Gandharan cosmetic lids with hunting scenes Circular box lid with hunting scene. Kronos collection Fragment of a Gandharan lid with a hunting scene. Metropolitan Museum of Art

Hunting plaque. Private collection. It shows a mounted rider leaning forward to shoot an arrow at a roaring lion.

Cosmetic lids
We may agree with Ghose that some cosmetic lids, by decoration and stylistic features, from the Gandharan region of Pakistan could be linked with the Hephthalites or at least to the time when the Hephthalites ruled in this region. All of them date from the 4th – early 6th centuries AD and come from unexcavated contexts.

Fig. 71. Lids:
2. Circular box lid with hunting scene. Kronos collection (fig. 71, 2).
3. Fragment of a lid with a hunting scene. Metropolitan Museum of Art (fig. 71, 3).
5. Hunting plaque. Private collection. It shows a mounted rider leaning forward to shoot an arrow at a roaring lion. The plumed helmet headgear of the horseman is typical of the Alchon Huns (fig. 71, 5). ³⁶¹

361 Ghose 2003, 145-158; Bopearachchi et al. (eds.) 2003, 355.

Source: The Hephthalites: Archaeological and Historical Analysis, by Aydogdy Kurbanov