Dating Kampyr-Tepe, Alexandria-on-the-Oxus

Kampyr-Tepe, ancient Alexandria-on-the-Oxus, whose foundations go back to the 4th and 3rd century BC, has been continuously excavated by Edvard V. Rtveladze and Alexei N. Gorin. They have concentrated on the citadel and the city proper with its striking Hellenistic entrance gate (see: Alexandria on the Oxus is at Kampyr-Tepe).

Alexander copper coins

By now, the citadel has yielded several Hellenistic coins that shed light on daily life in the city. Altogether, 30 coins of interest have been retrieved, mostly small-denomination copper coins. Two of them belong to King Antiochus I and 28 to the Graeco-Bactrian kings. Among them were rulers like: 

Antiochus I (281-261 BC)

Only two Seleucid coins were found in Kampyr-Tepe, and both were chalki (χαλκι, meaning copper) of Antiochus I, one minted in Babylonia (Seleucia-on-the-Tigris) and another one in Bactria.

Other examples came to light north of the Oxus River in places such as Afrasiab/Maracanda (see: Afrasiab, ancient Samarkand), Termez, and Bukhara.
 
Diodotus (c. 250-230 BC)
Scholars cannot agree whether Diodotus I or Diodotus II issued the coins. There are four copper coins: two dichalki, one chalkous, and one hemichalkous (half a chalkous). The chalkous was the smallest fraction of a Greek coin; in Athens, one needed eight χαλκι to make one obol. Based on their graphic design, these coins could have been issued by the mint of Bactra or Ai-Khanoum.

Tetradrachm of Euthydemus I

Euthydemus I (c. 230-200 BC)
Ten copper coins of Euthydemus I were found in Kampyr-Tepe, among which seven dichalki and one chalkous. Some of these coins have been extremely useful for dating the city’s buildings. Euthydemus I coins are the most common type found in northern Bactria, and six χαλκι are known from the Oxus Treasure (see: The Oxus Treasure, pieces Alexander must have known).
 
Euthydemus II (c. 190-185 BC)
Coins with the effigy of Euthydemus II are scarce. Some χαλκι, dichalki, and trichalki cuprum-nickel coins were found in Kampyr-Tepe, together with copper dichalki and trichalki.

Demetrius I (c. 200-185 BC)
Kampyr-Tepe has yielded one Demetrius obol and several copper χαλκι, dichalki, hemichalki, and trichalki.
 
Eucratides I (c.171-150 BC)
Eucratides is very much present in Kampyr-Tepe with seven coins, i.e., one drachm, one octuplus (a copper obol), and five obols. The obols belonged to the beginning of Eucratides’ reign when he started using his new title Megas, Great. One of these obols has been important to date when the fortified walls of the acropolis were last used as it was found in its top layer. It is noteworthy that Eucratides’ obols have also been recovered from Afrasiab/Maracanda, Bukhara (see: Alexander in Bactria and Sogdiana), and Ai-Khanoum.

Tetradrachm of Eucratides I

A bonus from Kampyr-Tepe was the find of two hitherto unknown coins of Heliocles and imitations of Demetrius I and Eucratides. Counterfeit is of all times!
 
Heliocles I (c. 139-129 BC) drachm imitation
The exact dates of Heliocles’ reign are not known. This drachm raises questions because of the mistakes in the inscriptions and the sloppy engraving of the letters. It may well be one of the first imitations.
Another drachm of Heliocles has surfaced in Takhti-Sangin, which may have been the source of the Oxus Treasure (see: The Oxus Treasure, pieces Alexander must have known).
 
Heliocles III (1st century BC) imitation
This king is so far unknown among the Seleucid or Graeco-Bactrian coins. Two coins with his bust were made according to Hellenistic traditions, but the shape of the letters on the coin’s inscription is problematic, especially the square omicron. The square version of the omicron first appears on Indo-Greek coins circulating at the end of the 2nd /beginning of the 1st century BC. The tradition continued until the last Indo-Greek King Hippostratus, who ruled over western Punjab.
It is quite possible that these coins were issued locally for Heliocles III, who shortly ruled over (northern) Bactria.
 
