Iberian Peninsula to the indus

DeM.S.
3
Naked female figure
Tell Mozan, Northeast Syria
III millennium BC
Terracotta
Bibliography
: strommenger 1980; seeher 1992, pp. 
153–170; margueron 1995, pp. 42–53; Breniquet 
1996, pp. 31–53; Kelly-Buccellati 1998, pp. 35–50; 
Buccellati, Kelly-Buccellati 2000, pp. 3–39; assante 
2006, pp. 177–207; Caubet 2006, pp. 177–181; Cooper 
2006; Daems 2007, pp. 77–117; nakamura, meskell 
2009, pp. 205–230; makowski 2010, pp. 617–626; 
hodder 2011, pp. 934–949; Kulakoglu 2011, pp. 
1012–1030; pinnock 2013, pp. 199–214; Buccellati 
2014; atakuman 2017, pp. 85–108.

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46
tRansCUltURal ROUtes 
BetWeen the meDiteRRanean 
anD the inDUs
W
ith the rise of complex centres of civilization – mesopotamian, egyptian 
and harappan – found in the great river valleys of the tigris and eu-
phrates, the nile and the indus during the late fourth and third millennia 
BC – humanity witnessed an unprecedented flowering of the arts, its emergent ico-
nography largely expressing divine power and heroic royal prowess. the materials, 
form, technique and imagery of objects such as sculpture, jewellery and both stamp 
and cylinder seals, not to mention architecture, provide visual manifestations of es-
sential cultural differences that developed among these first urban societies. however, 
such features also reveal interactions that extended across vast distances from the 
mediterranean eastward, crossing another great river system, comprising the amu 
Darya and syr Darya (Oxus and Jaxartes Rivers), which watered the oasis towns of 
Central asia. Certain raw materials and artefacts demonstrate the entire breadth 
of intercultural exchange; others are confined to circuits within the vast network of 
cultural centres, which together formed the precursors of the overland silk Road 
that linked to maritime routes from the persian Gulf to the arabian sea. Cultural 
convergences within these regions have been the subject of much research, incor-
porating new archaeological discoveries with art historical interpretations, technical 
analyses and studies of mesopotamian texts that reveal the impetus to obtain exotic 
materials from distant lands and identify regions such as Dilmun (Bahrain), magan 
(Oman), marhashi (southeastern iran) and meluhha (the indus Valley) with coveted 
materials associated with the latter three: copper, chlorite and carnelian.
at times fortunate circumstances provide an intimate glimpse of the nature of 
interaction across the broad tapestry of an interconnected world during the third and 
early second millennia BC. a merchant hoard, buried at ashur, includes seals and 
beads that represent activities over an area extending from the indus Valley to Cen-
tral anatolia at a time when the tin and textile trade was underway. “Foreigners and 
explorers who travel across the lands” deposited an impressive quantity of lapis lazuli 
and silver in the form of seals and vessels in the temple of montu at tôd in egyptian 
thebes, representing an area extending from Bactria-margiana in Central asia to 
the levant, anatolia and minoan Crete. the “Vase a la Cachette” (
fig. 1
), discovered 
at susa, bears witness to interaction from eastern iran to the Gulf and the indus, 
with evidence of tin bronze metallurgy in the centuries prior to the explosion of the 
long-distance tin trade in anatolia. the copper comes from Oman, alabaster vessels 
are from eastern iran and two of the cylinder seals in the hoard reveal contacts with 
“oxuS lady” Seated
on a Stool
Eastern Iran, Central Asia
Oxus Culture (ca. 2200–1800 BC)
Private Collection, UK
(cat. 84, detail)

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49
48
the indus Valley and the Gulf – one depicting a lion confronting a zebu in the posture 
of a short-horned bull and another, made of shell, blending mesopotamian and Gulf 
stylistic and iconographic elements. these instances of travelling objects that came 
together under different circumstances highlight a complexity that is difficult to grasp 
in our attempt to understand the nature and significance of cultural encounters as 
manifested in the material record. patterns do emerge, however, as we briefly review 
the materials and imagery of interaction, with the intensity of exchange suggested by 
the inscription on an akkadian cylinder seal identifying its owner as an interpreter 
of meluhha and by tantalizing references to a meluhha village in mesopotamia, sit-
uated in the vicinity of Girsu.
MaterialS of interaction
the beginnings of trade in the quest for exotic prestige materials and the transfer of 
technologies, such as writing, are poetically alluded to in one of the great works of 
sumerian literature, 
Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta
. this mythical distant place 
“in the mountains where the sun rises”, boasts fabulous wealth in precious stones 
with abundant lapis lazuli and gold, silver, copper and tin – tin being a commodity 
found in the “Vase a la Cachette”. the unearthing of over 22 kilograms of lapis lazuli 
in the Royal palace of ebla, gathered possibly for shipment to egypt; the discovery of 
a lapis lazuli figure of a nude female at hierakonpolis; the distribution of flat beads 
with tubular string hole and quadruple spiral beads, both types made of gold and 
silver, as well as etched carnelian beads – extending from the indus to the aegean – 
provide us with material evidence for the routes and shared values that are implied 
in the impetus to acq
uire such objects. Chlorite vessels and handled weights with 
relief decoration and distinctive East Iranian features – termed “intercultural” for 
their widespread appeal – represent a more limited interaction zone extending across 
Western, Central and South Asia. With production centres identified in Eastern Iran at 
Tepe Yahya and probably on the Arabian island of Tarut, some of the most elaborate 
examples were discovered in temples, palaces and burials in Southern Mesopota-
mia, which originally suggested that these works were made for export. However, 
the masses of such objects, mostly looted from graves in the Halil River basin near 
Jiroft, with a few excavated examples at Konur Sandal South, have transformed our 
picture of this corpus of objects, evidently also valued locally in Southeastern Iran, 
an area identified by Piotr Steinkeller as the “land of Marhashi”, home to its chlorite 
material, the “Duhšia stone”. 
Konur Sandal South also produced stamp and cylinder seal impressions, which 
have been compared by Holly Pittman to Early Dynastic examples from Southern 
Mesopotamia. As in the three cases mentioned above, they highlight the importance 
of glyptic – portable instruments of status and identity that were worn as jewellery, 
integral to the trade process and reflecting the movements of merchants, other 
travellers and also ideas. By the third millennium, the use of seals in administration 
had been introduced over an area extending from the Aegean and Eastern Mediter-
ranean to the Indus – with regionally distinctive materials, forms and imagery. The 
general preference for stamp rather than cylinder seals, prevalent in the Aegean, 
Egypt and Anatolia, also occurs at the other end of the geographic spectrum, in the 
Indus Valley, the Gulf and the Oxus – with exceptional instances of cylinder seals 
with Indus-related images found at Mohenjodaro as well as in Mesopotamia and 
Eastern Iran and a Near Eastern-inspired contest scene on a cylinder from Gonur 
that Pittman attributes to Southeastern Iran. These seals were created at a time 
when Harappan square stamps travelled westward as far as Southern Mesopotamia, 
as did circular seals of Harappan origin, depicting short-horned bulls and Indus or 
rarely cuneiform inscriptions – a type that appears to have developed in Bahrain as 
a precursor to Dilmun seals, its imagery possibly a merchant’s mark. One such seal 
in the Ligabue Collection has a Linear Elamite text (
fig. 2
), signifying East Iranian