Oxus Treasure: statuette
- Gallery: Room 52
- Culture: Achaemenid
- Date: 5thC BC-4thC BC
- Object type: statuette
- Materials: silver; gold
- Museum number: 123901
- Museum: The British Museum
- Collection record: British Museum website
- Image © The Trustees of the British Museum, shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.
Listen to the free audio guide
About this object
Before you is a small but richly detailed silver statuette from the Achaemenid period, dating to around the 5th to 4th century BC. The figure is a bearded man dressed in Persian costume, wearing a short gilded jacket and a pleated skirt that gathers at a decorated central band. His left hand holds a bundle of rods called a barsom, a symbol important in Zoroastrian rituals.
His beard, moustache, and large expressive eyes give the face great character, while his headdress and hair roll add intricate surface detail. The figure’s feet are pierced at the instep, suggesting it might have been worn as a pendant.
Believed to be linked with Bactria, this work offers a glimpse into the artistry and religious customs of ancient Persian culture.
See it in person
Oxus Treasure: statuette is on display in Room 52 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London — free to enter. Choose British Museum on audioguide.london and take a photo of it to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
New, in beta. British Museum support has just launched and is still improving: over 1,000 objects so far, with more added all the time.
