Tillya Tepe: An Archaeological Mound and Necropolis in Afghanistan

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History

Tillya Tepe is an archaeological site in Afghanistan near Sheberghan, where a brick temple built around 1600 BCE and a richly furnished necropolis from the beginning of the Common Era preserve successive phases of Bactrian history. The name means “Golden Hill” or “Golden Mound.” The site lies in ancient Bactria, the region centered on the Oxus basin, whose routes connected Afghanistan with Central Asia, India, China, and the Mediterranean.

Bronze Age temple and later settlement

Before excavation, Tillya Tepe appeared as an artificial mound about 3 to 4 metres high and roughly 100 metres across, open toward the steppe. Its earliest identified establishment was a brick temple constructed around 1600 BCE, during the transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age. The complex included columned rooms, pillars, a brick pavement, an enclosing wall, and a cross-shaped altar. The altar may have served a pre-Zoroastrian cult, although the exact religious function of the temple remains uncertain.

The temple remained in use for approximately five centuries. It was later replaced briefly by habitation before the site was abandoned. An Iron Age village formed part of the subsequent archaeological sequence. The temple was destroyed by fire in the fourth century BCE, after which a village was established over its ruins. Greco-Macedonian troops visited this settlement, linking the site to the political and military changes that followed the expansion of Macedonian power into Central Asia.

About 500 metres away, the fortified settlement of Emshi Tepe contained a palace, citadel, and defensive walls. It remained active from the Greco-Bactrian period into the Kushan era. The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom was a Hellenistic state formed when Bactria separated from Seleucid rule, and its artistic traditions combined Greek forms with local Central Asian practices.

The early first-century necropolis

Six burials were cut into and around the ruins of the earlier temple at the beginning of the Common Era. Coins place the burial activity broadly between approximately the first century BCE and the first century CE, while the necropolis has also been dated more narrowly to the first or second quarter of the first century CE. This was a poorly documented transitional period between the end of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom and the emergence of the Kushan Empire.

Five women and one man were buried in the six graves. The man was about thirty years old and had been buried as a warrior with exceptionally rich grave goods. The wealth and character of the burials led to the interpretation that he was a prince accompanied by a princess and women of his retinue. Their identities remain unresolved. Suggested affiliations include a local ruling family of Scythian origin, Saka or Scytho-Sarmatian groups connected with the Parthian sphere, and the Yuezhi or early Kushans.

Viktor Sarianidi proposed that the dead belonged to the Yuezhi family that founded the Kushan dynasty, but several specialists rejected or questioned that identification. Other interpretations emphasize shared steppe traditions and long-distance connections rather than a specifically Yuezhi identity. The Yuezhi were a confederation of Central Asian peoples displaced from regions near China whose westward movement contributed to the political changes between the collapse of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom and the rise of the Kushans. The clan and territories of the people buried at Tillya Tepe remain unknown.

The graves were built in similar ways and contained comparable categories of furnishings. These similarities suggest that the women may have been buried at the same time as the man, perhaps to accompany him in the afterlife, although the sequence cannot be established. The arrangement has been compared with accounts of Scythian funerary customs. The mound, horse remains, clothing, and weapons likewise connect the necropolis with steppe traditions, while other objects point toward Greek, Parthian, Indian, Chinese, and local Bactrian practices.

Excavation and the history of the collection

Archaeological work in the region began in 1968 under Viktor Sarianidi, with the participation of the Afghan archaeologist Zemaryalai Tarzi. The team examined the left bank of the Oxus and the loess plains of northern Afghanistan, began studying Tillya Tepe around 1970, surveyed the mound in 1977, and opened the principal excavation during the winter of 1978 to 1979.

On 13 November 1978, after poor results, the team considered closing the excavation. Work continued, and the first burial was opened on 15 November. The excavations recovered six graves, human remains, textile fragments, parts of two bows, the remains of a folding throne, and thousands of gold and other valuable objects. The finds were transported to Kabul on 8 February 1979. Sarianidi left Afghanistan later that month, and the Soviet invasion in December 1979 prevented the planned continuation of the excavation.

Objects resembling the Tillya Tepe finds appeared in antiquities markets in Peshawar and online during the early 2000s. They were treated as evidence of clandestine digging, possibly involving a seventh grave. Some of the excavated objects were exhibited at the National Museum of Afghanistan in 1980 and 1988, and the collection was transferred to the Kouti Baghtcheh Palace in 1985. Sarianidi directed a photographic inventory in 1982. The discoveries were published in 1985 as The Gold of Bactria and in 1989 as The Temple and Necropolis of Tillya Tepe.

