Who Were the Earliest Bactrians?

When answering such a question as 'Who were the earliest Bactrians?,' I find myself choosing which linguist, which archeologist and which writer on these subjects to use as an authority.  Seemingly the best work in English to reconcile some of the divergences among a wide array of linguists and archeologists is David W. Anthony's prize-winning work, The Horse, the Wheel and Language, 2007.

In my own much stripped down version of his very detailed and documented account of the folk migrations that occurred from about 4,000 to 1,500  B.C., I will give an account here of the people that came into what is now the Iranian Desert and also into Bactria and Margiana.  He also includes a folk migration from the same origin into the Altai mountain region to the East and then down into parts of what is now China.  But that is for a different blog.

Going back to the Bactrians' origin, let us rely on Anthony and follow his choice of linguists and archeologists that identify the area north of the Black Sea and extending eastward to the Caspian as the probable origin of an extensive cultural expression among people whose skeletons and mummified remains show physical traits of the people now called Indo-Europeans, based on the language family that connects them.  From Welsh Gaelic to ancient Sanskrit, in Iceland and in India, the languages are related through a root language that we call Indo-European.  The cultural objects from pots and ornaments to the clothes on the 3,500 year old mummies in northwestern China, we find that they wore twill woven plaid garments, and sometimes had red hair and blue eyes.  Of course, there were many that looked more like the people of Tadjikistan or northern India as well.  

But over all, the people who left the steppes north of the Black Sea and moved South and East, covering over a thousand miles in just a matter of a few centuries, and settling the Anatolian-Iranian plateau, oases in the area around the Kopet Dagh and along the Amu Darya, and finally through the steppes of Kazakhstan and southern Siberia, this easternmost branch settled the area east of the Kunlun Shan and west to the Tarim Basin of northwestern China.  With them they all carried some elements of what became the Indo-European material culture of the second and first millennium B. C.  Their metaphysical culture seemed to include a theological system of belief in the dualistic nature of the universe; a belief in the Good Force and the Evil Force.  As they created amulets to carry or to wear on their person, they shaped in clay, carved in stone, engraved on bone, wood or gemstones the figures that represented these forces.  Often they showed the forces in physical struggle on their personal ornaments and on ritual objects.  

The Bactrians showed a heroic figure, sometimes a human with an animal's head,  battling with whatever symbol represented Evil in their artistic imagination.  More often than not, the eagle or a human with a bird-like head was chosen to represent the force of Good, usually in the position of vanquishing the force of Evil,  represented by coiled or writhing serpents.  

As one example, I offer a drawing from a cast bronze miniature seal from Bactria:

after Sarianidi, 1998

In this seal iconography, we can see the eagle-headed winged human representing the force of Good and the Evil Force is represented by six or seven scaled, writhing cobra-like serpents with their crests flared being held and controlled by the hero figure.   The angelic eagle-human is in a kneeling posture, adding to the probability that this cast bronze amulet is religious art.  

Contact me through the private message form above right.

Bactrian Copper Compartmented Seal

Bactrian ornament designers made small things: miniature statues, small stamp seals and pounds and pounds of small tubular and tabular beads.  On many of the stone stamp seals, the engraver carved a mythical narrative of heroic battles, or icons that illustrated the Bactrian world view.

The copper compartmented seals were often on a slightly larger scale than the carved stone seals.  But the compartmented metal seals, too, cast with Bronze Age technology and usually equipped with a looped handle to be worn as an amulet, often accompanied the owner to the grave.  Here is the photo and the story of one that is presently in my collection.

Ancient Bactria Copper Seal Authenticated and Published by Knowledgeable Archeologist  Contact me through the private message form above right.

Long after we left our two year residence in Afghanistan, this ancient Bactrian copper seal came into our collection through another resident of Afghanistan finding that we too had found Bactrian artifacts in the hands of dealers in antiquities in Kabul, Afghanistan. At that time, no one knew what culture had produced them, and certainly we did not know who had found them in the ruins of whatever old culture had produced them. We did recognize them as old and probably important to preserve. After we returned to the United States, we bought Bactrian artifacts from other dealers here in America. By that time, published material on Bactria was becoming available. 

