Hidden Afghanistan
Background information
Seen from the West, Afghanistan is the land where Alexander the Great’s eastward campaign of conquest, like that of the Persians, was halted. The Oxus river, the present Amu Darya, marks the edge of the ‘barbarian’ world. It is also the eastern frontier of ancient Bactria, with its legendary capital Bactra. Conversely, for the Chinese Afghanistan was the most distant westerly region they reached on their way to India. For them Afghanistan was the land of the Kushanas, the nomadic dynasty that took the place of the Greek rulers they drove out in the beginning of the Christian Era. Buddhism spread through this empire along the silk road in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD.
The remarkable objects in this exhibition illustrate the function of Afghanistan as a unique crossroads of civilisations, and help this war-torn land to recover its past and its memory. For this purpose a selection has been made from the collection of the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul, specifically from objects from four archaeological sites: Tepe Fullol, Ai Khanum, Tillya-tepe and Begram. The focus is not only on archaeological adventures, but also on the ancient history of the country, from the earliest times to the Kushana empire.
Tepe Fullol dates from the Bactrian Bronze Age (around 2000 BC). A larger section deals with Ai Khanum, a city that was founded by Greeks in the wake of Alexander the Great’s campaign of conquest and that bears witness to Hellenism on the edge of the steppes (4th to 2nd centuries BC). The gold treasure of Tillya-tepe is famous: jewellery and other art objects from six graves dating from the 1st century AD which were excavated in 1979 by a Soviet-Afghan team led by the Russian archaeologist Viktor Sarianidi. They form a splendid mix of the art of the steppes, Graeco-Roman iconography, Indian objects and Chinese mirrors. In Begram, lastly, which also dates from the 1st century AD, two sealed chambers were revealed in 1937 and 1939 containing elaborate Indian furniture in ivory, glass, vases and plaster emblemata of Hellenist origin.
The National Museum of Kabul: destruction and rebuilding
The exhibition is also the story of the National Museum of Kabul, a museum that came through twenty years of war. The sites featured form the heart of the museum, which is now being rebuilt. The idea for a museum came about in 1919. Three years later it was built in Kabul. Up to the end of the 1970s about 100,000 items were kept in the museum. They were examined, made accessible and viewed by thousands of students and visitors. This all changed from 1978, the year in which a coup took place. A year later the pieces were transferred from the museum to the home of a minister. The Russian occupation after the invasion of 22 December 1979 caused two million deaths and devastated the economy and the cultural infrastructure. Museums in Hadda and Jalalabad were damaged and plundered. On the other hand, the National Museum in Kabul was restored. Eighteen months after the rescue operation the pieces were brought back. Meanwhile the restoration of the museum had been finished.
In 1988, when the security situation deteriorated, the National Museum again decided to arrange for its important collections to ‘go underground’. The treasures from Begram, Ai Khanum and Tillya-tepe were moved to a vault in the presidential palace. Only a few people knew. In the subsequent years they went to great lengths to ensure that no one else discovered the hiding place. After the fall of the Communists in 1992, the country and the museum were subjected to a devastating civil war. The museum staff were sent home after threats, physical abuse and even murders. Two large works were stolen from the museum and later on the storerooms were broken into and robbed. In 1994 the museum was struck by a rocket and set on fire. Thanks to the efforts of UNESCO, the storerooms were secured for the time being. Despite these measures, that winter the roof caught fire and collapsed onto the room where the frescoes were kept. The decision was made to evacuate the 3000 pieces from the museum to Hotel Kabul. The low point for the National Museum came early in 2001 when the Taliban regime decided that all images should be destroyed. A specially organised group destroyed not only the celebrated buddhas of Bamiyan (55 and 38 metres high), but also 2500 works of art in the National Museum’s collection.
