Analysis of one Parahindukushian composition (end of the 3rd – beginning of the 2nd millennium BC)

The paper analyses the content of the composition decorating a silver axe, which is considered to be a Bactria-Margiana origin, dated from the end of the 3rd – beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. This axe was purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) in 1982 from a hereditary Iranian, later American art dealer M. Mahbubian. The author of the paper considers this axe as a material source. The results of the study make it possible to link the design of the axe with the religious traditions that developed in later times in the territories lying on both sides of the Hindu Kush.