We were very pleased to know that our small collection of seals and amulets was from ancient Bactria in Afghanistan, a jewel of a city along the Silk Road. It was active in trade even in ancient times. Its culture flourished from around 2,500 BC to 1,600 BC. But Balkh, the still present city in Afghanistan, was occupied by Alexander the Great in building his Asian Empire around 360 BC. So there is quite a long history and many valuable things to learn about this city and its several cultures. This ancient copper seal is called a 'cross shape' by Dr. Victory Sarianidi in his book on Myths of Ancient Bactria and Margiana on ... Seals and Amulets. 

It was photographed by Ron Garner and seen personally by Dr. Sarianidi at our home before he published the book. This seal appears as Number 332 on pp. 108,9.Size 3.7 cm diam.

Contact me through the private message form above right.

Cosmetic Containers in Bactrian Tombs

One of the more numerous items found in the tombs that were uncovered by official excavations and by casual finds or illicit digging are the vessels for a substance called kohl.  It is a black, waxy material that was widely used in the Middle East and Egypt as a beautifier and a protector for the eyes.  Even modern mothers will apply kohl to their children's eyes when going out with them.  Men also wear kohl to protect their eyes.  The old American movies that show the Sheik of Araby wearing heavy eye make-up was not just a mistake by the movie's make-up artist.

Evidently the Bactrian woman would not be caught without it; even in death, her cosmetic flask was stored in the tomb with her.  Many such flasks with this typical decorative motif have been collected from the tombs.

Three Thousand Year Old Steatite Cosmetic Flask -- Contact me through the private message form above right.

This ancient flask that once contained cosmetics was found in the ruins of ancient Bactria in Afghanistan. The vessel, once found, would have been taken to the nearest city to an antiques merchant and sold. The antiques merchant then sold it to an international dealer and we bought it for our collection from that dealer. For assurance that this is Bactrian, you can consult the work of Dr. Victor Sarianidi and the Ligabue Institute such as Victor Sarianidi, Necropolis of Gonur, Athens, 2007 and Giancarlo Ligabue and Sandro Salvatori, Bactria, Venice, 198-

A simple striation forming cone shapes decorates this kohl flask. Kohl became an essential cosmetic and eye protector throughout the southern parts of the Middle East, South Asia and parts of Africa. It is still popular on the sub-continent. Some ingredient in the kohl was believed to repel insects and the shading around the eyes somehow guarded the wearer from evil influences. 

Kohl came to be regarded as an enhancement of beauty. Women all over the world now apply a similar cosmetic to accentuate the shape and luminosity of their eyes. 

Often these flasks were equipped with very fanciful applicator wands, some with animal figures worked in precious metal, others with geometric designs. Most of the time, archeologists do not find the applicator with the flask. It may be that the applicator was not a part of the flask but a separate possession to be carried with the person to whom it belonged and used in different flasks of cosmetic materials. 

At some point in the three thousand years or more of its existence, this flask was cracked at the edge of one corner, but not broken through the wall of the flask. Otherwise it is much as it was when created. It still has some of the Bactrian soil stuck on one side. 

This flask measures 4.8 cm (1.9 in) high x 2.7 cm (1 in) x 3 cm (1.2 in)

For purchasing information Contact me through the private message form above right.

Ancient Funerary Goods from Bactrian Tombs

Ancient Bactria Hemispheric Carved Stone Dish Incised Decoration

For photos, descriptions, prices, shipping policies and Certificates of Authenticity 

CONTACT ME through the private message form above right. 

From the accidental or unofficial discoveries of these ancient items eroded out or dug up from the tombs in Balkh, the ancient Bactria in Northern Afghanistan, these items were brought into the merchant stalls and sidewalk displays of the merchants in Kabul, Ghazni and Peshawar.  They finally were recognized as something very different and probably very old by the Westerners strolling through the bazaars of such mercantile cities.  They were bought in rather small quantities by many different visitors, but are now being gathered into larger private collections.  

The beads and vessels, the weapons and ritual objects of such a lost culture of the Central Asian Bronze Age, lasting from at least 2,500 B.C. to 1,600 B.C., are now becoming rather hard to acquire for the person who would simply like to have a few for his/her own interest and study.  We were introduced to these items in 1974 when we lived in Kabul for two years.  We have since acquired a small collection of beads, vessels and ritual objects.  The vessel in the photograph above reveals so much of the style of decoration used in Bactria.  

