…and the golden fish of the Oxus

Field: Arts and Humanities (Social Sciences)

I don't know much about archaeology, I don't own a bullwhip, have never been chased by a rolling stone ball, and I rather like snakes. Yet I recently embarked on an adventure in ancient history, and all because I like fishing. It all started 2500 years ago, somewhere in the Persian Empire. A craftsman sat in his workshop with a sheet of gold before him, pondering how he might transform it into a fish. Not a real fish, of course, but a vessel in the likeness of a fish, one that could act as an elaborate pendant or carry scented oil or perfume. His commission, however, was not for a delicate fish-shaped vial that a discerning lady might conceal among her robes but for something the size of a bottle. And this posed a problem. He could, of course, reproduce a generic fish from memory. But would that do for a piece requiring so appreciable an investment in gold? Would it not be better to use a model? But if so, what species? As part of the Oxus Treasure you can now admire the craftsman's work (all 24.2 cm and 370 g of it) in the British Museum (London). Yet the accompanying information does not reveal the choices he made, leaving us with an archaeoichthyological mystery to solve! The exact spot where the Oxus Treasure was found is uncertain, although it was probably discovered by local people near or in the River Oxus itself, at Takht-i Kuwad between 1877 and 1880, in what is now modern-day Tajikistan. Its many items – including coins, golden statuettes, and miniature chariots – are fine examples of Achaemenid Persian work in precious metals, though no one is quite sure where the different pieces were actually made. St John Simpson, Assistant Keeper (Ancient Iran and Arabia) at the British Museum, informed me that no published identification of the golden fish's species exists, although visiting Central Asian scholars have suggested it may represent a bottom-feeding carp or something similar (see http://bit.ly/2da8lhm). Yet any angler worth his salt would immediately question whether this is a carp. While the overall body shape is reminiscent of the common carp (Cyprinus carpio), which would have been known to ancient Persians, the golden fish's dorsal fin is all wrong. If it were a common carp, this fin would be much longer, running down the back almost to the tail. The anal fin is wrong too, lacking the thick spine at its start, always ready to prick an unwary fisherman's fingers. A carp with very different fins, almost identical to those of the golden fish, is the black carp (Mylopharyngodon piceus), and it does live in the Oxus, but it was introduced from East Asia in the mid-20th century, long after our craftsman's time. “Nor does the black carp have the two pairs of barbels (fleshy filaments) clearly visible on the golden fish's mouth”, observed Soheil Eagderi, a scholar of Persian fishes at the University of Tehran and Managing Editor of the Iranian Journal of Ichthyology, who joined me in my investigations – and whose knowledge would prove critical. So what other types of fish have a similar body shape, two pairs of barbels, and fins like the golden fish? Easy. Barbels (Barbus spp)! Taxonomists seem to take much joy in confusing would-be Indiana Joneses by constantly renaming and reclassifying these fish, and when dealing with them academically it is always a good thing to have an expert by your side. Examining images of different barbels, I soon found an excellent candidate for the craftsman's model: Luciobarbus capito. According to Eagderi, “This species is now regarded as belonging to the Caspian Sea Basin, far to the west of the Oxus”. In the golden fish the eye may be a little higher, and the scale pattern and fin rays are inaccurately reproduced, but if it was made in this part of the Empire, L capito could well have been the craftsman's model. “However”, Eagderi continued, “there is an endemic fish of the Oxus [which drains northwestward into the Aral Sea] with a similar body shape plus two pairs of barbels: Luciobarbus conocephalus”. Of course, they'd been reclassifying again; all I could find in the literature was Luciobarbus capito conocephalus and Barbus conocephalus. “Based on the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature's new rules, there is no Luciobarbus capito conocephalus or its synonym Barbus conocephalus anymore”, Eagderi explained. “It is now known as L conocephalus: the Turkestan barbel”. And he produced a picture. If the golden fish was made in the Oxus region, L conocephalus must surely have guided the craftsman's hands. I still have no bullwhip. But who needs one? If you flick it properly, a fishing pole can make a cracking good noise! The golden fish of the Oxus (top), Luciobarbus capito (middle), and Luciobarbus conocephalus (bottom). S Eagderi, S Eagderi, N Khoey; CC BY-SA 2.0