Gold Plaque from the Persian EmpireIn the nineteenth century, a huge collection of silver and gold objects from the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E., including this gold plaque, was found on the banks of the Oxus River in what is now Tajikistan. The plaque shows a man in the dress of the Medes with a short sword and a bundle of sticks called a barsom, which was used in religious ceremonies. (© The Trustees of the British Museum)