Takht-i Sangin

Ionic pillar, cella of the Temple of the Oxus, Takht-i Sangin, late 4th - early 3rd century BC.[8]

In the middle of the terrace, there was a citadel, measuring around 170-210 metres by 240 metres, on top of a ten-metre-high artificial mound. This mount was surrounded by a ditch and a two-metre-high stone wall on the northern, western, and southern sides. On the eastern side it bordered the river, and there are traces of a dock, which is now inaccessible.[7]

Takht-i Sangin, plan of the Temple, with surrounding walls.[9]

The centre of the citadel contained the Oxus Temple, which was first built around 300 BC.[4] The size of the temple suggests that its construction was financed by an external authority, probably the Seleucids.[6] The temple is surrounded by a massive mud-brick wall with tower-like projections at the corners and in the centre of each side. The wall is 6 metres thick, 85 metres wide in a north-south direction and 100 metres long in an east-west direction.[7] A propylon (gateway) in the east side of this wall leads to a large courtyard containing dedications and altars, measuring 44 metres north-south by ca. 20 metres east-west. This temple building is oriented to the compass directions, with its entrance facing east, towards the river.[4] It is made of mud-brick with a flat roof and measures 44 metres wide and 50 metres long.[10] The facade of the temple building stretches along the whole western side of the courtyard. At the centre of the facade is an aiwān (a pillared vestibule), with two rows of four columns. This is flanked on the left and right by wings, each with three rooms and a small tower. Behind the aiwān is a square central hall measuring about 11.5 x 12.7 metres, with four columns supporting the roof.[11] There are blocks of stone at the back of the hall, probably the base of a cult image.[12] Doors on the south and north sides of this hall leading to two corridors, which each wrap around the central hall in an L-shape.[13]

The excavators, Igor Pichikyan and Boris Litvinsky, argued that the temple was the earliest known Zoroastrian fire temple, because they found remains of ashes in the rooms in the wings flanking the aiwān and pits filled with pure ashes in the central hall. Lindström disputes this interpretation, since the pits in the central hall are located under the columns and seem to be foundation deposits, because there is no evidence for a fire-altar in the central hall, and because there is a Greek-style sacrificial altar in the courtyard.[12]

Head of a Greco-Bactrian ruler with diadem, Temple of the Oxus, Takht-i-Sangin, 3rd-2nd century BC. This could also be a portrait of Seleucus I.[14]

Somewhere between 5,000 and 8,000 other votive offerings in gold, silver, bronze, iron, lead, glass, plaster, terracotta, precious stones, limestone, shell, bone, ivory, and wood have been found.[6] Most of these were located in the central hall of the temple and the corridors behind it, both above ground and in buried caches. These votives include portraits of Greco-Bactrian kings, jewellery, and furniture, but especially weapons and armour.[6] Many of these votives were probably buried when the community was sacked by the Kushans in the 130s BC.[6] After the sack, the rest of the site was abandoned, but the temple remained in use until the third century AD, with the Kushans continuing to dedicate weapons, especially arrowheads, in very large numbers.[6]

In the courtyard, excavators recovered a small stone base surmounted by a little bronze statuette of a Silenus, perhaps Marsyas, playing the aulos, with a Greek inscription reading "[in fulfilment of] a vow, Atrosokes dedicated [this] to Oxus." This is the basis for the identification of the whole sanctuary as a temple of Oxus.[4] Lindström calls the combination of Greek mythological figure, a man with an Iranian name, and a local Bactrian deity "a mixture of influences that is characteristic of ... the Hellenistic Far East."[10]

Takht-i Sangin is a suspected original location for the Oxus Treasure that now resides in the Victoria and Albert Museum and British Museum.[3][15]

• 
  Votive plaque in cloisonné with man leading a camel, Temple of the Oxus, Takht-i Sangin, 6th-5th century BC
• 
  Akinakes holder, ivory, Takht-i Sangin, Temple of the Oxus, Tajikistan, 5th-4th century BC.[1]

• 
  Herakles vanquishing Acheloos, Temple of the Oxus, Takht-i-Sangin, 4th century BC.[24]
• 
  Alexander-Herakles head, Takht-i Sangin, Temple of the Oxus, 3rd century BCE.[25]
• 
  Head of a Seleucid or Greco-Bactrian ruler wearing a diadem, Temple of the Oxus, Takht-i-Sangin, 3rd-2nd century BC.[1]
• 
  Palmette design, Temple of the Oxus, Takht-i Sangin, 3rd-2nd century BC
• 
  Painted clay and alabaster head, Takht-i Sangin, Tajikistan, 3rd-2nd century BCE. Possibly a Zoroastrian priest or a Bactrian ruler (Satrap), Temple of the Oxus, Takht-i-Sangin, 3rd-2nd century BCE.[26][1]
• 
  Young man (Apollo or Eros type), Temple of the Oxus, Takht-i Sangin, 3rd-2nd century BC
• 
  Aquatic divinity, Temple of the Oxus, Takht-i-Sangin, first half of 2nd century BC.[1]
• 
  Decorated lid of a large pyxis, similar to those found in Ai-Khanoum, Takht-i Sangin, 3rd-2nd century BC, National Museum of Antiquities of Tajikistan (M 7126)

Various artefacts are also dated the Saka (Scythian) period.

• 
  Fragment of the head of an elephant, ivory, Temple of the Oxus, Takht-i Sangin, 2nd-1st century BC[1]
• 
  Hunters ivory plaque, Takht-i Sangin, Temple of the Oxus, 1st century BC- 1st century AD. The design is comparable to the hunting scenes of the Orlat plaques.[27]
• 
  Right hunter detail, Takht-i Sangin, Temple of the Oxus, 1st century BC- 1st century AD
• 
  Medallion with man in Central Asian costume attending two horses, Takht-i Sangin, 2nd century BC-2nd century AD. The costume is said to be "Scythian".[28]