A BMAC Grave from Bojnord, North-Eastern Iran

Abstract

The origin and expansion of the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC) or Oxus Civilization has long been discussed. This highly developed agricultural and urban society was engaged in active contacts with its southern neighbors on the Iranian Plateau at the end of the 3rd and the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. This paper introduces a newly discovered BMAC grave from Tappe Esgh in the Plain of Bojnord in the southern foothills of Kopet-Dagh. The strong similarities between the funerary practices and burial-goods of the grave discovered in Tappe Eshgh to those reported from the BMAC zone in Central Asia probably indicates the penetration of BMAC populations into the plateau of Iran at the end of the Bronze Age.