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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.
In 2003 one inventory calculated that there were
at least thirty-eight examples of such Bactrian
idols known. Although the number of examples
inventoried since that time has increased, the
total number of such Bactrian idols remains
relatively small. Nine examples have been
founded in southeastern Turkmenistan and two
more in Pakistan. The discovery of a silver pin
depicting a kaunakes-clad woman sitting on a
small backed chair and of silver vessel depicting
a second, similarly dressed female figure,
kneeling on the ground, at the site of Gonur-
depe in Turkmenistan suggests that the origin of
such figures is to be sought in that area.
The eleven examples just cited, although
discovered in archaeological contexts, were not
accompanied with related finds sufficient to
define the nature of the kneeling women
depicted in the kaunakes. Although some
scholars prefer to identify them as elite members
of this early society, other scholars, noting their
compelling monumentality, suggest these female
figures are depictions of one or more goddesses.
Indeed, their faces are imbued with the look of
divine authority. The use of different colored
stones in their design would seem to support
such a divine interpretation for such spiritually-
charged beings where the focus of one’s
attention comes to rest on their head and face.
Recent Carbon 14 dating of some of the organic
material found in association with some of the
excavated examples suggests a chronological
position for the group in the early second
millennium BC about 2000-1800 BC. The use of
different colored stone is apparently consistent
with this dating. The technique appears to be
used for the creation of composite figures of
approximately the same dimensions excavated at
Ebla. In its simplicity and in its inherent
monumentality, the figure resonates with
contemporary aesthetic taste. As such, this idol
reveals the timelessness of the mother goddess
and her continuing ability to command both
attention and respect.
- (LO.1292)
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