Early medieval Khorasan

Female and male teracotta statues (early Sassanian)
  Teracotta of a rider (late Sassanian)
  Ossuarias*  from the necropolis of Merv

(* Ossuarii - specially made pottery for storing the bones of the deceased)
  Vase from the Buddhist temple (Gjaurkala)

  Clay tablet depicting Bodhisatva from the Buddhist temple (Gjaurkala)

Pendzhikent (Sogd)

  Room 28,  view from the south (reconstruction)

   The niche with the throne (reconstruction)

   Main hall of a Pendzhikent home (reconstruction)

   The Sogdian god Veshparkar (8th c. AD) (sketch)

   Warrior in heavy armor engaded in single combat (sketch)

   Female warrior engaded in single combat (sketch)

  Battle scene (sketch)

  Episodes from the "Rustam cycle", west and north walls (sketch)

  Episodes from an unknown Sogdian epic (sketch)

Murals from Samarkand (Sogd)

  Camel riders

   Female riders

   Head of an embassy

    Scenes of hunt

   Delegation of Tjurks among the foreign missions at the Sogdian court in Samarkand

Kanka (Chach)

   Bullae from the temple
The temple was destroyed during an invasion, accompanied by a massive fire at the end of the VI c. - the beginning of the VII c. AD. Thus the bullae, which depict rulers (series I, 4 types), zoomorphic images (series II, 4 types), or a hand (series III), were turned into teracottas. The inscriptions in Sogdian have not been totally deciphered, but the title of the rulers was probably "khvab". The bullae are dated to the III-IV c. AD and the portraits they carry are close to those on the ancient coins of the Chach rulers.

Binket (Chach)

  Aktepe. The temple of the first period (reconstruction)

  Aktepe. The temple of the second period (reconstruction)
 

   Aktepe. The castle from the upper horizont (reconstruction)

Ustrushana

Chilhudzhra. The castle (reconstruction)

  Urtakurgan. The castle (reconstruction)
 

Bundzhikat. Kalai KakhkakhaI. The palace of the Afshins (Ustrushana)

    Four-handed goddess

   Warrior with a spear

   Demons

  Archers

  A she-wolf rearing children

  King on a golden throne

Northern Tokharistan

    Balaliktepe. Scenes of feasts

  Balaliktepe. Scenes of feasts

    Balaliktepe. Scenes of feasts

   Adzhinatepe. Murals

   Kalai Kafirnigan. Murals

Semirech'e


 


  Akbeshim. The first Buddhist temple (reconstruction)

  Akbeshim. Votive stela from the Buddhist temple

  Akbeshim. Badges from the iconostasis of the Akbeshim temple

   Akbeshim. Statue of an enthroned Buddha from the ruins at Novopokrovskoe

  Krasnaja rechka. Ossuarias depicting fire altars
  Krasnaja rechka. Ossuarias depicting fire altars

   Ossuari


 

[Back]

Additional images from:
- G. Azarpay, "Sogdian painting", with contr. by A. Belenitskii, B. Marshak, and M. Dresden (Univ. of California Press, 1981)