Demetrius drachms - imitation
Besides the abovementioned copper coins, two rare imitations of a Demetrius drachm have been unearthed. They were minted using a different die and showed distortion of the prototype. It has been possible to establish that they were issued in Bactria.
 
Eucratides obol - imitation
Among the Eucratides’ coins found at Kampyr-Tepe, one obol is an obvious imitation. The inscription on the obol is distorted and illegible, and the depiction of the ruler’s head is stylized compared to the real thing.
 
It is noteworthy that all the above finds and considerations treat coins from surface finds in Kampyr-Tepe, not from archaeological diggings. As in other Bactrian and Sogdian cities, the problem is that their remains are buried under thick layers of deposits hampering excavations.
 
Hellenistic coins unearthed from the banks of the Oxus River may suggest that the river played a significant role in the transportation and exchange of goods.

[For the above illustrations, I used my own pictures taken at the Numismatic Museum of Athens, because I lost the link to the reference photographs. We always stare at gold and silver coins, and I had no idea that copper Alexander coins ever existed. My pictures of Euthydemus and Eucratides are both tetradrachms, i.e., made of silver in Bactria].

Alexandria on the Oxus is at Kampyr Tepe

As mentioned earlier in my blog About Alexandria on the Oxus, the Russian archaeologist Edvard Rtveladze has been digging at Kampyr-Tepe since 2015, a strategic location even today as it is situated on the border between Afghanistan and Uzbekistan.

[Picture from The Telegraph, Credit: Maximum Exposure]

So far, it had been established that Kampyr-Tepe was a Graeco-Macedonian fortress raising the question of whether it had been founded by Alexander the Great and if this was his Alexandria on the Oxus or Alexandria Oxiana. Until now, that Alexandria was thought to be located at the confluence of the Kokcha River and the Oxus River, i.e., at Ai-Khanoum in Afghanistan. 

Patience and determination certainly paid off for Rtveladze, for after finding a sanctuary, a treasury, and a harbor with distinct Hellenistic characteristics, he finally unearthed the main gate this year. It is said to be identical to that of Sillyum in Pamphylia. If so, we can match it to the gates of Perge and Termessos in Turkey and that of Apamea in Syria as well. They all share this typical semi-oval shape on the inner side of the gate. To find that same pattern this far east can only have happened in the wake of Alexander. What a revelation!

Thanks to the discovery of a new coin depicting Apollo and analysis of other layers of Kampyr-Tepe, the foundation of Alexandria on the Oxus could be dated to the 320s BC, which matches Alexander’s campaign in Central Asia perfectly. This was not the case for Ai-Khanoum.

Later this autumn, Edvard Rtveladze will return to Kampyr-Tepe to further investigate the main gate. Besides the citadel and the upper city that were revealed earlier (see: About Alexandria on the Oxus), the main temple dedicated to Demeter has been located, as well as the river crossing.

Unfortunately, there is no picture available on the gate at Kampyr-Tepe yet.

Saving Afghanistan's Incredible Heritage

As it is utterly impossible to summarize this wonderful article written by CNRS News, giving a thorough insight in the problems archaeology is facing in Afghanistan, I'll limit myself to the following short introduction. For further reading, I gladly refer to the link that I attach at the end.

For nearly a century, the French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan (DAFA) has been drawing up an inventory of the archaeological heritage of one of the world’s most unstable countries. Some 5000 sites have already been discovered, both on the ground and from the air. They reveal Afghanistan's remarkable archaeological wealth, including protohistoric, Greek, Buddhist and Islamic remains, as archaeologist Julio Bendezu-Sarmiento explains.