As security in Kabul deteriorated, the collection was moved in 1988 or 1989 from the museum to secure vaults beneath the Arg, the fortified royal and presidential compound, in the Central Bank of Afghanistan. It was later believed to have been lost amid war, factional conflict, looting, and rumors of theft, sale, melting, or removal from the country. The vault seals were checked in 2002, and Afghan authorities announced publicly in 2003 that most of the treasure had survived. An inventory in 2004 listed 1,100 objects as missing, while later cataloguing reported an apparently complete collection of approximately 22,000 objects.

After restoration and evaluation, the collection was displayed internationally, beginning at the Musée Guimet in Paris in 2006 and 2007 and continuing through exhibitions in Washington, San Francisco, Houston, New York, and other cities. Instability prevented its permanent presentation in a planned new museum in Kabul. In 2021, after the Taliban takeover of Kabul, the treasure was again reported to be missing. Tillya Tepe remains an important testimony to Afghanistan’s cultural history and to the exchange networks that connected the end of the Greco-Bactrian world with the formation of the Kushan Empire.

Remains

Tillya Tepe consists of an artificial burial mound, or tell, originally about 3 to 4 metres high and roughly 100 metres in diameter. Its position in the open steppe and its mound form have been compared with a kurgan, a burial mound associated with steppe funerary traditions. The mound incorporated the remains of the earlier brick temple and later habitation. Three graves, including the man’s burial and those designated III and VI, were cut into the upper part of the mound and the former temple walls. The other graves were placed around its foot.

Temple and burial layout

The earliest structure was a brick temple with columned rooms, pillars, a brick floor, and an enclosing wall. Its cross-shaped altar probably belonged to a pre-Zoroastrian religious practice, although its precise purpose is uncertain. Fire destroyed the temple in the fourth century BCE, and later habitation was built over the ruins. The burial mound subsequently incorporated the temple walls, corridors, and other surviving elements into the setting of the necropolis.

The graves had no visible markers or raised superstructures. They were generally simple pits covered with wooden elements and earth. Some contained lidless coffins, while other bodies were placed on the ground or on slightly raised supports and wrapped in cloth. Iron clamps fixed some coffins to the ground, and logs or planks formed the upper coverings. Pits measured roughly 2 metres by 1.5 metres and about 2 metres deep, although their dimensions varied. The dead generally lay on their backs with clothing, textiles, jewelry, and gold or silver discs sewn to blankets or garments.

Women’s graves

Grave 1

Grave 1 measured about 2.5 metres by 1.3 metres and was 2 metres deep. It contained a woman aged approximately twenty to thirty and about 1.58 metres tall. She wore a cloak fastened with round gold brooches. Gold, turquoise, lapis lazuli, and amber plaques formed an elaborate pattern on her clothing, while toilet equipment, a powder box, and a cosmetics basket accompanied her burial.

Seven stamped plaques known as “Man with Dolphin” were among the grave goods. They show human-headed figures with almond-shaped eyes, fish tails, a fish around the neck, and an oar, and may also have included wings. Differences in detail indicate that more than one mould was used. The imagery may refer to water and the Oxus, although it has also been associated with the serpent maiden of Scythian tradition.

Other objects included gold hair ornaments, brooches, six-petalled rosettes, clothing plaques, and a cylindrical, drum-shaped ornament made with gold, turquoise, garnet, and mother-of-pearl. The ornament had been adapted for later use and may have served as an earring or hair ornament. A Chinese mirror dated to the first century BCE and a Parthian-period coin of the first century BCE, possibly an obol of Heraios, were also present. The coin appears to have been intended for the woman’s hand.

Grave 2

Grave 2 lay beyond the northern wall of the temple. It measured approximately 3 metres by 1.6 metres and was 2 metres deep. The woman buried there was about twenty to thirty years old. Her coffin retained traces of plaster and was wrapped in cloth. The orientation of her body has been compared with burials of the Alans in the Don region.

She wore a tall, conical headdress in a Scythian style. Its pendant showed a goddess or “Mistress of the Animals” holding a fruit and associated with fertility. Birds, wolf-headed or fish-tailed animals, and stylized trees of life accompanied the central figure. Antelope-headed bracelets measured approximately 8.5 by 6.3 centimetres, and wear marks show that they had been used during life as well as in burial.

Another pendant, called “Master Fighting Dragons,” depicts a crowned prince supported by two winged, horse-headed dragons. Turquoise, lapis lazuli, and carnelian enriched the piece. Other grave goods included rings bearing Athena, paired brooches showing winged Erotes riding dolphins, musician figures with lutes, amulets, clothing plaques, Chinese mirrors, a gold tube that may have functioned as a sceptre, an iron axe and knives in a basket, and a silver vessel.

A standing winged female figure known as the “Kushan Aphrodite” was accompanied by an Eros with a bow. She wears a turban and butterfly wings associated with Psyche, while columns suggest the supports of a throne. The figure combines local Bactrian features with foreign Greek traditions, illustrating the mixed artistic language of the burial assemblage.

