Ca. 3000-2000 BC.A fine Bactrian alabaster vase, featuring a flat foot with the straight sides of the body terminating at a flared rim. It has a beautiful cream colour, with veins of light brown running through its body. Alabaster was a precious material, widely traded in the region from the 4th millennium BC onward. The purpose of such a vessel is not known. Pieces like this one often came from burials and votive offerings. Along with others that make up the typology of stone vessels, together with the well-known column or circular idols, these are all characteristic of the Bactrian material culture. This piece relates to an ancient culture referred to both as the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (BCAM) or as the Oxus Civilisation. The Bactria-Margiana culture spread across an area encompassing the modern nations of Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Northern Afghanistan. Flourishing between about 2100 and 1700 BC, it was contemporary with the European Bronze Age and was characterised by monumental architecture, social complexity, and extremely distinctive cultural artifacts that vanish from the record a few centuries after they first appear.Size: L:100mm / W:80mm ; 580gProvenance: Private UK collection; From an old British collection formed in the 1990s.