historyfilia:Shaft-hole axe head with bird-headed demon, boar, and dragon Bactria-Margiana Archaeolo
historyfilia:Shaft-hole axe head with bird-headed demon, boar, and dragon Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex, early 2nd millennium B.C. Medium: Silver, gold foil Ancient Bactria and Margiana were areas along the Oxus and Murghab rivers in modern Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan. This silver-gilt shaft-hole axe is a masterpiece of three-dimensional and relief sculpture. Expertly cast and gilded with foil, it represents a bird-headed hero grappling with a wild boar and a winged dragon. The idea of the heroic bird-headed creature probably came from western Iran, where it is first documented on a cylinder seal impression. From the Metropolitan Museum of Art -- source link