ANTIQUITY

2nd century BC - 1st century AD
9th-11th centuries AD

Terracotta in the Archaeology Museum of the Samarkand
State University

Terracotta items are the only monuments reflecting the historical development of Sogdian
fine art from the late 1st millennium BCE to the Arab conquest of the region. For over 1,000 years
Sogd was an independent centre of the art of making terracotta figurines. The statuettes introduce
museum visitors to the spiritual world of the ancient Sogdians, acquainting them with the concepts
of the pre-Islamic period.

The collection stored in the museum includes 28 terracotta items: statuettes of people and animals,
a four-sided handmade element with a bird, one whole ossuary and two fragments of ossuaries with a
low-relief image, and two moulds. All the items were found in the vicinity of Samarkand and the
Samarkand region, which was a part of ancient Sogd.

Statuettes predominate among human images. These are baked clay figurines no more than 10-12 cm in
height. The figurines demonstrate a variety of production techniques. Most were made in an open
mould, in which the front part was moulded and the back side was later finished by hand. All these
figurines moulded on one sided have carelessly worked backs. Many of the figures were made using a
combined technique, with the body made by hand and the faces moulded. The surface of such figurines was often covered with slip.