 (armlet) (British Museum), embellished with inlay, from the Oxus Treasure. A series of silver dishes (State Hermitage Museum) from the end of the 1st millennium BC are, on the other hand, decorated with scenes from the tragedies of the Greek dramatist Euripides and Greco-Roman mythology rendered in a Hellenized style. Other silver dishes employ Indian motifs such as elephants. By the 8th century these diverse ornamental motifs had fused, as on a silver-gilt bowl (State Hermitage Museum) dated from the 5th to 8th century AD, into a Kushān style that may well have provided the basis for Persia's later Rey figural pottery style.KushānThe Kushāns replaced the Greeks in Bactria about 130 BC. They are thought to have been of Yüeh-chih stock with a strong admixture of Hephthalites, Śaka, and Tocharian. One branch of this group migrated to the Tarim Basin and founded a short-lived empire, while the other, under the name of Kushān, gained control of Central Asia. Capturing a section of the great trade route leading from India and China to the west, the Kushāns derived much of their revenue from the transit dues they exacted from the caravans crossing their territory, which often were carrying supplies of Chinese gold, silver, and nickel from the Tarim oasis towns to the Seleucid Persians. About 106 BC the first caravan to carry silk from China direct to Persia passed through territory that had belonged to the Seleucids but was now divided between the Kushāns and Parthians.Kushān art reached its fullest development in the 2nd century AD, when the great king Kaniṣka (Kaniska) is believed to have reigned. A magnificent, almost life-size, now headless sculpture of Kaniṣka (Archaeological Museum, Mathurā) shows him wearing an elegant version of nomadic dress. His kingdom extended from Central Asia to include Gandhāra and Mathurā, where the Seleucids had so firmly established Hellenistic art that Western influence continued to maintain its hold even in the reign of the first members of India's Gupta dynasty. When Mahāyāna Buddhism reached Gandhāra during the 4th and 5th centuries AD, its sculptors turned to the Hellenistic world as a matter of course for a visual conception of Buddha and quickly evolved several Hellenistic versions. In the popular Apollo version, Buddha is long-faced, long-nosed, and has wavy hair. This type survived into the 5th century and penetrated as far as Kashmir and Turkistan.A school of religious sculpture equal in importance to that of Gandhāra (Gandhāra art) developed almost simultaneously at Mathurā (Mathurā art). Its earliest Buddhist images are virtually contemporary with the earliest ones produced in Gandhāra, but, in Mathurā, Indian influences predominate. The portrayal of Buddha in the Mathurān style is softer yet more direct. The features are more Eastern; eyebrows extend in a continuous, sinous line; hair is straight; the earlobes are elongated; and an enigmatic smile replaces the withdrawn expression of the Hellenized Buddhas of Gandhāra. While the sculptors of Mathurā used a red sandstone, the Gandhārans worked in limestone or a local gray schist. They generally chose the latter for the small, uniform-sized panels with which they faced their stūpas and vishanas, carving them with scenes of Buddha's life. On the panels, the story unfolds from left to right, each scene being framed within either trees, leaves, or Corinthian columns sometimes linked by arches. These religious narratives often include furniture and details drawn from contemporary life. The figures, which use gestures of Indian origin to convey emotion, display racial characteristics that range from Indo-European to Mongolian. Many figures are presented in the frontal position favoured by Parthian artists, while others appear three-quarter face, as in Hellenistic art. Some wear Hellenistic robes and headdresses such as those worn in Palmyra, an ancient city in Syria. The Gandhāran style of sculpture was no longer produced after this area was invaded by the White Huns, in the 6th century.Central Afghanistan is rich in Kushān sites. Ātes