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Seated female

ca. late 3rd–early 2nd millennium BCE
Not on view
Western Central Asia, now known as Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and northern Afghanistan, has yielded objects attesting to a highly developed civilization in the late third and early second millennium B.C. Artifacts from the region indicate that there were contacts with Iran to the southwest.

Among the few three-dimensional images assigned to this period in Central Asia are a group of stone female figures seated or squatting on a platform and wearing a robe decorated with a pattern, perhaps imitating sheep's fleece. They are always composite figures of soft green chlorite or steatite, with heads of white limestone. This example has a typical abstract form with an armless body and legs represented by a protruding ledge.

Excavated examples of this figure type come from sites in Margiana in southern Turkmenistan, a possible center of their production. Similar seated females on cylinder seal impressions from southwestern Iran appear to depict royal figures. On compartmented stamp seals from western Central Asia, a possible version of the female figure appears where she is sometimes flanked by or seated upon animals or mythical creatures. These attributes could indicate a divine quality.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Seated female
  • Period: Bronze Age
  • Date: ca. late 3rd–early 2nd millennium BCE
  • Geography: Bactria-Margiana
  • Culture: Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex
  • Medium: Steatite or chlorite, alabaster
  • Dimensions: 3 9/16 × 3 11/16 × 1 7/8 in. (9 × 9.4 × 4.8 cm)
  • Credit Line: Gift of Norbert Schimmel Trust, 1989
  • Object Number: 1989.281.41a, b
  • Curatorial Department: Ancient West Asian Art

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Double-sided stamp seal: nude winged hero dominating snakes; winged dragon, Steatite or chlorite, Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex
Double-sided stamp seal: nude winged hero dominating snakes; winged dragon
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ca. late 3rd–early 2nd millennium BCE
Cup with incised decoration, Steatite or chlorite, Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex
Cup with incised decoration
Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex
ca. late 3rd–early 2nd millennium BCE
Stamp seal, Steatite, Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex
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Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex
ca. late 3rd–early 2nd millennium BCE
Monstrous male figure, Chlorite, calcite, gold, iron, Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex
Monstrous male figure
Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex
ca. late 3rd–early 2nd millennium BCE

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