For the last thirty years, Afghanistan has been associated with images of war, of the Soviet occupation, civil strife, and the Taliban—to the point of concealing the extent to which the country once fired the imagination of archaeologists and adventurers of every sort. It was there that Alexander the Great, who had set out to conquer Asia, is said to have met and married the beautiful Roxana around 330 BC. Buddhism found fertile ground there too, yielding some of its most beautiful works of art, such as the tragically renowned Buddhas carved into the cliffs of the Bamiyan valley, and destroyed by the Taliban in 2001. It was also through Afghanistan that goods, such as tea, spices, precious stones and silk, travelled for centuries along the Silk Road. Located at the crossroads between central Asia, the Persian world and the cultures of the Indian sub-continent (Pakistan and India), Afghanistan has always been a source of envy, and with good reason: it is one of the countries that boasts the greatest number of mines of copper, gold, silver and even of lapis lazuli, a semi-precious stone found in the Mesopotamian tombs of Ur and in the jewelry of the Egyptian Pharaohs.

Julio Bendezu-Sarmiento, a CNRS researcher and French-Peruvian archaeologist, has headed the French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan (DAFA) since 2013.1 He explains why it is urgent to list Afghanistan's archaeological heritage, as a growing number of economic development projects are underway, such as the gas pipeline planned to cross the south of the country, and looting has never been so widespread. 

The French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan (DAFA) is the only foreign archaeological team with a permanent presence in Afghanistan. Why?

Julio Bendezu-Sarmiento: Our offices are located in Kabul, in an old building that houses a research center, a library containing 20,000 books, a restoration and a photo laboratory and storerooms. Today, we are quite simply the only foreign archaeologists still working in the country: since the bomb attack that killed 90 civilians in Kabul's diplomatic quarter in spring 2017, every other international scientific team has left. This has to do with our very close ties to Afghanistan. The DAFA was set up in 1922 at the request of King Amanullah, when the country was just beginning to open up to the outside world: in fact, the archaeologists got here before the French diplomats!

For the entire article, please click here.

About Alexandria-on-the-Oxus

It is not always easy and often even impossible to match antique cities with modern names and locations and Alexandria-on-the-Oxus or Alexandria Oxiana is one such an example. The city was, as the name says founded by Alexander the Great on the banks of the Oxus River (modern Amu Darya) in 329 BC.

Since the discovery of Ai-Khanoum in northeastern Afghanistan by Paul Bernard and the French archaeologists in 1964, many scholars believed they had found Alexandria-on-the-Oxus on the confluence of the Kokcha and the Oxus Rivers. At the time of the excavations, France had reached an agreement with the Afghan government, according to which the French were allowed to keep half their finds which were eventually moved to the Musée Guimet in Paris whereas the other half had to remain in Afghanistan together with all the jewelry and the objects made of silver and gold (see: De Kaboul à Samarcande (From Kabul to Samarkand)).

Unfortunately, these archaeological diggings had to be interrupted abruptly when the USSR invaded Afghanistan in 1979. The Taliban who arrived shortly afterwards, thoroughly plundered and destroyed the precious work done by the DAFA (French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan), both on the site and eventually also at the Museum of Kabul where the treasures had been kept “safe” (see: Putting archaeological sites on the Map of Afghanistan). It seems that all we have left today are the artifacts that were entrusted to the Musée Guimet in Paris but this is the subject for another blog since we are focusing at present on Alexandria-on-the-Oxus.

The first known candidate for this city, Ai-Khanoum, was a large city of approximately 1.5 km2 founded by Alexander but really developed by the Seleucids ruling over that part of the empire after the king’s death. The city thrived for a good five hundred years till the death of King Eucratides, the last king of the Graeco-Bactrian Empire that had blossomed here (see: Bactrian Gold, the Hidden Treasures from the Museum of Kabul). Altogether, a city worthy of Alexander.

Before his arrival, the settlement already knew an irrigation system with a network of canals that was expanded by the new Greek settlers. True to their origins, they built a city where they felt at home and included a large theater with loges, a gymnasium, an agora, many so-called mansions as well as a Heroon dedicated to a certain Kineas considered as being the founder of the city. Ai-Khanoum became a Hellenistic city by excellence with an exceptional “royal” palace erected in a mixture of Greek and Achaemenid styles. It made headlines when inscriptions containing Greek lyric poetry were found together with a precept from the oracle in Delphi.

