The Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex is perhaps one of the most extraordinary, but least understood, of the major ancient civilisations. We might not have learned of its existence at all, were it not for the pioneering work of an indomitable Uzbek archaeologist, Viktor Sarianidi, working under the auspices of the Institute of Archaeology at the Soviet Academy of Sciences, which dominated much of Central Asia at this time. In the AD 1970s, while working in what is now Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Afghanistan, he discovered the remains of a complex and remarkable civilisation hitherto unknown. He named it, around AD 1976, the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex, though it is sometimes more poetically referred to as the Oxus Civilisation, from the great river which ran through much of its territory. The BMAC, as archaeologists affectionately call it, was contemporary with the cultures of the Indus Valley, Mesopotamia, and Egypt. From around 2800 BC, it conglomerated around new urban settlements, a great revolution of the age. These cities, housing up to 25,000 people, were organised on a grid pattern, had separate neighbourhoods for the elite and for ordinary citizens, and constructed great pyramidal temples not unlike the ziggurats of neighbouring Mesopotamia. The BMAC had the inestimable advantage of controlling a resource people wanted: semi-precious stones, most notably lapis lazuli, which was sourced from a single inhospitable valley, Sar i-Sang, in Afghanistan. But the people of the BMAC were also incredibly inventive, producing remarkable composite figures carved from two contrasting stones (usually chlorite and calcite), as well as being one candidate for the invention of one of history’s most significant advances: the wheel.

The religion and society of the BMAC is something of a mystery. The Bactrians left no written language, and with the collapse of their civilisation by around 1450 BC, their oral history also died. It is postulated that certain of the BMAC composite figures may represent deities or mythological creatures. The so-called ‘Bactrian Princesses’, figures of mostly seated women in billowing woollen dresses (kaunakai), are associated tentatively with some kind of mother or fertility goddess. The figures nicknamed ‘Scarface’, of a man with ophidian skin, one eye, and a scar across his remaining eye, with nails driven in above and below his mouth, and holding a water pot, are sometimes compared to dragons in other mythological systems, which were the traditional enemies in the Chaoskampf genre of myths in which a god or hero destroys an enemy representing disorder. The exceptionally rare ‘Bactrian Youths’, composite figures in the form of a young man, were possibly the hero sent to kill or disable ‘Scarface’. In addition, the abundance of animal imagery surviving from the BMAC suggests that – as in most other ancient civilisations – animals had a symbolic or totemic purpose. The rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) for example, which appears in much Bactrian art, has been found ceremonially buried in human cemeteries. While it is possible that these were much-beloved pets, the lack of dogs, cats or horses in the same cemeteries would seem to indicate that the Bactrians did not indiscriminately bury domestic animals with their owners, and so we must consider the possibility that the macaques were interred for ritual reasons.

The ram (in the Bactrian context, most likely either Ovis aries or Ovis vignei) was especially revered by many ancient civilisations, predominantly as a symbol of the masculine creative or sexual force. Rams, who are often violent and aggressive in their competitive mating displays, were considered exemplars of male virility. Their active sex-lives were symbolic of the masculine aspect of fertility, which could be contrasted with the feminine motherly role. Ram-headed or crioform gods were worshipped throughout the Ancient Near East for this reason. In Egypt, Khnum, a primary ram-headed creator deity, formed humans from Nile clay on his potter’s wheel. It is possible that the extensive and imaginative array of representations of rams surviving from the BMAC were designed for the same reason. These extraordinary little beads – each less than two centimetres long – may have been designed for use in an apotropaic necklace. Each consists of a ram standing, head erect, curled horns closely positioned against his skull. They are formed from bronze, each individually cast, as can be seen from the slight variance in dimensions, and also the minute differences in the ways the horns are portrayed. Each has hand-incised details, including a small triangular tail and folds at the back of the knees. Each bears a hole for suspension from a string, which runs laterally through the flank. The result would be that, when strung, these beads would appear to be a circle of standing rams, either facing out or facing in, resting on the breast of the individual who wore them, and protectively guarding their head. Rams in these apotropaic guarding postures are known from elsewhere in the ancient world, most notably among the avenues of sphinxes which lead to the major Egyptian temples at Karnak and Luxor. The exact meaning of these charming little beads is unknown, but we can imagine either a protective function, or a role in promoting the fetility of the bearer.