BMAC GLYPTIC STYLES

Two main styles were used for engraving the stamp and cylinder seals, the “drilled style” and “Murghab-style” (Sarianidi 1976; Winkelmann 1999, 2004). A smaller group of stamp seals was produced in other styles, not all well defined. Cylinder seals also show some mixed styles that are so far represented only on single specimens. We will consider them successively (Table 8.11).

The “drilled style”

The “drilled style” consists of small but deep drilled holes set one beside the other, or sometimes overlapping one another to form the design (Figure 8.2). It is attested on stamp seals in Margiana and Bactria and on cylinder or cylinder-stamp seals said to come from Afghanistan (Sarianidi 1998b: nos. 1430, 1431,1437, 1454-1458, 1461, 1462,1464,1467,1469,1470,1472,1474). Various motifs are represented, humans, animals, mixed creatures, plants, and mountains. Bodies, joints, heads, details like tails, feet, horns, mouths, etc., are featured through drill holes of different sizes, producing astonishingly precise images where there are clearly visible, for instance, men or mixed creatures with characteristic broad shoulders, arm muscles, or strong thighs with small lower legs.

A great number of seals in this style represent crosses, rosettes, plants (Figure 8.2d, i), or stylized mountains (Figure 8.2a-c, f-h, j) made with drillings arranged into

Table 8.11 Margiana stamp seals: styles and store museums

Note: MFA = Museum of Fine Art; MM = Mary Regional History Museum; NM = National Museum.

a triangle. A second group of motifs consists of animals represented alone, like scorpions, or attacking snakes (Figure 8.2i), eagles, or lions. Scenes of animal fights are more rarely found (Figure 8.2d, k). Humans or human-animal mixed creatures like the bird-man (Figure 8.2k), bull-man, or goat-man form the third great group of motifs in this style, while depictions of women or goddesses are so far lacking. Very frequent and characteristic are males or male mixed creatures sitting on their calves (Figure 8.2k) (Sarianidi 1998b: nos. 1040, 1041-1055, 1427-1501-1508, 1429), sometimes with one raised knee. Walking men or mixed creatures in the attitude of “master of animals” fighting with snakes, holding snakes, or being attacked by snakes are also represented.

As described above, probably due to the limited surface of most “drilledstyle” seals, and to the technique that was used, most of the seals bear only one motif. This is especially valid for one-sided stamp seals. However, cylinder seals and seals with two or more sides may have multifigured scenic compositions. The same motifs known in other styles and on other artifacts are represented but with more simple features. While cylinder seals have a greater surface to arrange full scenic depictions, stamp seals with two or more sides use a simple trick where the motif is divided into the single actors of a scene arranged on the different faces. For instance, the motif of a fight between an eagle and two snakes on a bi-sided stamp seal is depicted with the eagle with its head turned on one side and the attacking snake on the other. Bearing in mind the ubiquity of these kinds of battle motifs, it is possible to recognize the same ones even on this comparatively less sophisticated style.

Technically, this style has clear antecedents on the Iranian Plateau and southern Central Asia, especially in the Helmand and the Namazga cultures. It is known in Mundigak III—IV and at Shahr-i Sokhta II—III where it is the most characteristic style of stone stamp seals of the Helmand culture (Salvatori and Vidale 1997: 77-78, figs. 251-262: seals and impressions). This style was also known in Baluchistan, but was replaced by Harappan seals after 2500 BC. Similar seals with geometric motifs made from smoothed drillings set against each other are also known at Altyn Depe and Ulug Depe in the Piedmont area of Turkmenistan in NMG III and IV levels (Masson 1988: pl. XVII, 2, 7; XXXVI, 3; XXXVII, 6; XXXVIII, 1; Sarianidi 1986b: fig. 93). While most of these earlier seals had two perforations for their suspension, a handle was added on their back during the NMG V period directly leading to the typical BMAC seals. At that time too, an increase in figurative representations is noticeable (Masson 1988: pl. XVI, 11, 17; XVII, 1, 2, 3, 4). These figurative depictions with their many heroes and mixed creatures form the characteristic new feature of the BMAC seals that developed from an older Iranian style. Seals in the “drilled style” seem to have a long duration, from the urban phase to the late Dzharkutan phase (Askarov 1977: pl. XLV; Sarianidi 1977a: fig. 59; Askarov and Abdullaev 1983: fig. 49; Sarianidi 1986a: fig. 5, 11; 8, 23; 1986b: figs. 102, 103; 1988: pl. 1).