1-151-772 - Ann Ronan Picture Library/Heritage-Images

Gold plaques from the Oxus treasure, Achaemenid Persian, 5th-4th century BC. Man wearing Median costume; he has an akinakes (short sword) of a type depicted on reliefs at the Persian centre of Persepolis and represented in the Oxus treasure by a fine gold scabbard. The hooded man is sometimes identified as a priest because he carries a bundle of sticks known as a barsom. These were originally grasses that were distributed during religious ceremonies. The Oxus treasure is the most important collection of silver and gold to have survived from the Achaemenid period. This is one of the finest examples of a group of about fifty thin gold plaques which may have been votive objects left as a pious act in a temple or shrine near the Oxus River at Takht-i Kuwad, Tadjikistan.