64 
A. Cunningham —Belies from Ancient Persia. 
[No. 1, 
Belies from Ancient Persia, in Gold, Silver, and Copper.—By Major- 
Gen. A. Cunningham, C. S. I., C. I. E. 
(With two Plates.) 
Second Notice. 
Since I wrote my previous account of the “Relics from Ancient 
Persia in gold, silver, and copper,”§ several new objects have been dis¬ 
covered, as well as a large number of coins. The find spot of these relics 
is on the banks of the Oxus, near a place called Kawat or Kuad, two 
marches from Kunduz and about midway between Kliulm and Kobadian. 
The place is one of the most frequented ferries on the Oxus, and has 
always been the chief thoroughfare on the road to Samarkand. My 
informants, whose agents are still at Khulm, say that the owner of the 
land has now stopped all search by other people, and that he intends to 
explore on his own account. 
The coins which I have seen, consist of 14 gold and 76 silver pieces. 
Amongst the former there is one inscribed double Daric, five common 
D arics, one double stater with a king’s head covered within Elephants 
skin, and Reverse, Victory with wreath (see Plate XVII, fig. 9 of my 
previous account) ; besides some fine staters of Antiochus, and two of 
Diodotus. The silver coins consist chiefly of tetradrachms of Athens 
(archaic), with one of Akanthus in Macedonia; the remainder being 
of Alexander, Seleukus I, Seleukus and Antiochus, Euthydemus and Anti- 
machus. There was also one Nickel coin of Agathokles, and a few copper 
coins of Euthydemus and Agathokles. The discovery is still marked by 
the continued absence of any Parthian coins, which would seem to show 
that the deposit must have been made before the time of Mithridates I 
(Arsakes VI). This conclusion is further borne out by the absence of the 
coins of Eukratides, the contemporary of Mithridates. As the coins of 
both of these Princes are very common, I conclude with some confidence 
that the deposit must have been made before their time, or not later than 
200 to 180 B. C. 
The ornaments and other articles of gold which have been discovered, 
though few in number, are of considerable interest—as they present us 
with several novel objects. They comprise a gold circlet of large size with 
two winged and horned gryphons at the end : 4f inches each way. As an 
engraving of this fine specimen of ancient Persian work has already 
appeared in the London Illustrated London News with a description by 
Sir Geo. Birdwood, it need not be given here. Sir George rightly divined 
* Bengal Asiatic Society’s Journal, Vol. L, Part I, 1881, p. 151. 