In later years, this Alexandria changed name several times to become Diodoteia or Diodotopolis, Dionysopolis, Ostobara and eventually Eucratidia after the last Graeco-Bactrian king who expanded the palace complex and even added a treasury. In this treasury, archaeologists found numerous artifacts among which a throne and inlaid plaque from India which led them to believe they were deposited here after Eucratides’ conquest of Taxila and other cities. In and around Ai-Khanoum many large hoards of coins were retrieved most of which were from Greek and Bactrian origin but others were minted in India. In any case, the most recent specimens date to the rule of Eucratides, linking the end of Ai-Khanoum to this king. After the sudden departure of its inhabitants, the city was destroyed by fire. Although the locals returned after their hurried departure, they simply squatted in the remaining storeroom until they were expelled by yet another wave of nomadic attacks. The city was abandoned in 146 BC.

Ai-Khanoum rose from its ashes for a short while when the French started the excavations as mentioned above but was thoroughly destroyed again by modern invaders and treasure hunters – unfortunately.

Recently, another candidate for Alexandria-on-the-Oxus seems to be Kampyr Tepe situated some 30 kilometers from Termez, very close to the place where Alexander crossed the Oxus after his perilous march through the desert in 329 BC. (see: Alexander crossing the Oxus River).Today, this site lies in Uzbekistan and is separated from Afghanistan by the modern Amur Darya River. Kampyr Tepe was discovered in 1979 just before the Soviet tanks rolled into Afghanistan. Soon afterwards, it became a very sensitive and tightly guarded military zone at the border of the two countries until finally excavations were started about two years ago, in 2015, by the renowned archaeologist Edvard Rtveladze.

It certainly makes sense to find an “Alexandria” on this strategic river ford, populated by some of Alexander’s veterans together with Sogdian farmers and nomads. This lower city probably occupied the plains near the river bank and was inevitably destroyed at some point in time by the meandering Oxus River.

The ruins of the upper city can be found on a ridge overlooking the lowlands and appear rather like a citadel surrounded by powerful walls meant to protect the first Macedonian settlers, followed by the later Graeco-Bactrians.

Unlike Ai-Khanoum, Kampyr Tepe lacks the typical Greek buildings like a theater or an agora, but these may have stood in the lower part right on the Oxus. The upper city, in any case has been laid out in a grit plan in which the streets are lined with large comfortable houses for about six hundred families. They were built using dried bricks just like for the city walls – the only construction material available in this desert void of trees. The main city gate leading to the harbor offers a phenomenal view over the plains created by the river, now flowing several miles further south on the very border with Afghanistan.

The most striking find in Kampyr Tepe is the huge amount of dolia, large terracotta pots. This leads scholars to believe that the city had mainly a logistical function. Besides the usual ceramics and sculptures, some unique Bactrian manuscripts have been found as well which amazingly were written on papyrus. The diversity of the finds suggest that different cults and religions coexisted side by side for centuries. Beside the obvious Greek gods, relics of Zoroastrian, Buddhists and several local cults have been discovered mainly as images stamped on coins. The ruins of an imposing Buddhist monastery with Zoroastrian influences proudly stand outside the city walls.

These days, scholars are inclined to link Alexandria Oxiana to Kampyr Tepe rather than to Ai-Khanoum but so far they have found no evidence to substantiate either city.

[Picture of the necklace from The Australian. Picture of Kampyr Tepe from Caravanistan]

Le trésor perdu des rois d’Afghanistan by Philippe Flandrin

Le trésor perdu des rois d’Afghanistan (ISBN 2-268-03977-3) translates into The Lost Treasure of the Kings of Afghanistan and is written by Philippe Flandrin, journalist and war correspondent.

