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Near Eastern Art :
Bactria-Margiana Art : Bactria-Margiana Head from an Idol
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Bactria-Margiana Head from an Idol - OF.038
Origin: Central Asia
Circa: 2500
BC
to 1800
BC
Dimensions:
2" (5.1cm) high
x 1.25" (3.2cm) wide
Collection: Near Eastern
£6,000.00
Location: Great Britain
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| Description |
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This piece pertains to an ancient culture referred
to both as the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological
Complex (BCAM) or as the Oxus Civilisation. The
Bactria-Margiana culture spread across an area
encompassing the modern nations of
Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and
Northern Afghanistan. Flourishing between
about 2100 and 1700 BC, it was contemporary
with the European Bronze Age, and was
characterised by monumental architecture, social
complexity and extremely distinctive cultural
artefacts that vanish from the record a few
centuries after they first appear. Pictographs on
seals have been argued to indicate an
independently-developed writing system.
It was one of many economic and social entities
in the vicinity, and was a powerful country due to
the exceptional fertility and wealth of its
agricultural lands. This in turn gave rise to a
complex and multifaceted set of societies with
specialist craftsmen who produced luxury
materials such as this for the ruling and
aristocratic elites. Trade appears to have been
important, as Bactrian artefacts appear all over
the Persian Gulf as well as in the Iranian Plateau
and the Indus Valley. For this reason, the area
was fought over from deep prehistory until the
Mediaeval period, by the armies of Asia Minor,
Greece (Macedonia), India and the Arab States,
amongst others.
Religion may have been based around deities
represented by pieces such as this. However, they
are extremely rare. A 2003 inventory calculated
that there were at least thirty-eight examples of
such Bactrian idols known, and although the
number of examples discovered since has
increased, the total number of such Bactrian idols
remains relatively small. Nine examples have
been found in south-eastern Turkmenistan and
two more in Pakistan. Their significance is
unclear. Some scholars identify them as elite
members of this early society, while others
consider their compelling monumentality to
signify that these female figures are depictions of
one (or more) goddesses.
- (OF.038)
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