It is peculiar to think that one of the most astonishing archaeological discoveries of the last sixty years – no less than the discovery of an entirely unrecorded ancient civilisation – was entirely hidden from the Western World until the AD 1990s. Yet, this was exactly the case. In the Cold War world of mutual suspicion and state secrecy, the discovery of a new civilisation in Central Asia was kept almost entirely within the Soviet Union, and was not revealed to scholars in the rest of the world until the fall of the Iron Curtain. The Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC), so named by Viktor Sarianidi in AD 1976, thrived in the region of what is now Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan, from as early as 4600 BC to perhaps 1700 BC. Like its contemporary civilisations in Mesopotamia, BMAC – sometimes referred to, more poetically, as the Oxus Civilisation – was a centre of early urbanisation. Sites like Altyn-Depe in modern Turkmenistan emerged as proto-urban settlements around 2800 BC, and eventually grew to accommodate as many as 20,000 people. Altyn-Depe was a major trading centre, and finds from Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley abound in the find assemblage. The city was well-developed, surrounded by a defensive wall with watch-towers, living quarters divided by class and social function, planned streets, courtyard-houses, and elaborate public buildings. Most impressive was a great pyramidal temple, a ziggurat, of the Mesopotamian model. BMAC was also home to an extraordinary development whose impact on human history cannot be overstated: it is from Altyn-Depe that we get the first models of wheeled vehicles, carts pulled by oxen and camels.

As a source of resources for the Mesopotamians, especially of luxury goods like lapis lazuli, the BMAC had the wealth and the foreign influences which enabled a rich cultural environment. Craftsmen of the BMAC specialised especially in metalworking, producing imaginative sculptural arrangements in bronze, silver, and gold. But, if the BMAC is to be recognised by one artistic or sculptural form, it is the so-called ‘Bactrian Princess’ figures. Visually striking sculptures of females, ‘Bactrian Princesses’ are composite sculptures, usually made of two different types of stone. The body of the figure, depicted in a heavy woollen dress (kaunakes) common to Mesopotamia and its neighbouring regions, along with a hat or hairpiece, is carved in dark chlorite or steatite. The face and, where they survive, the hands and forearms, are carved from a lighter stone, usually calcite. The individual pieces are not attached in any way; instead, the overall composition relies on exact balance, a testament to the skill of the sculptor. It is possible that this balance may have had a ritual or symbolic significance. However, the discovery of red residue on the underside of the necks of some of these figures may suggest that at least some were fixed together with perishable adhesives. The subject or subjects of these sculptures is unknown. Historically, it has been thought that they represented aristocratic figures from the Bactrian elite. This position is supported by the fact that the sculptures vary dramatically in typology and have no common attributes other than their seated position. More recently, however, archaeologists have suggested that the ‘Bactrian Princesses’ are, in fact, goddesses, or rather a single goddess, associated with fertility and protection.

This composite Bactrian idol is of what is probably the most common type. The body, covered in a thick and heavily-patterned kaunakes, is clearly seated on some kind of chair, which is hidden by the dress. The lap forms a shelf, on which it is possible that there were arms or hands added at some point in the past, but the lack of an indentation or socket in which they would rest argues against this. The torso is bulky and upright, with broad shoulders. The body is fashioned from a single block of dark-coloured chlorite, with no segmentation at the hips. There is also no evidence of feet on the figure. The head, made of light-coloured chlorite, is beautifully carved, with close attention to the detail of the eyes, nose and mouth, which are often abstracted, programmatic, or even entirely absent from many Bactrian figures. The ears are especially deeply drilled. If we are to accept the theory that the ‘Bactrian princesses’ represent some kind of goddess, then we can postulate that the deep drilling of the ears was intended to represent the goddess’ openness to prayers or invocations. The figure lacks a headdress, often missing from Bactrian composite idols, given that the pieces seem never to have been fixed together. The features are squarish, and almost masculine. We must wonder whether this represents a specific aspect of the goddess, or indeed an unknown form.