This book is the best work about the history of Afghanistan. In a most pleasant and comprehensive way, the auteur manages to mix Afghanistan’s recent history with that of antiquity. After an introduction to the times of Cyrus the Great and Alexander the Great, he seeks and finds the transition to the days of Graeco-Buddhist art.

The catalyst agent in opening up the country of Afghanistan in recent times was, in fact, its last king, Mohammed Zahir Shah, who ruled for forty years. Unhappy about the British interference in the 19th and early 20th centuries, he turned to France for archaeological expertise. He had studied in France, and this created a natural bond. The king was deposed in a coup in 1973, and soon afterward, the Soviets invaded the now Republic of Afghanistan. Political changes always prevail in the way of life in any country. The archaeological teams soon withdrew from Afghanistan because tribal powers were still powerful. We all remember how the Taliban “liberated” the country from the Soviets and then imposed their own religious ideas.

Philippe Flandrin takes us by the hand and leads us through the mazes of Afghanistan’s stirring history as it has been forged over the centuries. People like Cyrus, Alexander, Genghis Khan, and Tamerlane have left their marks, followed by Buddhist and Chinese travelers on the Silk Road.

He starts his book with the first discoveries of sites like Ai-Khanoum, Tillya Tepe, and Hadda, including the hardships the archaeologists encountered and the opposition from the local people – generally strong Islamic believers who smashed and destroyed many of the human statues as soon as they were unearthed. Tribal elderly had their say, as even the king could not overrule or control them. Many wondrous finds have thus disappeared before reaching Kabul. Half of the artifacts that made it were entered into the newly built Museum of Kabul, and the other half were shipped off to France, finding a home at the Musée Guimet in Paris. And luckily so, because soon after the Soviet occupation, the Museum of Kabul was plundered. The gorgeous statues from the Gandhara era were destroyed, and the smaller pieces slowly but surely found their way to the illegal markets, mainly through Peshawar in Pakistan. This procedure is detailed in the second part of this book - an unfortunate episode indeed.

This exciting book's third and last part discusses the world of legal and illegal art trading worldwide. The conclusion is that most of Afghanistan's precious finds have vanished from Ai-Khanoum, Begram, Tillya Tepe, Hadda, and other key excavation sites. The sites proper have been trampled or bulldozed, and all that remains of the Museum of Kabul is a skeleton building; people are still determining what became of its rich collection. The gold, jewels, and coins from the excavations had been locked up safely in the vaults of the Central Bank in Kabul. It was a miracle to find these pieces intact when a team of local and international experts and archaeologists laid eyes on them in 2004. This treasure was luckily saved and is now part of an exhibition traveling around the world as it would not be safe in its homeland  (see: Bactrian Gold, The Hidden Treasures from the Museum of Kabul).

It is a sad story that clearly illustrates how the Afghans have been nearly entirely stripped of their history – a story much less known than the destructive path the IS has left behind in neighboring Iraq and Syria. Still, the drama in Afghanistan is at least as devastating and radical.

Putting Archaeological sites on the Map of Afghanistan

Archaeology in Afghanistan has known its ups and downs more than any other country in the region. Over the years, French and Russian archaeologists have been working in the area, entrusting their treasures to the National Museum in Kabul. That is till 1979 when the troops of the USSR invaded Afghanistan. Archaeological diggings by Frenchman Paul Bernard at Ai Khanoum, for instance, had to be interrupted abruptly and when he returned to the site recently, it was thoroughly plundered and destroyed. Most damages were, however, occurred after the Soviet troops were replaced by the Taliban followed by the IS who considered it their duty to obliterate every single image of people wherever they found it: on frescos, mosaics, paintings, reliefs or statues. We all have witnessed what happened. A precious heritage that survived for centuries has been totally destroyed for posterity.

In recent years, the work of archaeologists in Afghanistan, ancient Bactria, has been taken over by looters in the confusion of the ravaging wars. The country’s cultural heritage is in dire straits but luckily an international team has started putting its numerous sites and monuments on the map using satellite imaging. These results have been brought together in a huge database. Initially, authorities were afraid that this kind of mapping would encourage local looting, but since most of the sites have already been looted the project is going ahead since overall these looters are better informed than the professional archaeologists.

