Oxus treasure

Golden objects from the Oxus Treasure in the British Museum

Bangle from the Oxus treasure

The Oxus treasure (also Oxus treasure or Amudarja treasure ) is a collection of gold and silver finds, especially from the time of the Achaemenid Empire (6th to 4th century BC). The exact location is unclear; it was on the Oxus River , which is now called Amu Darya. The finds date from the beginning of the 3rd century BC. Built temples in the fortified city of Tacht-i Sangin or from the nearby Tacht-i Kuwad in ancient Bactria , today in southern Tajikistan .

Type, form and dating of the finds

Other objects of the treasure

The bangles with griffin ends are typical of the courtly art style in Achaemenid Persia . Similar bangles are depicted on reliefs from Persepolis , on which they were awarded as recognition. Xenophon described that bracelets (among other things) were gifts of honor from the Persian king.

The finds are from the 7th to 2nd century BC. Dated. They are exhibited in the Victoria and Albert Museum and most importantly in the British Museum .

history

A group of merchants bought the Oxus treasure in 1877. On the way from Kabul to Peshawar they were attacked by robbers and taken prisoner. The British political officer Captain F. C. Burton, the authorized representative of the civil administration of the adjacent areas of the Empire in Afghanistan , freed the merchants and helped them to get the Oxus treasure back, which is why they gave him a bracelet out of gratitude. It is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The traders continued on to Rawalpindi , where the rest of the treasure was sold. The finds eventually ended up in the British Museum, most of them through a donation from Augustus Wollaston Franks . The stone inlays of the bracelets are lost.

literature

• Igor R. Pitschikjan : Oxus Treasure and Oxus Temple. Achaemenid art in Central Asia . Berlin, Akademie 1992 (Antiquity in the Modern Age) ISBN 3-05-002145-4 .

Web links

Commons : Oxus treasure  - collection of images, videos and audio files

items

• Article about a possible return to Tajikistan
• Article from Wissen.de
• Short information

Pieces

• Some pictures from the British Museum, including some pieces from the Oxus treasure
• Following only pages of the British Museum: bracelet , gold head , gold pitcher , lion Griffin , Gold Plate , Golden sword scabbard , silver statuette , silver statuette

Individual evidence

1. ^ Marjorie Caygill: Creating a Great Museum: Early Collectors and The British Museum ( Memento of June 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (online course, Session 3); accessed December 11, 2018.