly renewed.

15 Abstract The following thesis summarizes results of the archaeological research in the microregion of the Zarabag Oasis in the South Uzbekistan. The non-destructive research focused on the collection and evaluation of the archaeological data that allow to reconstruct the settlement dynamics in the oasis during the ages. Previously, there was not archaeological evidence available in the region. The fieldwork in the oasis and its closest surroundings was conducted by way of extensive surface survey (global coverage of the oasis focused on the detection of archaeological evidence), and intensive one (systematic surface survey on a closely defined area). The extensive survey proved to be more suitable for the studied environment in terms of the quality and quantity of the collected archaeological data. One part of the survey consisted in detection of the water sources (springs, surface canals and even remains of the karez systems). The basic units of extensive survey were represented by polygons (gardens, fields, cemeteries, tepas etc.), to which the finds collected during the research were attributed. Their dating in the combination with their spatial distribution allowed then to reconstruct the settlement processes and dynamics in the microregion of the oasis. One part of the research deals also with the...