By now, DAFA (The French Archaeological Delegation to Afghanistan) have pinned down the country’s heritage sites on their map making a clear distinction between the sites that have already been excavated, those that have been simply identified or only recently discovered. When DAFA had to leave the country in 1982 under pressure from Soviet invasion they had identified as many as 1,286 heritage sites but today that number has tripled.

Yet it remains extremely difficult to pinpoint the exact location of many of these archaeological sites since they have been destroyed by looters and illicit antique dealers or simply by people tending their fields. In urban areas, recent houses have been built right over existing ancient remains.

A new threat comes from the mining companies aiming to exploit the rich gold and copper mines, as well as the precious stones of which the lapis-lazuli is the most favorite since it is entirely unique to Afghanistan. The government is presently distributing concessions and this year alone they numbered 25 contracts already. Whether these mines are endangering archaeological sites or not remains rather vague; the mine operations or oil drilling are often more profitable than digging for the country’s past history.

The situation becomes quite tricky when a Chinese mining company hits a huge historical site with thousands of Buddha’s while drilling for copper.

DAFA hopes that when the map is complete and made available to everyone, they can participate in the protection of Afghanistan’s precious archaeological sites. Let's wish them luck!

Alexander’s influence reached all the way to China?

It is high time to look at Alexander’s conquest of Asia in a much wider context than we usually do. By now, his legacy in Central Asia is generally accepted thanks to the many artifacts found in Sogdiana and Bactria (modern Afghanistan). Ai-Khanoum, one of the many cities founded by Alexander and now on the far northern border of Afghanistan, is a clear proof of a new Hellenistic city as illustrated by the travelling exhibition Bactrian Gold, the Hidden Treasures from the Museum of Kabul. Because of this, stating that Greek art has led to the making of the famous Terracotta Army in Xi’an, China does not come as a total surprise.

Looking at the map of Eurasia, Ai-Khanoum’s position is quite central as it is separated from China only by the Pamir Mountains. The passes across that mountain range will not have been crowded with people, but some definitely must have made it across. Alexander’s death occurred hardly one hundred years before the First Emperor of China came to power and built his famous mausoleum. Over the Silk Road and the high mountain passes, people will definitely have moved back and forth, carrying their goods and their ideas between 323 BC, date of Alexander’s death and 221 BC when Emperor Qin came to power.

Several months ago, I saw this documentary on TV about an Achaemenid silver bowl or box with hollow drop motives that was found in China and how an expert from Germany was called in to examine the piece. It was dated 3rd-2nd century BC and I remember how it was established that the box had been casted and not hammered as expected, meaning that this piece was truly made in China and not imported from the west. It was a rather exotic-looking luxury article that only a happy few could afford. Yet, I didn’t think more of it till I attended a lecture entitled “Sculpture and the question of contacts between China and the Hellenistic East" presented by Dr Lukas Nickel from SOAS, University of London. The same silver box was the first piece of evidence presented here as the Nanyue silver box and I learned that about ten more of such unusual treasure boxes were found on different locations throughout China. Dr Nickel has my undivided attention!

From here, he moved to China’s most famous Terracotta Army, stating that it very well could have been inspired by the Greeks living on the eastern border of the Seleucid Empire, the successors of Alexander in Asia. Until that time, no large statues were ever created in China, leading Dr Nickel to think that the making of this army was inspired by ancient Greek artwork.

Emperor Qin was the first to unify the country. He died in 210 or 209 BC after building a huge mausoleum for himself surrounded by scores of life-size terracotta statues of infantrymen, cavalry, archers, charioteers and generals - all meant to protect him in his afterlife. They are the result of a mass-production although each figure is apparently showing its own personality, but only in their facial features; the body, arms and legs are lifeless as if made of wood. Although the largest part of this impressive army is still buried, it is estimated that there are over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots drawn by 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses. According to Dr Nickel, it is perfectly possible and very likely that these statues are the result of early contacts between Greece and China.  

