At the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, I saw a miniature with an image of a mace. A couple of days later while visiting another art collection in Boston, the Isabella Gardener Museum, I came across the Persian mace on display.The last one was ident...

A unique gold (1) buckle (2) with an image of a boar was discovered in Saksonakhur (Tajikistan) is made by casting (3). Buckles, for example, the traditional elements of northern costumes in Tajikistan, are usually shaped as either circles or rect...

The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (MFA) has a collection of 55 miniatures painted from different manuscripts of “The Book of Kings;” the earliest one dates around 1317 AD, while the latest dates around the 16th century. The majority of the MFA paintings are from the Denman Waldo Ross Collection (36), as well as the Francis Barlett Donation (9). The rest are from other donors.

Since the ancient times, the art of India is closely linked with the art of the peoples of Central Asia and in particular Tajikistan. The proof can be found in archaeological discoveries, architectural monuments, painting, sculpture and jewelry.

The influence of the Gandhara style on the art of jewelry during the early Kushan era   can be traced back to the artifacts of that period. In the early Middle Ages, discovered Buddhist temples on the territory of Tajikistan reveal the affiliations and liaisons in the art of jewelry, previously found in painting and sculpture.

In 1978, a Soviet-Afghan expedition discovered a unique monument of Central Asia and in particular the Ancient Bactria, the Gold Hill, or Tillya-tepe. Six discovered burial sites -- five female ones, one male -- had been named The Treasures of Nameless Kings. By the time the archeological excavations were stopped by the military action that erupted in late seventies, about twenty thousand of gold items have been discovered. Most of them were initially known to only a narrow circle of specialists, but nearly each item could have served as a subject of a separate study. Now, during the 2008-2009, millions of fans of antiques, and jewelry art in particular, have been allowed to visit the exhibition of Bactrian gold, both in Europe and in America. The latest temple of the arts that hosted the exhibition was the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Almost immediately after the discovery of the necropolis the following articles were published

Professional jeweler was a fairly popular choice among Bukharian Jews – there is even such a surname as Zargar, which, in translation from Bukharian and Tajik languages, means “jeweler.” Not all of the adornments that were made by Bukharian jewelers were intended for women of Bukhara, and not all of them reflected their aesthetics, symbolism and semantics; however, jewelry custom made by Bukharian Jews had a unique style that separated their work from the works of other ethnic groups working in Bukhara.

The history of the art of jewelry on the territory of Tajikistan dates back a few centuries, as evidenced by the archeological findings in the southern regions of the republic: from the burial mound and at the settlements of Takhti-Sangin, Ksirov, Dushanbe, Saksonahur, and Lyahsh.

Many pages of scientific and popular literature have been devoted to the Oxus Treasure, a unique, world-famous collection of 170 gold and silver items from the Achaemenid period, which were found by the Oxus River.  Only very recently the new archeological discoveries in the south of Tajikistan have confirmed that the Oxus treasure, most of which items are located at the British Museum in London, contains none other than the contents of the treasury of Oxus (the Greek name of the Amu Darya) of the ancient town of Takhti-Sangin .

Astral cults played a significant role in the religious beliefs of the ancient peoples of the Central Asia. They worshipped heaven and the heavenly bodies -- sun, moon, and the stars. Placed on clothing, jewelry, household items and homes, astral symbols offered protection from evil spirits. The cult of heavenly bodies gained popularity in the Bronze Age, although traces of it can be found as early as the Neolithic Age. G. Kyun in The Art of Prehistoric People writes the following: “during the Neolithic period, world is populated by countless imaginary beings endowed with supernatural power ... stars and flowers are alive” . In the middle of Paleolithic age, for example, necklaces made out of drilled through shells often served as decorations, along with feathers and flowers.

The collection of the Museum of Ethnography at the Tajikistan Academy of Sciences includes a pair of earrings with a remarkable design. A small figure of a bird is soldered onto the lower edge of the hoop (plumage is carved in the shape of small squares, the bottom of the hoop is thickened, under the bird figure three granulated cylinders are centered between two pendant loops; under the cylinders there are three loops of seven pendants hanging on chains. The entire construction ends in a wrought sheet in the shape of a heart edged with niello, a trefoil motive is in the center; Weight 23 gr., length 9 cm.)