Golden Gift for Afghanistan

Another in my ‘virtual gallery’ recommendations. Today, the Musee Guimet in Paris, which is has just put on display the treasure of Tilya Tepe, the Hill of Gold, from near the Oxus river in northern Afghanistan - and it has quite a story to tell – fantastic wealth, burial, rediscovery, plunder, looting, despair, triumph.

Unfortunately, the actual gallery site offers no images from the exhibition; www.guimet.fr – although it looks a fantastic bricks and mortar place to lose yourself in. So, you’ll just have to read on:

This golden treasure hoard of more than 2,000 necklaces, beads, crowns, even golden sandals, dates from around the time of the birth of Christ and was found in 1978 by a Russian team of archeologists working in an area which had historically been at the crossroads of trade routes radiating out to China, India and the Mediterranean. The gold on display literally reflects all the diverse influences passing through, setting up camp and staying awhile in this then cosmopolitan region.

Soon after the unearthing of this treasure, Afghanistan found itself mired in war; the Soviets invaded, the country suffered years of civil war, and the national museum in Kabul, home to the treasure, was looted and vandalized successively by mujahadeen and by the ruling Taleban. Those who knew of the existence of what came to be called the Bactrian Gold were unsure of its fate. Plundered; melted down; smuggled out of the country. No one knew.

But in 2004, the treasure hoard was found intact and gorgeous.

I read about the rediscovery of the Bactrian Gold on the BBC website in a piece by Lawrence Pollard, who makes what is obviously a heartfelt plea for the international community to rethink its ideas on the nature of Afghan civilization. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6215002.stm

Pollard wrote: “ Afghanistan ..is not just about camels and Kalashnikovs, it's about a fabulous mix of cultures and has a genuinely significant heritage.

And the real pleasure is that you do not need an expert's eye to spot the influences. There are column capitals from Ai-Khanoum - a Greek city in northern Afghanistan - which anyone can tell look as if they are from a Greek temple.

There are ivory tablets and sculptures of wide-hipped and large-breasted dancing girls, which you know look Indian. A coin bears the Buddhist wheel, one buckle bears Roman dolphins, another a Chinese-looking devil... and on it goes.

Among all the glitter and the simple thrill of seeing such beautiful objects, there are also some sobering thoughts. One is that for nearly a quarter of a century, Afghanistan's culture has been systematically looted by illegal digging.

Ai-Khanoum has been stripped. If there is other stuff as gorgeous as the Bactrian gold, it may already have been stolen and smuggled.

When it returns from its brief tour (which looks like taking in Holland, Germany and the US), Afghanistan's golden treasure can not be shown to the Afghans for security reasons. They have never seen it, and they will not now.”

See my blog on the history of The Great Game, played out in Afghanistan - Afghanistan in Pictures: 2.11.2006