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This article proposes an assessment of the multidisciplinary study of the history of Afrasiab, the first site of Samarkand, occupied from the 7th or 6th century BC till the 13th century AD. This study was carried out for more than one century by teams of historians and archaeologists, first Russian, then Soviet, and eventually (since 1989) by the French-Uzbek Archaeological Mission. The respective contribution of written sources and archaeological excavations, as well as the difficulties in adjusting the two approaches, are examined in detail, from four successive angles: the quest of the origins of the town; the study of the two phases of Greek occupation and their legacy to subsequent periods; the evaluation of the changes brought about during the 8th century, the first century of islamization; the search for physical traces of commercial activities, quite disappointing for reasons which the article tries to elucidate.