It was not until 2003, more than a year after the overthrow of the Taliban regime, that the Afghan government confirmed that the treasures in the palace vault were safe. Registration and restoration began in April 2004: 22,607 objects had survived the devastating regimes. Given the current situation, the Afghan government thought it premature to put the collection back in the still severely damaged museum, and the idea of a large travelling exhibition was launched. The Musée Guimet in Paris was approached in 2005. Together with the DAFA (the French archaeological delegation in Afghanistan), this museum has always played a leading role in excavating and exhibiting Afghanistan’s cultural heritage. The upshot was the present exhibition, which was seen at the Musée Guimet in December 2006 and the spring of 2007. From there it travelled to Turin and is now coming to Amsterdam.
Tepe Fullol
In 1966 farmers happened to find some gold and silver vases near Fullol in northern Afghanistan. They began to chop them into equal pieces with an axe so that they could share them out. Fortunately, thanks to rapid intervention, the government was able to get hold of twelve undamaged vases, five gold and seven silver. They found their way to the National Museum. After the last devastating twenty years, only three vases have been recovered; the rest have disappeared.
The vases (nrs. 1 & 2) are decorated with boars, bulls and/or bisons or with geometric patterns. The skeleton found with them indicates that they were burial gifts. They do not show any particular resemblance to other finds in Afghanistan or neighbouring regions. Instead, the decoration strongly suggests Pakistani, Mesopotamian or Turkmenistani influences. But then what are these vases doing in Tepe Fullol? They might be the outcome of exchanges with areas in west Asia, and in particular as part of the trade in lapis lazuli. It is known that this expensive stone from Afghanistan was highly coveted in Mesopotamia. The pieces would then date from the end of the 3rd millennium BC. It has also been suggested that the Tepe Fullol treasure was a secret cache with objects from different periods. Others have dated the vases later because they saw a relation to the decoration of the tombs at Marlik in northern Iran (late 2nd – early 1st millennium BC). New excavations and comparative studies have revealed a more extensive, relatively homogeneous cultural complex in various parts of Central Asia and the Indo-Iranian border areas which has been given the name of, among others, Oxus civilisation. These peoples lived between 2200 and 1800 BC in a huge area with its core in the southeast of Iran and the western Indus Valley in modern Pakistan. The Fullol vases are now seen as luxury objects belonging to this Oxus civilisation.
Tillya-tepe
In the winter of 1978-1979 a Soviet -Afghan archaeological expedition led by Viktor Sarianidi was carrying out research on the left bank of the River Oxus, in the oasis of Sheberghan near the border with Turkmenistan. It was the site of the ruins of Emshi-tepe, a walled city of the Greek-Bactrian period. Beyond the city wall was a mound 3-4 metres high. When the archaeologists found shards from the 2nd millennium BC there, they decided to dig further. Beneath the sand they came upon the remains of a monumental structure with a terrace and colonnaded courts that was surrounded by a thick wall. During this excavation six graves were discovered, some in the side of the mound, some in the wall. More than 20,000 objects were excavated, cleaned and taken to the National Museum in Kabul. Just days before the completion of the dig, a seventh grave was found. It was covered over, and the plan was to return in a year’s time. Because of the Soviet invasion at the end of 1979 and the devastation caused by successive regimes, they were never able to go back. The seventh grave has since been robbed and left empty. Nonetheless, in the mid-1980s Sarianidi went back one more time to Kabul, where he had all the finds photographed and published in the superb book ‘L’or de la Bactriane’ (Leningrad 1985). That was not long before the treasure was moved to the vault in the presidential palace.
Each grave was a rectangular shape measuring two by two and a half metres, two metres under the ground. In the middle, resting on a support, was a wooden chest covered by a cloth. Here lay the deceased, dressed for their last journey: five women and one warrior. They were about 30 years old. Typically for nomads, gold was stitched to their clothing. They wore bracelets with semi-precious stones. Three women bore a Chinese mirror from the early Han dynasty on their chest (c. 1st century BC). Another woman wore a flower-shaped gold crown (nr. 24). Two women had a coin in their hand for their last journey; the woman with the crown had one in her mouth. The warrior was a prince and had beautifully decorated weapons. His head rested on a gold dish (nr. 21).