An ancient Bactrian beautiful steatite dish carved as a half circle with a slight concave curve on the 'straight' side. The olive green sets off the striations and conical engraving to good effect. The wavy line decoration lightens the geometric shapes into a more lyrical over all design. There is some wearing away where the sides join into a point. But the piece is in excellent condition for an object that has been weathered either in the earth or exposed to the elements for at least 3,500 years and very possibly as long as 5,000 years. 

The dish is decorated on every side and along the top edge. There are many faint marks on the inside and bottom of the dish, but I suspect that they are marks by the engraving tool.

The culture that produced this dish is located in what is now the country of Afghanistan in the North part, in the high desert of Central Asia, nestled into the lower part of the Hindu Kush range of the Himalayas. 

The civilization that began to develop in ancient Bactria some 5,000 years ago was replaced by later inhabitants that have also been replaced, or at least their culture has developed in a new direction. But in the third millennium B.C., some 5,000 years ago, the myths that informed the culture were expressed in designs on stone amulets, seals, and vessels of various kinds. The myths were acted out in monumental temples.

This dish was probably buried along with the owner as part of his grave goods, though it might have been simply left in a room of a temple that fell to ruin due to invasion or abandonment. 

The pyramidal design on this dish, naturally enough, came to represent the ancestral mountain to the people who settled that area more than a thousand years after ancient Bactria had fallen to ruin. Perhaps it expressed the same meaning in very ancient times, as well. Since Bactria did not record its history in writing, we have no way of knowing. One added commonality with the Mongols who came to that area beginning in the 900s is that they used similar wavy lines to represent water in the ornamentation of their possessions. However much the wavy lines are used in both cultures, we do know from Sarianidi's interpretation of the myths of Bactria, that the ancient Bactrians used wavy lines mainly to represent snakes. 

Inquiries are welcome.

1 inch = 2.5 cm

Measurements: width = 4.7 cm; length = 9.1 cm; thickness = 2.3 cm 

For photos, descriptions, prices, shipping policies and Certificates of Authenticity 

CONTACT ME through the private message form above right. 

The Chimera in Ancient Bactria and Other Places

A chimera is an imagined species cross so that the offspring is born with anatomical parts from both parents.  For a hypothetical example, a horse and cow crossbred might produce an animal with a stallion’s  head and body and a cow’s rump and milk bag.  That is the kind of image that is created on the basis of the legends that have developed in many different cultures of the world.  

The Bible’s book of Genesis (Beginnings) mentions that angels mixed with the corrupt daughters of men and produced monsters.  The images of such monsters have decorated temples and tapestries, possibly from that early time forward.  Greek mythology is replete with monstrous images of supposed mixtures of gods and humans and humans with animals; often the story is of a Greek god in the body of an animal ravishing a human woman and in some cases the story even names the resulting monster and makes him into a hero or a villain. 

Excavations of palaces and tombs in Bactria have yielded many images on seals and small figurines that show chimera.  The Bactrian culture seems to have entertained the idea of such crossbreds and they took their artistic expression of such creatures to a high degree.  There may be a natural explanation of the Bactrian people’s interest in crossbreds, because their predecessors in that region domesticated the wild animals of their region.  And to their eyes, the resulting offspring indeed resembles both the ancient parents of the new grass-eating domestic animal.  The moufflon is an intermediate stage of the domestication process perhaps.  

In Victor Sarianidi’s book Myths of Ancient Bactria, page 62, No. 63, there is an illustration of a human male with a bird-like head and wings.  The seal is in our collection of seals and amulets, and was authenticated and interpreted thus by Dr. Sarianidi when he visited our collection: ‘Copper amulet, 3.5 x 3.0 cm.  Kneeling bird man with a crest on his head.’ 

If you have questions regarding this seal, leave a comment at the end of the blog entry.  I will respond. 

A more spectacular example of a chimera is this statuette in my collection.  The statuette is made of porphyry, which came to be known as the stone of nobility, since it is used in temples and palaces for the columns and for the tombs of rulers.  

It is a brownish red or maroon color and has a marbling pattern that makes it very noticeable when it is used for decoration or ornamentation.  To my eyes, this appears to represent a hybrid of a duck and a rooster. 

If you are interested in discussing this item, please feel free to comment.  I will be notified of your message and I will respond.  

For photos, descriptions, prices, shipping policies and Certificates of Authenticity 

CONTACT ME through the private message form above right. 

Gonur Necropolis Grave Goods a Cultural Legacy

The Bactria-Margiana  Bronze Age Central Asian culture lasted from about 2,500 B. C. to 1,600 B.C.  The people there developed high skills in art, especially miniature art, are still a very powerful influence in jewelry designs, and domesticated the sheep, goat and horse.

