The Temple of the Oxus

Abstract

The archeological discoveries made on the territory of Bactria – one of the largest states formed in antiquity, which united in a single historical and cultural region the lands of the modern Soviet republics of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, together with Afghanistan – can be divided into three stages. The first episode to create a world sensation opened with the chance find in 1877 of the Oxus Treasure, which contained 200 Achaemenid gold and silver objects of high artistic quality, and some 1,500 coins. Then in 1963 came the discovery of the Graeco-Bactrian town of Ay Khanum in northern Afghanistan. Though this excavation is not yet complete, the French archeological mission has succeeded in defining the structural principles, the planning solutions, the relics of written culture, and the Greek way of life of the ancient city. That is to say, the essential of what is accessible to archeology and historical research. Some parallels to the Ay Khanum discoveries were yielded by excavations at Saksanokhur in south Tajikistan, where a palace-temple complex was uncovered. Finally came the third stage: the operations of the Soviet-Afghan expedition of 1979 that brough to light in the north of Afghanistan, near Shibarghan, at Tilla Tepe “the Golden Mound”, masterpieces of ancient jewellery of the 1st century B.C. to the 1st A.D., comprising 20,000 golden ornaments.

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