It seems as if the way of life of these nomads was disrupted, and that they lacked the time and the resources to build a proper grave, a so-called kurgan. Yet it was still essential to bury their dead in mounds, as their forefathers had done. The location of the graves is not accidental: the man was at the top of the mound, flanked by the most splendidly dressed women. They were buried in the wall itself, the other women in the side of the mound. The dating is based on the most recent coin (nr. 12) found. It bears the name of the Roman emperor Tiberius and so must have been struck during his reign, between 14 and 37 AD.
Who were the makers of these magnificent artefacts? The art of Tillya-tepe is a mix: Chinese objects (or imitations), pieces from India, but mainly works with Hellenistic features. The mixing of influences is typical of nomadic art, but it sometimes looks curious and is not always entirely free of mistakes. Thus the goddess Athena appears to lean on a lance, but the lance is missing. Or she is shown sitting, but without a seat (nr. 13). One motif is ubiquitous: the heart. In glass, short, long, inlaid with turquoise or not, it has been found in all the graves. It is not often seen in antiquity and should not be given a modern interpretation: no queen of hearts, no warm feelings, but a motif derived from an ivy leaf depicted on the scabbard of the warrior’s dagger (nr. 20). We do not know why it was given so much prominence. Nor do we know which nomadic tribes left these finds. Was it the Yuezhi from northwest China or the Sakas from the Parthian empire in modern Iran and Turkmenistan? The principal conclusion from this excavation is that the Afghan territory was a melting pot of very diverse types of art.
Ai Khanum
While Alexander the Great was on his way to India (327 BC) he realised that order and peace were needed in the territories he had just conquered. He left Greeks and Macedonians from his army behind and they founded cities and colonies. These were often named after him, such as Alexandria in Aria (the present Herat) and Alexandropolis (the present Kandahar).
The mythical hero was held back by the exhaustion of his troops, the large Indian elephants and the vastness of the Indian subcontinent. He decided to end the expedition. As a result, the city now known by the Uzbek name Ai Khanum (the ancient name is lost) remained at the edge of the Hellenistic world. The city on the banks of the Oxus adopted the Greek lifestyle and town planning: it had a gymnasium, a theatre and heroes’ shrines. In the centre stood a palace complex with monumental Corinthian capitals (nr. 5) and flat roofs with antefixae (nr. 9).
The city was not discovered until 1961. Then the late king Zahir Shah was offered a stone with a Corinthian capital during a hunting party in the area. The king, himself an expert, reported this to the French-Afghan archaeological delegation. Excavations followed between 1964 and 1978 in which large parts of the city were laid bare. Many of the objects now on display are linked to a building in this city: the capitals and antefixae already mentioned to the palace, a mask to the theatre (nr. 6), beautiful sundials to the gymnasium. Religion also left its mark: coins with images of Hermes or Hestia and a plaque with an image of Cybele from the temple (nr. 4). In addition, there are remarkable imported luxury goods from India such as a disc with coloured glass and gold strips.
The end of the city came completely unexpectedly. In 145 BC nomads from the east set fire to the city and robbed the treasure house, which was later plundered by local peoples too. Around 140 BC the Hellenistic city was a wilderness of ruins which would gradually be buried under its own rubble and the sand.
Begram
Begram was already mentioned in the report by the English archaeologist Charles Masson. In 1833 he found a great many coins ‘on the Begram plain’. A little over one hundred years later in 1937, the Begram treasure, on view in the exhibition, was found. It was discovered in two locked chambers where on benches lining the walls bronze was grouped with bronze, glass with glass and ivory with ivory. Was it a store of trade goods, a religious gift or a real ‘treasure’?
What is clear is that these are beautiful objects. The most spectacular pieces are in glass or ivory. Judging by their feeling for movement and eye for detail, the fishing and hunting scenes on glass (nr. 29) were done by extremely gifted artists. The vases in résille motif (with an undulating ‘net’ around the belly of the vase, nr. 28) are unique. The ivory pieces are also remarkable. Some are decorated with passages from buddhist legends and love stories that are related to early Indian art (nrs. 32, 26 & 27). So the Begram treasure is an excellent example of the mutual fascination between the Greek and buddhist culture regions of the 1st century AD.
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