Grave 3

Grave 3 lay near the mound’s summit, within a wall of the brick temple. Its coffin was surrounded by leather or cloth decorated with gold discs, and a mat covered the floor of the pit. Rodents disturbed the burial and displaced some ornaments. The grave probably belonged to a richly dressed woman. Gold leaf decorated her shoes, and approximately 5,000 gold objects filled the burial.

Four medallions show a bust wearing a torque and pendants. They may represent the young Dionysus, although their original position on the clothing is unknown. The grave also contained an Indian-type ivory comb, a hair pendant with two horse heads, a gold aureus of Tiberius minted in Gaul and probably dating from 16 to 21 CE, and a Parthian coin of Mithridates II, dated 124 to 87 BCE. The latter may have been placed in the woman’s hand.

Chinese silver and ivory-handled mirrors, faience, silver, and ivory toilet vessels, a cosmetic jar, bracelets, hairpins, and a jade intaglio showing a humped bull completed the assemblage. A cylindrical box bore an inscription giving a Greek weight. Other engraved objects depicted a sacrificial scene with a man, branch, altar, thyrsus, and garlanded pillar, as well as helmeted Athena. Fossil shark teeth mounted as a pendant were regarded in nomadic tradition as petrified serpent tongues with magical power.

Grave 5

Grave 5 lay north of the mound and cut through an Achaemenid enclosure wall. It measured approximately 2 metres by 0.8 metres and was 1.65 metres deep. Its coffin was hollowed from a single large tree trunk and wrapped in ornamented cloth. The burial belonged to an adolescent or young woman of about twenty. Small beads decorated her clothing, and a bracelet assembled from reused objects was associated with magic.

The grave contained a chalcedony intaglio of a leaping griffin, probably made in the fourth century BCE and reused despite damage, together with a silver-and-malachite intaglio of Nike holding a wreath and palm. Other objects included heart-shaped earrings, anklets, a brightly colored collar intended to be sewn to a garment, a lion pendant, amulets, a silver mirror, a case, a basket, a silver vessel, and a tube that probably functioned as a sceptre.

Grave 6

Grave 6 lay in a temple corridor. Its irregular pit measured about 3 by 2.5 metres and expanded in its upper part to approximately 2.5 by 1.2 metres. A mat covered a lidless plank coffin wrapped in cloth decorated with gold. The woman was about twenty years old and 1.52 metres tall. Her skull had been deliberately reshaped, a practice also identified at Koktepe. She wore a robe or tunic over trousers, with richly decorated clothing and footwear.

A detachable gold crown decorated with birds and trees of life was among the grave goods. Its form is regarded as specifically nomadic, with comparable examples from Silla in Korea and fourth-century BCE finds from Kazakhstan. A gold imitation of Arsacid coinage lay in the woman’s hand, while a silver coin was placed in her mouth. Sarianidi interpreted the latter as payment for crossing the Styx. The gold coin was a local Margian imitation associated particularly with Gotarzes I, and its unusual composition suggests prestige value and possibly the status of local rulers.

Brooches showed Dionysus and Ariadne riding a composite animal, accompanied by a silenus and Nike with a wreath. Greek inspiration was combined with an Asiatic Dionysus, a nomadic saddle cloth, and a steppe monster with lion, goat, and dragon traits. The central appliqué on the woman’s garment, known as the “Bactrian Aphrodite,” represents a winged, bare-chested female figure with short legs, a projecting abdomen, multiple bracelets, a rounded face, and a mark on the forehead. Its proportions and pose differ from Hellenistic conventions and were interpreted by Sarianidi as reflecting nomadic ideas of beauty.

A pair of gold and turquoise pendants shows a winged or possibly winged “Mistress of the Animals” flanked by fish-tailed or finned wolf-like creatures. She touches one animal and offers an apple or pomegranate. The precise deity is uncertain, but the image has been associated with fertility, renewal, and the ordering of the natural world. Other ornaments included worn Eros earrings, a ring with an intaglio, horned lion-headed bracelets, hair ornaments, a turquoise-inlaid rosette necklace, a silver mirror, an ivory-handled mirror, toilet and cosmetic equipment, and a sceptre.

Warrior’s grave

Grave 4

Grave 4 was cut into a temple wall and measured approximately 2.7 by 1.3 metres, with a depth of 1.8 metres. It was the only burial containing a man. He was about thirty years old and measured between 1.70 and 1.85 metres, with one estimate approaching 2 metres. A horse skull and leg bones lay about 0.4 metres below the surface, suggesting a funerary banquet or sacrifice.

