Gonur Depe – gold “medallions”. Margiana (Bactria), 18th-15th C BCE [d/b]

An intact cist from an intact burial #560
“Three gold (two identical designs and one different) earrings (cast together with hooks), a round gold medallion decorated with an eight-ray rosette in relief, with a hole in the center , a cast gold cone with an inner hole for attachment and finally a gold bracelet made of two twisted wires with an intact loop on one end and a broken loop on the other end. Besides these whole pieces, the cist yielded nine round beads made of faience covered with gold foil (amalgama) and eleven gold cylinder beads” [V. Sarianidi]

Burial #1 of the temenos burial ground of a woman 25-30 years old.
Not robbed, but scattered. In sandy soil.

Grave equipment:
fragments of 8 ceramic vessels, including one intact small pot-shaped vessel; a spout-spout of a light-colored clay vessel (both vessels presumably date from the 17th-16th centuries BC); 2 gold earrings with relief ornamentation; 1 bronze hairpin with a gold conical cap; fragments of a bronze rod; fragments of a bronze bracelet; bronze mirror (fragmented); 2 bronze beads; 6 lapis lazuli beads; 3 steatite biconical beads with a circle ornament; 1 round faience bead; 4 soapstone beads.

Lit.

Дубова Н. А, Мурадова Э. А., «Могильник теменоса» Гонура in: Transactions of Margiana archaeological expedition. Vol. 2 / Eds. Sarianidi V. (ed. in chief), Kosarev M.F., Kozhin P.M., Dubova N.A. Moscow, 2008 https://www.academia.edu

burial #397

“Gold and silver earrings with loops were made entirely of one very thin sheet of gold. They were convex hemispheres with simple rifled geometric ornamentation and closely resemble Mesopotamian prototypes.” [V. Sarianidi]

“Gonur 2013 Area 19 cist tomb 4290. Date of 2118-1883 cal BCE. Genetically female. This individual was skeletally determined to be a female, 5 to 15 years old, recovered from a robbed rectangular cist located north-northwest of Gonur Tepe just outside of the encircling wall. The tomb also contained the remains of an adult female, skeletally, aged 35 to 40. Grave goods included one ceramic goblet near the head of the adult female, five ceramic vessels (and some small sherds) as well as a terracotta female figurine, one gold bead, one gold conical plaque, one gold earring, one gold rosette, and traces of bronze oxides.” [Supplementary Materials]

• Gonur Tepe, Bactria Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC), Turkmenistan. Description by James Mallory and Nadezhda Dubova. in: Supplementary Materials for The formation of human populations in South and Central Asia https://reich.hms.harvard.edu
• Отчет о работе Маргианской археологической экспедиции
  во время весеннего полевого сезона 2013 г https://margiana.su/publication/reports/2013%20spring.pdf