In this hall you can see bronze pots and incense-burners representing the culture of ancient Iranian nomads living in Central Asia – the Saka (Eastern Scythians of the 7th–3rd centuries BC). In the centre of the hall is a bronze Saka altar that was found in the Semirechye region, near to Almaty in Kazakhstan.
The settled agricultural tribes of Margiana (a region in the south-east of today’s Turkmenistan) –contemporaries and competitors of the Saka – produced other bronze articles and pottery that was turned on the wheel.
Seleucid and Greco-Bactrian coins from the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC reflect the Hellenistic stage in the history of southern Central Asia that followed Alexander the Great’s epoch-making campaign to the East. An idea of the culture of the Parthian Empire of the Arsacids that arose in the area of southern Turkmenia and grew through conquests to rank alongside the Roman Empire is provided by ivory rhytons of the 2nd century BC from the treasury of the first capital in Old Nisa, elements of architectural decoration from temples, and ostracons – shards of pottery carrying inscriptions from a wine store.