One of their legacies is the large Gonur burial grounds that cover not only a wide space of ground but at least a millennium of time and embracing different cultures'  burial customs.  Some bodies were buried in the fetal position while some others were found buried in a hole with head down.  A few bodies were found with domestic animals buried near them.  A horse with head and hind quarters missing, and a portion of a lamb's body were found alongside human burials at the same level of excavation.

I am less interested in the method of reposing the body in its resting place than I am in the personal and household items buried with some of the bodies.  Combs, beads, amulets, seals, cosmetic containers, vases and pots are common items to find still in the graves or eroded out of the graves and revealed on the surface for scavengers to pick up and take to the market place.  Such unofficial picking over of ancient ruins brought the Bactria-Margiana culture to light.  But before the official excavations began, thousands of items had been found or illicitly dug up and put on the market in the cities of Central Asia.

My own collection of such items began while I lived in Kabul, Afghanistan.  Kabul is not so far from the central settlement of the Bactrian culture, closely related to the Margiana culture.  Two items of grave goods will illustrate the similarities.  Here is a photo of a ceramic vessel in my own collection:

Ancient Bactrian Ceramic Vessel from Bronze Age Central Asia

For photos, descriptions, prices, shipping policies and Certificates of Authenticity 

CONTACT ME through the private message form above right. 

This small pot or cup resembles other vessels of that area and historical period in that it does not have handles. According to the writing of Dr. Victor Sarianidi, the excavator of several Bronze Age sites of Central Asia, in his book on Margush, Ancient Oriental Kingdom in the Old Delta of the Murghab River, the potters of that time and place were more interested in mastering the creation of various shapes of clay vessels. As a result, we see very interesting fluting and elaborate pedestals, spouts and footings on otherwise fairly plain clay vessels. Some are compartmented, others are kidney shaped, still others are tall with narrow necks. 

This particular small vessel has uniform thickness in its wall; the bottom curves seamlessly into the sides, and the rim is flared in a very pleasing way. Inside the vessel we can see traces of the impression of very fine cross hatching that may have been made by finely woven cloth.The firing of the clay was advanced in this area. The kiln was built by digging a rectangular or oval pit lined with mud bricks. This was the fire chamber. Firewood was loaded into it through a hole. Inside this chamber a wall was built that supported the upper baking chamber where the vessels were placed. Holes were drilled in the floor of the baking chamber to allow the heat to come through, but the vessels were protected from open flame and ash. 

This item is complete, undamaged, after about 3,000 years.  Measurements: Rim 2.75 inches diameter; bottom 2.5 inches diameter; 2 inches high.

It is very like the bronze vessel found in Margiana, a related settlement to the North in what is now Turkmenistan, shown in this photo from the work by Dr. Victor Sarianidi, Necropolis of Gonur, plate 87.  

Grave Goods in the Bactria Margiana Archeological Complex

Grave Goods in the Bactria Margiana Archeological Complex

When we consider the utensils, ornaments and organic remains uncovered in excavating the ancient sites of human settlement, we classify those things that have been obviously put in the tomb or pit with the human remains as grave goods.   Ancient items discovered on the surface cannot be classified at all and museums usually are not interested in them for that reason.   Beads are the items commonly found in abundance in the rubble of a ruined settlement and in the graves.  Such beads as these were found in East Iran's ruined settlements of that era.  Those settlements are related culturally to the Margiana sites, according to the archeologist, Dr. Victor Sarianidi.

Casual explorers of ancient sites have gathered such objects through the centuries, and that is how antiquities show up in merchant shops in the countries where people have lived in settlements since the waning of the New Stone Age.   Such archeological material also comes onto the market through clandestine digs, of course.  Once the items are on the market with no context with which to identify the items, again, the museum loses interest and the items pass into the hands of dealers.  The dealers display them in market places of the Middle East where these cultures first sprang up.  And from there, the travelers and collectors buy them.  When I lived in Afghanistan, where Bactria is located, I found these unidentifiable pieces in dealer's shops and only many years later learned that they came from ancient Bactria, not just the Bactrian period of Alexander the Great's conquest of Persia.

