Gold plaque from the Oxus treasure
Achaemenid Persian, 5th-4th century BC
From the region of Takht-i Kuwad, Tadjikistan
A Mede involved in a religious ritual
This embossed ornament is part of the Oxus treasure, the most
important collection of silver and gold to have survived from the
Achaemenid period. The treasure is from a temple and dates mainly
from the fifth and fourth centuries BC.
The single largest component of the Oxus treasure is a group of
about fifty thin gold plaques, of which this is one. Ranging in
height from under 3 cm to almost 20 cm, most have chased outlines
of human figures. Some are very crude and roughly executed,
suggesting local or amateur workmanship. This, however, is one of
the finest examples.
Like many of the other plaques, this shows a man wearing Median
costume. He has an akinakes (short sword) of a type
depicted on reliefs at the Persian centre of Persepolis and
represented in the Oxus treasure by a fine gold scabbard. The man
is sometimes identified as a priest because he carries a bundle of
sticks known as a barsom. These were originally grasses
that were distributed during religious ceremonies.
The purpose of the plaques is unclear, but they may have been
votive objects left as a pious act in a temple or shrine.
J. Curtis, Ancient Persia-1 (London, The British Museum Press, 2000)
D. Collon, Ancient Near Eastern art (London, The British Museum Press, 1995)
M. Roaf, Cultural atlas of Mesopotamia (New York, 1990)