Perfume Flask
Perfume flask shaped like a fish, 500–330 BC
found at Takht-i Kuwad, Tajikistan
Gold
This gold flask shaped like a fish contained perfumed oil. A ring on its side was probably for a chain that may have been used to hang it from the owner’s belt or to attach a stopper. Aromatic oils were used to style a nobleman’s beard and ringlets, keeping them shiny and fragrant.
The fish has been identified as a barbel, a freshwater species endemic to the Oxus river and Caspian Sea.*
From the exhibition
Luxury and power: Persia to Greece
(May 2023 – Aug 2023)
Between 490 and 479 BC, the Persian empire tried, and failed, to conquer mainland Greece. Many Greeks explained their victory as a triumph of plain living over a ‘barbarian’ enemy weakened by luxury. Ancient objects reveal a different story. The Persian court used luxury as an expression of prestige and power, with a distinctive style that was imitated and adapted across cultural borders, even influencing democratic Athens and, later, the world of Alexander the Great.
'Treasure there was in plenty – tents full of gold and silver furniture… bowls, goblets, and cups, all made of gold'
When Greek soldiers captured the royal command tent of the Persian king during the Greco-Persian Wars (499–449 BC), they were confronted suddenly and spectacularly by luxury on an unimaginable scale. To many ancient Greek writers, the victories of the small Greek forces against the mighty Persians were a triumph of discipline and restraint over an empire weakened by decadence and excess.
Drawing on dazzling objects from Afghanistan to Greece, this exhibition moved beyond the ancient Greek spin to explore a more complex story about luxury as a political tool in the Middle East and southeast Europe from 550–30 BC. It explored how the royal Achaemenid court of Persia used precious objects as markers of authority, defining a style of luxury that resonated across the empire from Egypt to India. It considered how eastern luxuries were received in early democratic Athens, self-styled as Persia's arch-enemy, and how they were adapted in innovative ways to make them socially and politically acceptable. Finally, it explored how Alexander the Great swept aside the Persian empire to usher in a new Hellenistic age in which eastern and western styles of luxury were fused as part of an increasingly interconnected world.
The exhibition brought together exquisitely crafted objects in gold, silver and glass, and featured star loans including the extraordinary Panagyurishte Treasure from Bulgaria. Whether coveted as objects of prestige or disparaged as signs of decadence, the beauty of these Persian, Greek and Hellenistic luxuries shaped the political landscape of Europe and Asia in the first millennium BC – and their legacy persists in our attitudes to luxury today.
[*British Musem]
Taken in the British Museum
Perfume Flask
Perfume flask shaped like a fish, 500–330 BC
found at Takht-i Kuwad, Tajikistan
Gold
This gold flask shaped like a fish contained perfumed oil. A ring on its side was probably for a chain that may have been used to hang it from the owner’s belt or to attach a stopper. Aromatic oils were used to style a nobleman’s beard and ringlets, keeping them shiny and fragrant.
The fish has been identified as a barbel, a freshwater species endemic to the Oxus river and Caspian Sea.*
From the exhibition
Luxury and power: Persia to Greece
(May 2023 – Aug 2023)
Between 490 and 479 BC, the Persian empire tried, and failed, to conquer mainland Greece. Many Greeks explained their victory as a triumph of plain living over a ‘barbarian’ enemy weakened by luxury. Ancient objects reveal a different story. The Persian court used luxury as an expression of prestige and power, with a distinctive style that was imitated and adapted across cultural borders, even influencing democratic Athens and, later, the world of Alexander the Great.
'Treasure there was in plenty – tents full of gold and silver furniture… bowls, goblets, and cups, all made of gold'
When Greek soldiers captured the royal command tent of the Persian king during the Greco-Persian Wars (499–449 BC), they were confronted suddenly and spectacularly by luxury on an unimaginable scale. To many ancient Greek writers, the victories of the small Greek forces against the mighty Persians were a triumph of discipline and restraint over an empire weakened by decadence and excess.
Drawing on dazzling objects from Afghanistan to Greece, this exhibition moved beyond the ancient Greek spin to explore a more complex story about luxury as a political tool in the Middle East and southeast Europe from 550–30 BC. It explored how the royal Achaemenid court of Persia used precious objects as markers of authority, defining a style of luxury that resonated across the empire from Egypt to India. It considered how eastern luxuries were received in early democratic Athens, self-styled as Persia's arch-enemy, and how they were adapted in innovative ways to make them socially and politically acceptable. Finally, it explored how Alexander the Great swept aside the Persian empire to usher in a new Hellenistic age in which eastern and western styles of luxury were fused as part of an increasingly interconnected world.
The exhibition brought together exquisitely crafted objects in gold, silver and glass, and featured star loans including the extraordinary Panagyurishte Treasure from Bulgaria. Whether coveted as objects of prestige or disparaged as signs of decadence, the beauty of these Persian, Greek and Hellenistic luxuries shaped the political landscape of Europe and Asia in the first millennium BC – and their legacy persists in our attitudes to luxury today.
[*British Musem]
Taken in the British Museum