Balalyk Tepe

Balalyk tepe, in former Bactria, modern Uzbekistan, is a Central Asian archaeological site with many mural paintings.

[10][11] The paintings of Balalyk Tepe are also sometimes considered as the oldest of "the large pictorial cycles" in Central Asia.

[13] In this context, parallels have been drawn with the figures from Kizil Caves in Chinese Turkestan, which seem to wear broadly similar clothing.

The paintings of Balalyk Tepe would be characteristic of the court life of the Hephthalites in the first half of the 6th century CE, before the arrival of the Turks.

In some coins from Chach, modern Tashkent, rulers appear in portrait, facing right, with a tamgha in the shape of an X, and a circular Sogdian legend.

Balalyk Tepe mural
Swordmen in Kizil Caves
Mural of a man, from Balalyk Tepe, with an appearance similar to that on some of the coinage of Chach . 5th-7th century CE. [ 18 ]