The Bactrio-Margiana Archeological Complex (BMAC) can be defined by the commonality of cultural expression, including bronze metallurgy throughout a vast geographical area encompassing modern Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and northern Afghanistan. During the late third and early second millennia BC, this area of western Central Asia produced a vast array of metal ornaments, attesting to a highly developed civilization, constituted by small fortified urban centres, connected by waterways and well engaged in trade and commerce with both sedentary and nomadic peoples.At that time, local craftsmen were already well versed in the metallurgy of copper and arsenical copper and fully mastered the bronze fusion in moulds and lost wax, creating extremely complex forms both for ceremonial and utilitarian artifacts.

Antiquities
Ancient Near East