Franks Bequest; The Treasure of the Oxus, with Other Objects from Ancient Persia and India, Bequeathed to the Trustees of the British Museum by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks - Softcover

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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1905 Excerpt: ...elimination at three small groups: (1) the ornaments marked by the Scythic style; (2) some of the more barbarous gold plaques which, if genuine at all, might well be ascribed to a remote provincial district; (3) the curious series formed by the silver statuette (no. 4) and the gold heads (nos. 5 and 6). The second of these groups contains many types which are not distinctively provincial but bear a general Persian character, so that the search for something purely local is really best confined to the first and third groups only. Of the first enough has perhaps been said to prove its claim to independence (p. 35). The third also appears to have an individual character, and if it has copied the products of any known art it has reached the point at which imitation by its very remoteness almost becomes originality. The earliest Indian attempts at sculpture may have looked like this in the times when Greek influence had not yet become a permanent factor beyond the Hindu Kush. The staring eyes, the pierced distended lobes of the ears, the ill-proportioned figure of no. 4 suggest a provincial origin in a region not very far from Hindustan, and one might imagine that a Chorienes dwelling in the recesses of Badakshan might have commanded work with just such characteristics as these. We conclude then that the Oxus Treasure as a whole cannot be claimed for Bactria, but that a small proportion only may have been made in the region of the Oxus. As to the occasion on which the Treasure was concealed, General Cunningham has propounded a theory which must be mentioned in this place. Arguing from the fact that the series of coins stops abruptly with those of Euthydemus (see p. 5), he suggests that the deposit may have belonged to some old-established family, and have been i...

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