Oxus Treasure

The Oxus Treasure (also Oxus treasure or Amu Darya treasure ) is a collection of existing gold and silver artefacts, especially from the time of the Achaemenid (6th to 4th centuries BC). The exact location is unknown; However, he was on the river Oxus, which is called the Amu Darya today. Probably was the locality in Tajikistan, in ancient Bactria.

Type, shape and dating of the finds

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

The finds are dated to the period from the 7th to the 2nd century BC. They are exhibited in the Victoria and Albert Museum, and especially in the British Museum.

History

A group of businessmen bought the Oxus Treasure in 1877. Along the way from Kabul to Peshawar they were attacked by robbers and captured. The British political officer Captain F. C. Burton, the authorized representatives of the civil administration of the adjacent areas of the empire in Afghanistan freed the merchants and helped them to retrieve the Oxus treasure, so they gave him a bracelet out of gratitude. He is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The dealers continued on their way to Rawalpindi, where the rest of the treasure was sold. The finds finally arrive at the British Museum. The stone deposits of bangles are lost.