Southern Tajikistan in Kushana period

HEAD OF BUDDHA. Marl limestone. 12 x 7. Sculpture of three-fourths, near-wall (back) side is not completed. The face side of sculpture is little polished, in some places were preserved the tracks of the sharp cutting tool, with the aid of which its initial working was accomplished. Hair-do is isolated from the forehead by small ledge and is depicted as four rows of the vertical ovals, which are converged in forehead. Ushnisha is raised above the hair-do to 1,2 cm, its diameters 4 cm. Region of Kolkhozabad. 1C. Лит.: ЮТ �� 248. thumbnail size : 300x300 (4,898 bytes)

MAN DEITY with THE BATON (relief on the tile). Fired clay, printed in model with amendment. 15.6 x 10.1. Oval plate. Image is framed in narrow arched edge in the upper part. On the head of the confronting person "Sasanid" type high headgear is worn. Body is represented schematic, feet are roughly arranged, insteps are expanded to the different sides. Short (to the knees) caftan with the open collar is tightened on the waist by narrow belt. In the left lowered hand is baton with the spherical weir. Right hand is bent in the elbow, fingertips lie on the belt. Below along the sides of figure trees and the bent lines schematically depicted. Above the baton is star with seven-beams. On the reverse side of tile above - deep finger depression, apparently, for fastening of terracotta. Village of Pushing (Dangarin region of Tajik. SSR). 3C - 4C. Лит.: ЮТ �� 244. thumbnail size : 300x450 (13,123 bytes)

HEAD OF MAN. Fired clay. Height 10,3. Modeling and carving without the application of a die to the kilning. Processed from all sides, this hollow inside head composed the upper part of some article (anthropomorphous cover of ossuariya?). Face is high-cheeked, forehead low and sloping, nose long and straight line, with the pointed tip. The mouth of slightly opened, upper lip is hidden by thin long projection with the slanting transverse incisions - image of the moustache, whose ends, descending, are connected with the short large beard (is also depicted as projection, but larger and somewhat more dense in chin, "dressed" by vertical incisions). Eyes elongated, almond-shaped, slightly convex: the boundary of upper and lower eyelid is designated by the deep groove, pupils and irises are not shown. Superciliary arcs are transmitted by relief very symbolically (they are not correlated with the outline of eye, they are close upwards to bridge of the nose form almost horizontal line). The drawn eyebrows follow the configuration of supercilia; at the point of their junction above the bridge of the nose is a small clay-urna. Ears are protruded, on the earlobes there are pierced holes (2,5 mm) for the links. On the boundary between the forehead and the hair (short tufts of hair "combed" back) there are wavy cray-"coiled", that depicts diadem or sprout of plant. 4C - 5C (?). the hill of Zakottepa (region of Regar). Random finding. РМ �� 2974. Лит.: КВ �� 388. thumbnail size : 300x416 (14,395 bytes)

GREEK INSCRIPTION ON JAR (fragment of the upper part of the vessel). Fired clay. Height of the preserved part of jar is 64 diameter of mouth is 42. Inscription is carved with the low throat and egg-shaped body; mouth is shaped by horizontal groove and deep slanting incisions. Inscription consists of eighth signs (height from 2 to 4), drawn before fired, socrakhV. The root of this word, which describes noun its own Iranian (or narrower Bactorian?) and indicates "red". Last two letters are Greek end of nominative case 1 of declination (masculine gender). In the Iranian onomastics this noun is not known, but are testified several close ones phonetically, and in terms of the value of the nouns are produced from the same root (Юсти 1896, p. 292, 305). This is the first indisputable Greek inscription, discovered to the north of Amu-Dariya. On the stratigraphic conditions, it apparently relates to 1C BC. 1965, Excavation II, the layer of ЯВ-V, in the pit, gone down from the level of the eighth horizon. Лит.: Литвинский 1967а, с. 135; Бартольд 1971, с. 423, прим. 36; КВ �� 387. thumbnail size : 300x200 (6,220 bytes)