The coffin was lined with decorated leather and gold plaques. Reconstructions of the man’s clothing differ, but it included either a long jacket or a shirt, caftan, and trousers resembling the dress of steppe horsemen. His head rested on a silk pillow beside a gold phiale, a shallow ceremonial bowl, with 32 flutings. An inscription gives its weight as 41 tetradrachms, using a stater unit of 15.56 grams. Metal vessels were also placed beneath the heads of the women in Graves III and VI.

Shoe buckles depicted a man in a chariot drawn by dragons beneath a canopy known from Persepolis, Ai Khanoum, Han China, and Xiongnu contexts. The grave also held a leather seat on a metal support, interpreted as a portable throne. A parade headdress included an ibex, a tree-of-life ornament, and a standing mouflon. Rings on the mouflon’s hooves allowed it to be attached at the end of a tall headdress, while a fastening system behind its head may have supported more fragile wooden or leather parts.

The warrior’s parade belt had eight gold chains and nine separately made relief medallions showing a figure seated on a panther, perhaps Dionysus. Differences among the panthers, saddles, and figures show that the medallions were individually made rather than identical copies. The figure appears to press its breast to produce milk, creating possible associations with Dionysus, Nana, Artemis, or a fertility goddess.

Panther plaques and shield-shaped plaques showed winged felines attacking horses or a winged panther attacking a fallen antelope. These scenes combine Scythian subject matter with elements of Greco-Scythian realism. Leather weapon straps or harness pieces bore fantastic animals, including a coiled creature biting its own tail and bird-headed creatures. Their worn leather indicates use before burial.

The man was buried with two bows, two quivers containing iron arrowheads, a long Sarmatian sword, daggers, gold belts, and turquoise-inlaid gold weapon fittings. Their ceremonial richness and display function have been interpreted as signs of chiefly or aristocratic status. One quadrilobed scabbard covering, about 23.5 by 9 centimetres, enclosed an iron-bladed dagger in a wooden scabbard covered with leather and gold sheet. Its decoration included winged and horned monsters, fighting beasts, an upright bear holding a vine shoot, and a tree of life.

A second scabbard, about 26 centimetres long, held three daggers in a multi-dagger case. Its decoration combined two fighting fantastic animals, one a winged dragon and the other deer-antlered, with hearts, geometric patterns, and an Indian svastika motif. Another dagger was an akinakes, a short iron sword or dagger associated with Iranian and steppe peoples. It had an animal-combat scene and an acanthus design on the grip, a type also represented in the Apadana at Persepolis.

A gold Indian medal or coin showed a man pushing an eight-spoked wheel and a lion with a raised paw. Kharoshthi inscriptions refer to turning the Wheel of the Law and to the lion that dispelled fear. The piece has been proposed as an early representation of the Buddha, before conventional Buddhist imagery developed. A warrior-decorated pectoral, dated to 170 to 145 BCE, carried a cameo of a Greek-profiled man. Sarianidi suggested that it might portray the Greco-Bactrian ruler Euthydemus I, reused by a nomadic chief, while other interpretations regard it as a Greco-Bactrian-style cameo rather than a surviving royal portrait.

Another intaglio depicted the Heraclids, the legendary descendants of Heracles, drawing lots for kingdoms. Three warriors surround an eagle on a column near an altar to Zeus. The image may have evoked the accession of a ruling dynasty and the adoption of settled royal symbols while retaining a nomadic identity.

Objects and cultural connections

The six graves produced approximately 21,618 objects of gold, silver, and ivory, although another reported total is 21,813. Later cataloguing gave an apparently complete collection of about 22,000 objects. The assemblage included hollow gold-bead necklaces with pearls and turquoise, solid-gold bracelets, gemstone rings, intaglios and cameos, earrings, brooches, daggers, belts, ceremonial weapons, crowns, clothing plaques, toilet equipment, Chinese mirrors, Indian ivory combs, ivory-handled mirrors, colored glass vessels, and amulets.

Many of the thin decorated plaques, or bracteates, were hammered in relief and made to be sewn onto garments. Their subjects included Dionysus and Ariadne, Eros, Athena, fertility figures, winged animals, panthers, dragons, griffins, lions, horses, fish, trees of life, and composite creatures. Goldwork employed granulation and inlay, and most objects may have originated in one workshop.

The artistic assemblage brings together steppe animal style, Greek and Greco-Roman mythological imagery, Achaemenid and Parthian forms, Chinese mirrors and motifs, Indian objects, and local Bactrian traditions. Its mixed character has been interpreted as a Central Asian form of Greco-Scythian and Hellenistic art rather than a uniform style. The burial customs express the same combination: the mound and horse remains recall Saka or Scythian practices, the coin in the mouth reflects a Greek funerary interpretation, cranial deformation and rich costume correspond to Central Asian nomadic traditions, and the objects connect the site with regions from the Altai and southern Russia to India, China, Korea, and the Mediterranean.

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