Oxus Treasure

Bracelet from the Oxus Treasure, which has lost its inlays of precious stones or enamel.

The Oxus treasure is a collection of 170 gold and silver items from the Achaemenid Persian period which were found by the Oxus river. Pieces from it are located in the Victoria and Albert Museum and in the British Museum (mainly the latter, where they have been on show from June 2007 in the newly re-displayed Room 52), with many items bequeathed to the nation by Augustus Wollaston Franks.

Style

The griffin-headed bracelets from the hoard are typical of the 5th to 4th century BC court style of Achaemenid Persia. Bracelets of a similar form to ones from the treasure can be seen on reliefs from Persepolis being given as tribute, whilst Xenophon writes that armlets (among other things) were gifts of honour at the Persian court. Glass or semi-precious stone inlays within the bracelets' hollow spaces have now been lost.

History

A group of merchants acquired the Treasure (the precise findspot is unknown, but thought to be on the River Oxus); however, on the road from Kabul to Peshawar they were captured by bandits, who dispersed the Treasure before they were rescued by Capt. F.C. Burton, the British political officer in Afghanistan. He then helped them to recover the Treasure and, in gratitude, they sold him a companion piece to one of the bracelets now at the British Museum; this companion piece is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. These merchants then continued to Rawalpindi to sell the rest of the Treasure. Thus pieces of the Oxus Treasure were then bought from the bazaars of India, and finally ended up in the British Museum after this long journey.

Items

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  Oxus treasure statuette.

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  Gold chariot

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  Gold artifacts from the Oxus Treasure

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  Chopped gold pieces

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  Gold statuette

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  Gold and Silver objects from the Oxus Treasure

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  Fish shaped gold vessel

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  Collection of gold objects from the Oxus treasure

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  Achaemenid gold vessels

History of Greater Iran
until the rise of modern nation-states
Pre-modern
Pre-Islamic  BCE Prehistory Proto-Elamite civilization 3200–2800 Elamite dynasties 2800–550 Bactria-Margiana Complex 2200–1700 Kingdom of Mannai 10th–7th cent. Median Empire 728–550 Achaemenid Empire 550–330 Seleucid Empire 330–150 Greco-Bactrian Kingdom 250-125 Parthian Empire 248–CE 224 CE Kushan Empire 30–275 Sassanid Empire 224–651 Hephthalite Empire 425–557 Kabul Shahi kingdom 565–879
Islamic  Patriarchal Caliphate 637–651 Umayyad Caliphate 661–750 Abbasid Caliphate 750–1258 Tahirid dynasty 821–873 Alavid dynasty 864–928 Saffarid dynasty 861–1003 Samanid dynasty 819–999 Ziyarid dynasty 928–1043 Buyid dynasty 934–1055 Ghaznavid Empire 975–1187 Ghurid dynasty 1149–1212 Seljuq Empire 1037–1194 Khwarazmian dynasty 1077–1231 Ilkhanate 1256–353 Kartids dynasty 1231–389 Muzaffarid dynasty 1314–1393 Chupanid dynasty 1337–1357 Jalayerid dynasty 1339–1432 Timurid Empire 1370–1506 Qara Qoyunlu Turcomans 1407–1468 Aq Qoyunlu Turcomans 1378–1508 Safavid Empire 1501–1722 Mughal Empire 1526–1857 Hotaki dynasty 1722–1729 Afsharid dynasty 1736–1750 Zand Dynasty 1750–1794 Durrani Empire 1794–1826 Qajar Dynasty 1794–1925

References

Articles

• Stealing Zeus's thunder
• Tajik president calls for return of treasure from British Museum (Guardian - Tuesday April 10, 2007)
• "O. M. Dalton, The Treasure of the Oxus with Other Examples of Early Oriental Metal-Work", reviewed by Edwin M. Yamauchi - Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 90, No. 2. (Apr. - Jun., 1970), pp. 340-343 (JSTOR - subscription required)

Pieces

(All links are British Museum unless otherwise noted.)

• Bracelet
• Gold head
• Gold jug
• Lion-griffin
• Gold plaque
• Gold scabbard
• Silver statuette
• Silver statuette