section_path: Asia/Central Asia/Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex
section_name: Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex
paragraph_text: Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex
  
  The Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC), also known as the Oxus civilization, was a Bronze Age civilization in Central Asia, dated to c. 2400–1600 BC, located in present-day northern Afghanistan, eastern Turkmenistan, southern Uzbekistan and western Tajikistan, centred on the upper Amu Darya (Oxus River). Its sites were discovered and named by the Soviet archaeologist Viktor Sarianidi (1976). Bactria was the Greek name for the area of Bactra (modern Balkh), in what is now northern Afghanistan, and Margiana was the Greek name for the Persian satrapy of Marguš, the capital of which was Merv, in modern-day southeastern Turkmenistan.
  
  A wealth of information indicates that the BMAC had close international relations with the Indus Valley, the Iranian Plateau, and possibly even indirectly with Mesopotamia; all civilizations were very familiar with lost wax casting.
  
  According to a 2019 study, the BMAC was not a primary contributor to later South-Asian genetics.