Editing Saka (section)

=== Tillia Tepe treasure (2nd-1st century BC) ===
{{Main|Tillia Tepe}}
[[File:TilliaTepeReconstitution.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|left|Artifacts found the tombs 2 and 4 of [[Tillya Tepe]] and reconstitution of their use on the man and woman found in these tombs]]
A site found in 1968 in [[Tillia Tepe]] (literally "the golden hill") in northern [[Afghanistan]] (former Bactria) near [[Shebergan]] consisted of the graves of five women and one man with extremely rich jewelry, dated to around the 1st century BC, and probably related to that of Saka tribes normally living slightly to the north.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pankova |first1=Svetlana |last2=Simpson |first2=St John |title=Scythians: warriors of ancient Siberia |date=1 January 2017 |publisher=British Museum |page=66, Item 25 |url=https://www.academia.edu/34533231 |quote=These graves at Tillya Tepe were initially regarded by the excavator as belonging to Yuezhi or Kushan nobility, but they are most likely to be tombs of a local tribal chief and his family who had strong connections with the Sakā cultures of Central Asia.}}</ref> Altogether the graves yielded several thousands of pieces of fine jewelry, usually made from combinations of [[gold]], [[turquoise]] and [[lapis-lazuli]].

A high degree of cultural [[syncretism]] pervades the findings, however. [[Hellenistic]] cultural and artistic influences appear in many of the forms and human depictions (from [[Putto|amorini]] to rings with the depiction of [[Athena]] and her name inscribed in Greek), attributable to the existence of the [[Seleucid empire]] and [[Greco-Bactrian]] kingdom in the same area until around 140 BC, and the continued existence of the [[Indo-Greek kingdom]] in the northwestern Indian sub-continent until the beginning of our era. This testifies to the richness of cultural influences in the area of Bactria at that time.