[CPProt.net] American Archaeologist Authenticates Afghanistan’s Recovered National Treasures

[Ellie Bruggeman]

American Archaeologist Authenticates Afghanistan’s Recovered National 
Treasures

TELEVISION VIEWERS around the world witnessed the looting of priceless 
antiquities from Iraq’s national museum as U.S. troops passively 
observed the blatant theft of a nation’s heritage.

It was presumed the same thing happened to Afghanistan’s historical 
treasures when that country’s national museum was reduced to a roofless, 
derelict building during the war against Soviet occupation and 
subsequent Taliban rule.

But archaelogists were puzzled by the fact that most of the precious 
objects from the Kabul museum failed to show up in Western auction 
houses. The museum had gained notoriety for its collection of more than 
21,000 primarily gold objects of the Bactrian culture recovered in 1978 
at Tilya Tepe (Mountain of Gold) by Russian archaeologist Viktor 
Sarianidi. As word of the horde of gold ornaments spread, Sarianidi 
rushed the treasure trove to the Afghan capital for safety.

When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan shortly afterward, in 1979, it was 
feared the prized objects had been sent to the U.S.S.R. or melted down.

In 1988, a young American archaeologist, Fredrik Hiebert, began working 
with Sarianidi. He soon became a specialist on the ancient Bactrian 
cultures that thrived in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Iran and Afghanistan.

In the summer of 2003, Hiebert received word that the Bactrian gold was 
in the hands of the Afghan government. The legendary Bactrian gold 
collection and Afghanistan’s gold bullion had been sequestered in an 
impenetrable vault protected by seven elaborate locks in the 
presidential palace complex. The Taliban had tried and failed to crack 
the safe.

After the Taliban were expelled, the new government called in a team of 
locksmiths to open the vault, and invited Hiebert to Kabul to head a 
team of archaeologists to verify the authenticity of its contents.

During a Jan. 27 lecture at the University of California at Los Angeles 
(UCLA), Hiebert, who is a National Geographic fellow and a research 
associate at the University of Pennsylvania and Oxford University, said 
he and Sarianidi were present in Kabul as five Central Bank officials 
and technicians began to open the vault.

“We were shocked,” Heibert recalled, “we weren’t prepared.” Eighteen 
people watched breathlessly as one treasure after another was removed 
from its quarter-century interment.

The awestruck scientists stared in disbelief as precious gold appliqués, 
pendants and clasps, an elaborate crown and a statue of Aphrodite were 
carefully unwrapped.

As Minister of Culture Makhdoom Raheen removed each object, he handed it 
to Hiebert, who weighed and measured it, then gave it a new 
identification number and description in English and the Afghan Dari 
language. The final step was to take a digital photograph of each item.

“I wanted to make sure we weren’t disrupting the traditional system with 
our photographic and scientific measurements,” Hiebert explained. “We 
preserved the traditional Afghan keyholder system and repacked the 
objects in new safes with UNESCO and the Afghan government overseeing 
their storage in a secret location.”

As the inventory process drew to an end, the minister of culture 
inquired: “Would you like to look at these other boxes?”

Hiebert stared incredulously as he was presented with six dented and 
dusty tin trunks.

“Then there were 20, then 80, and finally 120 containers were brought to 
us,” he told his UCLA audience. “Some were just tin boxes with a lock, 
others were safes with keys. Many were dented and indicated animals had 
leaned or rested on them.”

Ultimately, more than 2,500 objects documenting the unique history of 
Afghanistan were pulled from the ragtag amalgam of containers.

Exquisitely carved ivory plaques from the Kushan culture, cast bronze 
busts of the classical Roman style, Chinese lacquer bowls, Buddhist 
bodhisattva sculptures, first century glassware and a crystal vase 
engraved with the image of Alexandria’s Pharos lighthouse were withdrawn 
from the battered containers.

Hiebert and Sarianidi were delighted to discover that 2,000 of the 
choicest coins were intact. These include a series of 5th century B.C. 
coins illustrated with the profiles of successive kings.

Miraculously, fewer than 100 objects are now missing from the Kabul 
Museum’s original display collection.

“The Kabul Museum was small, but every article was a masterpiece,” 
Hiebert explained.

“The real heroes are the men who risked their lives while bombs were 
falling to rescue their national treasures,” the American archaeologist 
said. “We’ll never know who they were, but they carefully packed each 
object in pink toilet paper or newspaper. They sealed lock holes over 
with a paper bearing the names of eight to 10 of the signers stating the 
boxes couldn’t be opened unless all the signatories or their descendents 
were present.”

“Best of all,” Hiebert marveled, “through every indignity occurring in 
their country, they managed to keep the whereabouts of their national 
treasures secret.”

Hiebert views these recovered antiquities as proof of a distinct Central 
Asian identity midway between the eastern and western outposts of the 
Silk Route.

“These objects from China, India, Egypt, Rome, Greece and ancient Afghan 
cultures represent a Silk Route melting pot,” he enthused. “Having 
handled each of these pieces, I see a tremendous similarity, such as 
evidenced in hundreds and hundreds of appliqués made from one mold, that 
indicate a unique culture emerged in Afghanistan.”

Hiebert hopes the rest of the world will have a chance to see these 
protected antiquities—and not only for their beauty. “A tour through the 
world’s most respected museums,” he explained, “would help to raise 
revenues to build a state-of-the-art national museum to keep these 
objects safe in perpetuity.”

http://www.wrmea.com/archives/May-June_2005/0505042.html