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.

[2][3][4] 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".

[5][6][7] 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.

[5] 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".