A plaster decoration that once hung in a Kushan king’s palace dates back 2,000 years.
Photo by Fredrik Hiebert / National Geographic.
Among the greatest treasures hidden away was the Bactrian gold, a collection of
20,457 golden objects excavated in northern Afghanistan in 1978 by Russian archaeologist
Viktor Sariandi. Excavating a crude burial mound not far from the city of Shiberghan,
Sariandi found that the coffins, skeletons and clothes of the six occupants had
rotted away, leaving behind a collection of near-pristine golden ornaments.
The collection included appliques from cloaks, figurines, clasps decorated with
cupids riding dolphins, pendants depicting scenes of war, a statue of the goddess
Aphrodite and an elaborate crown.
After the gold disappeared during the early stages of the war, historians feared
that it had been carried off to Russia or possibly melted down for its gold.
As it turned out, the Bactrian gold was stored in an elaborate bank vault along
with much of the country's store of gold bullion, protected behind a shield of seven
locks that defied the efforts of the Taliban to break in. It was not until August
2003, when a team of locksmiths was brought in from Germany, that their location
became known.
Hiebert was brought in this spring to catalog the gold with funding from the National
Endowment for the Humanities and the National Geographic Society. Using a portable
laboratory carried in a half dozen suitcases, the team identified each piece, photographed
it, cataloged it, and preserved it before packing it back away.
They found that every piece of the Bactrian collection, from medium-size statues
down to fingernail-size slivers, was present and accounted for.
When Hiebert finished that task, he was surprised to be told that there where some
other boxes to be inventoried. None of them were labeled, so he had no idea what
they contained.
The team began opening them in August of this year. The first set of boxes contained
2,000-year-old ivories from the Kushan capital of Begram, intricately carved and
engraved with scenes from palace life. Other boxes contained highly detailed glass
goblets from Alexandria, Egypt, bronze statues and plaster busts of the elites from
Rome and Begram, and early Buddhist sculptures.
"It was a very emotional experience watching these men [Afghan archaeologists]
as they saw their own heritage coming back to life," Hiebert said. "Every box we opened was like a Christmas package," he said. He said the team has now found and inventoried all but about 100 of the most valuable
artifacts from the museum.
"We were worried about animal damage, water damage, temperature damage,"
Hiebert said. "But they came out of their wrappings looking like they had just
come from the museum. They're in really wonderful condition, and I can't explain
it. It was an amazement to us and a joy."
The team also has re-created the original cataloging system, so they know which
items are missing from the collection. Armed with that information, international
authorities may be able to retrieve many of the items from dealers and collectors,
he said.
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