The Bactria Margiana Archeological Complex, BMAC, includes sites in East Iran.  Some of the identical cultural products found in both areas are these spindle whorls or loom weights marked with circular designs.  They were found strung with beads.  The ones shown in the photo below are from Bactria, and may date from late antiquity, having been formed in the old way.   However, since grave goods are generally better preserved than items that have been left among the general ruins, these well-preserved spindle whorls or loom weights or beads may date from as long ago as four thousand five hundred years ago.  If they were simply made in later Bactria in the ancient pattern, they could date from as recent as one thousand five hundred years ago.

The texture, weight and appearance of these pieces closely resemble ivory or a very dense bone or shell.  They are not made of stone, glass or ceramic.  According to Dr. Victor Sarianidi, who excavated a large part of the BMAC sites in Turkmenia and some in Afghanistan, ivory materials were discovered in East Iran and in Margiana.   

For photos, descriptions, prices, shipping policies and Certificates of Authenticity 

CONTACT ME through the private message form above right. 

References:

Victor Sarianidi, Necropolis of Gonur, Athens, 2007
Victor Sarianidi, Margiana and Protozoroastrism, Athens, 200-
Giancarlo Ligabue and Sandro Salvatori, Bactria, Venice, 198-
Lois Sherr Dubin, The History of Beads, New York, 1987
Robert K. Liu, Collectible Beads, Vista, 1995

Who Lived in Bactria-Margiana?

Indo-Iranians of Early Central Asia

The earliest archeological records show that the people of the period 2,500 B.C. to 1,600 B.C. came from the West and settled in the desert oases of Central Asia.  Due to the work of the Russians' studies in comparative linguistics, but most of all due to their archeological excavations, we know that the Bactrians shared the physiognomy of the Indo-Iranians.  For that reason, the archeologist who worked the longest and dug up many of the sites, Dr. Victor Sarianidi, calls them proto-Iranians, or *preceding Iranians.*  

This post is intended to be sketchy and not scholarly.  I do not want your eyes to glaze over.  I welcome your additions to the discussion.  There is much to be added.

It almost seems that these Indo-Iranians of Central Asia came Eastward and stopped  only when they encountered the lower reaches of the Himalayas.  Just to the north of Kabul Afghanistan is Bactria, one of the richest archeological sites.  But along their path Eastward, from Anatolia, the high plateau in Turkey, through Elam near the Persian Gulf, then across the desert of present day Iran, they established  settlements along the way.   In addition to Bactria, at almost the same time, they settled in a place along the major river in Margiana, which is now in Turkmenistan.  This is now a rich source for archeological artifacts that reveal much about their mindset, their burial customs and their rites of worship.  Apart from the citadel with a temple, a palace and defensive towers in thick walls surrounding the residences, Dr. Sarianidi found a huge burial ground which he named the Gonur Necropolis.   

Excavating, cataloging and interpreting the contents of the graves occupied Victor's work for at least the last decades of his working life.  Through his work we learn about who lived in the settlement of Gonur in Margiana by studying how they died and were buried.  Amulets, beads, seals, household items and even animals were buried with or near their owner.  We will explore this in upcoming blogs.  We can begin with the personal items that were carried to the grave with the body.   Perhaps most important to the deceased were the amulets they wore in death, pieces such as this:

For photos, descriptions, prices, shipping policies and Certificates of Authenticity 

CONTACT ME through the private message form above right. 

First we know that beads much like these in the photo below were buried with the owner.  Possibly a hundred thousand Bactrian style beads were clandestinely and officially excavated and collected by museums or sold to collectors, the authorized excavations placing their finds in the care of a museum; the other kind of excavator sold his finds to the local antiquities dealer.

Ancient carnelian beads from the Bactria-Margiana Archeological Complex

For photos, descriptions, prices, shipping policies and Certificates of Authenticity 

CONTACT ME through the private message form above right. 

But apart from making the most popular style of beads from the most treasured stones along the trade routes that began to flourish in that region by 2,500 B.C., these people also developed a high culture with a ruling class, a clergy, temple worship, elaborate rituals concerning burials and monumental architecture.  

As practical contributions to the all humankind, they domesticated the precursor of sheep and goats and then bred to differentiate the species.  Above all their greatest contribution to animal husbandry was domesticating the horse.  

We will explore the burial customs in our next blog, because so much of their archeological record is contained in the Gonur necropolis in Margiana.    

