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Achaemenid Art
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Gold model
chariot from the Oxus treasure
Achaemenid, 5th-4th century BC
From the region of Takht-e-Kuwad, Tadjikistan
This remarkable model is one of the most outstanding pieces in the Oxus
treasure, which dates mainly from the fifth and fourth centuries BC, and
is the most important
survivingcollection of gold and silver to have survived from the
Achaemenid period.
The model chariot is pulled by four horses or ponies. In it are two
figures wearing Median dress. The Medes were from Iran, the centre of the
Achaemenid empire.
The front of the chariot is decorated with the Egyptian dwarf-god Bes, a
popular protective deity. The chariot can be compared with that shown
being ridden by the Persian king Darius on a cylinder seal also in The
British Museum.
A second fragmentary gold chariot now in The British Museum was acquired
by the Earl of Lytton, the Viceroy of India, about the same time that the
Oxus treasure was discovered and is thought to have come from the same
source.
Length: 18.8 cm
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