Material Culture (2)

A catalogue view: every article filed as object. For the encyclopaedia arranged by subject, see the themes.

• ObjectGold plaque of a barsom-bearer (Oxus Treasure)

  The barsom plaque is one of the small gold votive plaques of the Oxus Treasure (British Museum 123949): a standing man in Median dress holding before him a slim bundle of rods, the barsom of Iranian worship. It is the clearest surviving material image of the rite the texts only name, one of about…

• ObjectThe Daric (and the Siglos)

  The gold daric (Greek dareikos statēr, about 8.4 grams of nearly pure gold) and its silver companion the siglos (about 5.4 grams) were the coins of the Achaemenid king, introduced by Darius I in the last decade of the sixth century BCE and stamped with a single unchanging image, the crowned royal…