Oxus Treasure: votive plaque
- Gallery: Room 52
- Culture: Achaemenid
- Date: 5thC BC-4thC BC
- Object type: votive plaque
- Materials: gold
- Museum number: 123949
- 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
This is the Oxus Treasure: votive plaque, created during the 5th to 4th century BC under the Achaemenid culture. Before you is a richly decorated rectangle of gold, featuring a detailed male figure facing right. He wears a belted tunic marked by vertical stripes, wide trousers, long boots, and a hood with loose pleats. A small dagger, the akinakes, hangs from his belt, and he holds a barsom, a bundle symbolic in ancient rituals.
His costume and posture are distinct. The tunic is elaborately decorated, with embroidered bands that suggest a high status costume. The figure’s face is subtly individualized — a detail unusual in such formal artworks — which has led some scholars to consider it Bactrian in origin.
The metalwork is finely crafted from thick gold sheet, with a composition of 93% gold, 2.3% silver, and 5.1% copper. This piece stands out from others in its quality.
See it in person
Oxus Treasure: votive plaque 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.
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