References: 

Victor Sarianidi, Necropolis of Gonur, Athens, 2007

Giancarlo Ligabue and Sandro Salvatori, Bactria, Venice, 198-

How I Began the Collection of Ethnic Ornaments

It began when my family moved to Turkey because my husband had been recruited by the U. S. Foreign Service (our Embassies and Aid Programs) as an auditor of the U. S. Agency for International Development in the Middle East. We lived four years in Ankara, and when we left we had a house full of everything from carpets to Anatolian Shepherd Dogs. But the dogs, the copper pots and pans and the wheat grinding sleds I will leave out of my discussion. I will stick to jewelry, textiles and home furnishing accessories such as artifacts for display.

Within a few months, our Ankara flat's hardwood parquet was covered with magnificent carpets. The dollar seemed to go farther in those days, 1969-73. I was still a fairly young householder and I wanted copper vases, ceramic plates, and more and more carpets. I had not had such beautiful handmade things available to me before that time in my life. My husband traveled to Iran, to Egypt and to Greece, bringing back everything from cut crystal imported to Cyprus from Czechoslovakia to marble statues surplused from the museum in Cairo. It took me a while to become interested in ethnic jewels. Those wool carpets were my collecting passion for those four years.

But then we took the overland route to Afghanistan, our next post. In our Land Rover with our youngest son lying on all the necessary supplies in the back, we drove for about a week through Eastern Turkey and Iran, and all along the desert road through Herat and Kandahar to Kabul. We settled into a lovely home made of mud brick with smoothed painted mud floors. They were easy to repair because after several earthquakes the mud mason shows up with a bucket of mud and fills in the crack and paints in over. Earthquakes are fairly common in Kabul, because it sits in the lower reaches of the Himalayas, in the Hindu Kush Mountains. Since that mountain range is still rising, the earth stretches and yawns fairly often.

Bactrian Amulets, Carved Alabaster Miniatures 4500 Years Old

For photos, descriptions, prices, shipping policies and Certificates of Authenticity 

CONTACT ME through the private message form above right. 

It was in Kabul that bodily ornamentation became interesting to me. Since pre-historic times, the people have mined gemstones and finished them into ornaments and utensils. I have in my collection many various household, cosmetic and jewelry pieces made of stone around 4500 years ago. By that time, the trade route through Afghanistan was a heavily traveled road. From that period to about the time of Alexander the Great's marriage to Roxanne in the Bactria Kingdom (not far from Kabul) was really the high period for civilization in that region. The glories of the past in Afghanistan provided our most interesting collectibles.

We could have stayed in Afghanistan for a long while, because it fed our interest in the development of art and technology through the ages.

For photos, descriptions, prices, shipping policies and Certificates of Authenticity 

CONTACT ME through the private message form above right. 

Bactria, Afghanistan: the Old Persia on the Silk Road

The forerunners of pre-Islamic Persians were the migrant farmers of desert oases in the Kara Kum Desert and in the arid areas of Central Asia southerly toward the Indus Valley. Archeological remains trace the flowering of this culture from the third millennium B. C. to 300 B. C. when Alexander the Great married the Bactrian princess in Bactria, Afghanistan as he conquered Persia. These first Iranians were not nomads, but they were in movement, because the earth was in a warming period as their culture spread into the areas mentioned. The drying up of the oases in this large area of the earth caused the migration of the farmer settlers to pick up and move when necessary, thus the spread of the culture and the amalgamation with the indigent groups into which they moved.




As they moved they traded and this activity created a new economy that began to flourish along the route that we eventually called the Silk Road. As you see from this map, the Silk Road finally spread out to go many places, but by 2500 B. C., the road through Bactria was already heavily traveled from Europe to China. And it was Bactria in Afghanistan where the finest stone beads of that period were made. Lapis, turquoise, carnelian, banded agates, serpentine all were produced from mining the Himalayas. Artisans were no doubt attracted by the traffic of buyers through Balkh, which became a hub along the Silk Road.

The bead makers had materials ready to hand and a culture that produced craftsmen who had developed their bead making to a high art. For this post, I will add just this one photo of such beads:



These are amulets made from fossilized shells or alabaster, but they do not have the characteristic grain of alabaster, and they are too hard and dense to be gypsum, the other white material used for beads and seals. So I am assuming that they are fossilized shell, as I saw a lot of that in Afghanistan when I lived there.


More information on Bactria in the book Bactria, an ancient oasis civilization from the sands of Afghanistan, Giancarlo Ligabue and Sandro Salvatori, eds.