The now-extinct country of Bactria spread across
what are now Turkmenistan, Tajikistan,
Uzbekistan and Northern Afghanistan. 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. 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.
This piece pertains to a civilisation referred to as
the Oxus (or the BMAC). 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. 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. Pictographs
on seals have been argued to indicate an
independently-developed writing system.
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 southeastern
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.
Recent Carbon 14 dating 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, and the use of different
coloured 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. As one
of less than fifty such examples in the world, this
piece has the quality of rarity as well as an
intensely powerful presence out of all proportion
to its size. In its simplicity and its inherent
monumentality, the figure resonates with
contemporary aesthetic taste. This is a
remarkable and fascinating piece of ancient art,
and a credit to any collection fortunate enough
to contain it.
