Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex

The extent of the BMAC (after EIEC).

The Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex (or BMAC, also known as the Oxus civilization) is the modern archaeological name for a Bronze Age culture of Central Asia, dated to ca. 2300–1700 BCE. It was in present-day Turkmenistan, northern Afghanistan and northeastern Iran, southern Uzbekistan and western Tajikistan. Its sites were discovered and named by the Soviet archaeologist Viktor Sarianidi (1976). Bactria was the Greek name for the area of Bactra (modern Balkh), in what is now northern Afghanistan. Margiana was the Greek name for the Persian satrapy of Margu, in today's Turkmenistan.

Sarianidi's excavations from the late 1970s onward many buildings in many sites. Reports on the BMAC were mostly in Soviet journals, until the last years of the Soviet Union. The findings were unknown to the West until Sarianidi's work was translated in the 1990s.

Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex Media

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  Altyn-Depe location on the modern Middle East map as well as location of other Eneolithic cultures (Harappa and Mohenjo-daro).

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  Bird-headed man with snakes; 2000–1500 BC; bronze; 7.30 cm; from Northern Afghanistan; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (USA)

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  Genetic proximity of the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex ( ) with ancient (color) and modern (grey) populations. Primary Component Analysis (detail).

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  Tepe Fullol bowl fragment, 3rd millennium BCE, National Museum of Afghanistan.