Archaeologists strke gold as Afghan treasure emerges from hiding place

The New York Times via SMH ^ | June 26, 2004 | By Carlotta Gall, in Kabul

[dead]

Under the Russians it was barely glimpsed. The Afghan communists allowed only peeks. Through the years of civil war and Taliban rule, its existence was kept secret by a few museum and bank workers, even as other priceless pieces of Afghanistan's cultural history were destroyed.

Now, what is known as the Bactrian gold - 20,600 pieces of gold jewellery, funeral ornaments and personal belongings from 2000-year-old burial mounds - has emerged from hiding intact, a shimmering example of the heights scaled by ancient Afghan culture.

For years the gold was feared stolen, lost or melted down by the different forces that held power during more than 20 years of war.

It was discovered by a Soviet-Afghan archaeological team in the winter of 1978-79, after communists had seized power in Kabul and months before the Soviet Army invaded, setting off 20 years of conflict and turmoil.

During those years, few people knew where it was, and they kept quiet. For 15 years the gold has been stored three floors down in the central bank vaults inside the royal palace compound, now the presidential palace.

Last month Afghan and foreign experts broke open the six safes inside the vault and began compiling a computerised inventory of the gold for the Kabul Museum.

The treasure includes thousands of small slivers of applique ornaments that decorated the funeral garments of the five women and one man found in the tombs, along with gold headdresses and richly worked pendants, dagger and sword hilts and scabbards carved with jewel-encrusted beasts.

They come from a site known to the locals as Tela Tapa, or Mound of Gold, on a dusty plain in northern Afghanistan that runs from the foothills of the Hindu Kush mountains down to the ancient River Oxus, now known as the Amu. The burial mound, not far from the modern town of Shiberghan, was probably a family cemetery belonging to rulers of one of the Kushan princedoms of the first century AD.

This was once the centre of the Bactrian empire, which stretched from the city of Balkh (the ancient Bactra) across northern Afghanistan. The territory was conquered by Alexander the Great in 329 BC and ruled by his Greek followers for a century afterwards. It was later conquered by nomadic tribes from the Siberian and Chinese steppes, who founded the dazzling Kushan empire around 135 BC.

The collection has rarely been seen. Delivered to the National Museum in Kabul in February 1979, some pieces were briefly displayed. But with the Soviet invasion that year, the treasure was packed away and seen only twice in the next 15 years.

The decade of civil war after the Soviet withdrawal raised the greatest fears and wildest rumours about the Bactrian gold and the museum's treasures. The Islamic fighters who fought the Soviet Army seized power in 1992, and then fought bitterly among themselves over Kabul.

Then the Taliban seized control of Kabul in 1996. Armed men ordered a central bank employee to open the vault in the Arg and brought in a gold merchant to inspect the bullion. But they knew nothing of the Bactrian gold lying just metres away, said one bank employee. As they left at that time and the bank official locked the massive safe door, he snapped off the key in the lock, which successfully frustrated further attempts by the Taliban to enter the vault.

For now, the Bactrian gold is packed up once more in new safes and awaits calmer days. Afghans and others will have to wait a while longer to see it.

[Redbob]

I'm surprised the mullahs of the Taliban didn't order it all to be melted down.

[Sabertooth]

Then the Taliban seized control of Kabul in 1996. Armed men ordered a central bank employee to open the vault in the Arg and brought in a gold merchant to inspect the bullion. But they knew nothing of the Bactrian gold lying just metres away, said one bank employee. As they left at that time and the bank official locked the massive safe door, he snapped off the key in the lock, which successfully frustrated further attempts by the Taliban to enter the vault.

To Dark Age cultists for whom tents are mansions and mud-brick huts are fortresses, the skills of a locksmith are infidel sorcery.

[OSHA]

This was once the centre of the Bactrian empire, which stretched from the city of Balkh (the ancient Bactra) across northern Afghanistan

I am the last living descendant of the Bactrain Royal Family.

[MEG33]

FYI..Thought this would interest you!

[rabidralph]

Then the Taliban seized control of Kabul in 1996.

And magically, the gold and those who have kept it safe can now display it freely, for others to enjoy. I wonder why the writer doesn't mention what happened to the Taliban?

[monday]

"And magically, the gold and those who have kept it safe can now display it freely, for others to enjoy."

Actually, from the article :"For now, the Bactrian gold is packed up once more in new safes and awaits calmer days. Afghans and others will have to wait a while longer to see it."