{{Short description|Alchon Huns bowl from Samarkand}} {{italic title}} {{Infobox artefact | name = Chilek silver bowl | image =Hunnic silver vase, Chilek near Smarkand, second third of 5th century CE.jpg | image_caption = The Chilek bowl, with an [[Alchon Hun]] ruler in the central medallion. | material = Bone | size = diameter 18.5 cm. | weight = 1003 grm | writing = | created = end of 5th century CE, early 6th century CE | place = Chilek, near Samarkand | location = [[State Museum of Culture History of Uzbekistan|Samarkand Museum]] | culture = [[Alchon Huns]] | id = | registration = | map = {{Location map|West_Asia#Uzbekistan#Bactria |width = |float = center |border = |caption = |alt = |relief = yes |AlternativeMap= |overlay_image = |label = Chilek |label_size = |position = right |background = |mark = |marksize = |link = |lat_deg = 39 |lat_min = 39 |lat_sec = 17 |lat_dir = N |lon_deg = 66 |lon_min = 58 |lon_sec = 33 |lon_dir = E }} }} The '''''Chilek silver bowl''''' ("Čilek bowl") is a silver bowl found in the area of [[Samarkand]], and considered as the "best known specimen of [[Hephthalite]] art". More specifically, the bowl seems to belong to the [[Alchon Huns]], south of the [[Hindu-Kush]], during the last third of the 5th century CE.<ref name="Bakker24"/> The Alchons have long been considered as a part or a sub-division of the Hephthalites, or as their eastern branch, but now tend to be considered as a separate entity.<ref name="ROTS">{{cite book |last1=Rezakhani |first1=Khodadad |title=ReOrienting the Sasanians: East Iran in Late Antiquity |date=2017 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=9781474400305 |pages=105–124 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bjRWDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA105 |language=en}}</ref><ref>"Note 8: It is now clear that the Hephtalites were not part of those Huns who conquered the land south of the Hindu-Kush and Sind as well in the early 6th century. In fact, this latter Hunnic group was the one commonly known as Alkhon because of the inscriptions on their coins (Vondrovec, 2008)."</ref><ref name="academia.edu">{{cite journal |last1=Rezakhani |first1=Khodadad |title=From the Kushans to the Western Turks |journal=King of the Seven Climes |year=2021 |page=207 |url=https://www.academia.edu/32671225 |language=en}}</ref>
The bowl is similar in composition with the [[Hephthalite silver bowl]], but represents "six dancers in Indian costume with Iranian ribbons and Hephthalite-short heads". It, too, is considered as an Alchon object, but possibly manufactured in India at the request of the Alchons. It is now in the [[State Museum of Culture History of Uzbekistan|Samarkand Museum]].<ref name="BB">{{cite journal |last1=Brentjes |first1=B. |title=The Hoard of Hephthalite Silver Vessels Found near Samarkand |journal=East and West |date=1971 |volume=21 |issue=1/2 |pages=77–78 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/29755649 |issn=0012-8376}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kurbanov |first1=Aydogdy |title=The hephthalites: iconographical materials |journal=Tyragetia |date=2014 |volume=VIII [XXIII] |page=328 |url=http://oaji.net/articles/2017/4586-1488311404.pdf}}</ref><ref name="Gray">{{cite journal |last1=GRAY |first1=BASIL |title=Post-Sasanian Metalwork |journal=Bulletin of the Asia Institute |date=1991 |volume=5 |page=61 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24048285 |issn=0890-4464}}</ref>
The man in the medallion at the bottom of the Chilek bowl has a clearly elongated skull, characteristic of the [[Alchon Huns]]. He wears royal ribbons in the Sasanian style, and holds a flower in his right hand, as seen in the coinage of [[Mehama]].<ref name="Bakker24">{{cite book |last1=Bakker |first1=Hans T. |title=The Alkhan: A Hunnic People in South Asia |publisher=Barkhuis |isbn=978-94-93194-00-7 |page=24 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZLnVDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA24 |language=en}}</ref> The bowl should probably be dated to the time of [[Khingila]] (430/440-490 CE).<ref name="BB"/>
The general style of such silver bowls with outside decoration and without stem is derived from earlier [[Sasanian Empire]] prototypes, and ultimately from the [[Achaemenid Empire]], and has been described as "post-Sasanian" or "sub-Sasanian".<ref name="Gray"/>
<gallery class="center" widths="200px" heights="200px" perrow="4"> File:Chilek bowl (top right detail).jpg|Detail of a dancer File:Chilek silver bowl Alchon ruler.jpg|The Alchon ruler in the central medallion of the bowl File:Khingila holding a flower.jpg|[[Khingila]] holding a flower, in his coinage </gallery>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{Central Asian history}}
[[Category:Hephthalites]] [[Category:5th-century artifacts]] [[Category:Archaeological discoveries in Uzbekistan]]