Not far from this army, other pits have revealed sculptures of half naked acrobats, strongmen, dancers and servants, which in turn are very realistic – men of flesh and blood, who were supposed to entertain the emperor in his afterlife. Dr Nickel concludes that the artists who made these statues of people in action must have learned their craft from Greek masters in order to render their bone structure, muscles and skin. This kind of understanding of the human body is typical for the Hellenistic period (the time after Alexander the Great) and Dr Nickel argues that making such realistic statues is not something that could be learned overnight or without practice; after all it took the Greeks several centuries to attain such results.

And then there is the tale about twelve giant statues “clad in foreign robes” that surfaced in Lintao (or in the general area of Lintao), i.e. the most western city of China. This information comes from a text translated by Dr Nickel, which, however, does not mention the origin of the statues or who commissioned them. All we know is that they stood about 38 ft (11.55m) tall with feet that were 4.5 ft long (1.38m) – they must have been colossal and very impressive! Indeed so much so that the Emperor ordered to have twelve copies made to be placed in front of his palace. For this purpose he collected all the bronze weapons that were previously used in war, and had them melted. Each duplicated statue received an inscription stating that the original giants appeared in Lintao. This was recorded by a certain Yan Shigu who lived in the 6th century AD and had access to earlier written sources. These “giants” are long gone as they were destroyed some time after the First Emperor’s death.

Anyway, this translation is one way to prove that a certain contact between ancient China and a Greek kingdom in Central Asia did actually exist, and that their inhabitants had a tradition of making statues.

As I said earlier, I’m not really surprised by this statement since Hellenistic influences have been found in art and architecture in Central Asia (see: Bactrian Gold, the Hidden Treasures from the Museum of Kabul) and also in India (see: Indo-Greek art or the influence of Hellenism on Buddhist art). Although I was aware that the first statues of Buddha appeared only after the death of Alexander the Great, I didn’t know till now that no statues at all were ever made before this time. To take this knowledge to a wider area like China is moving one step further.

In my wildest dreams I often wondered what would have happened if Alexander the Great and Emperor Qin had met – what is one hundred years after all. I developed this theory already after visiting the wonderful exhibition about the First Emperor at the British Museum in London (see: The First Emperor, China’s Terracotta Army and Alexander the Great).

I wonder why Dr Nickel's revolutionary news didn’t make headlines before. Why is it that we still want to keep West and East separated? Why are we still keeping ourselves so jealously inside our own comfort-zone? Alexander would have told us that we can learn from our enemies and I would like to add that we still can learn from people across our borders – our planet earth is not that big after all!

[Picture of the Map and the Terracotta Army are from Live Science; the acrobat is from Megan Mitchell China; the strongmen are from Far East City Shopper]

Bactrian Gold, the Hidden Treasures from the Museum of Kabul

Bactria, to me, is Alexander-country, the lands of Central Asia where he spent two years of his life in 228 and 227 BC. The exceptional exhibition “Afghanistan, hidden treasures from the National Museum, Kabul” covers this period and is presently traveling worldwide. It centers on four excavation sites covering roughly 2,500 years, i.e., from two thousand BC to the third century AD.

[Map from National Geographic showing Alexander's Route]

I knew French and Russian archaeologists had been working in the area for years, entrusting their treasures to the National Museum in Kabul. That is till 1979 when the troops of the USSR invaded Afghanistan. Archaeological diggings by Frenchman Paul Bernard at Ai-Khanoum, for instance, had to be interrupted abruptly, and when he returned to the site recently, it was thoroughly plundered and destroyed. Most damages were, however, done a few years later when the Taliban considered it their duty to obliterate every image of people wherever they found it: on frescoes, mosaics, paintings, reliefs, or statues. We all have witnessed what happened to the giant Buddha statues in Bamyan. Still, not many people know that the Museum of Kabul was one heap of rubble after the Taliban had thoroughly ravaged it – a frightening experience! A precious heritage that survived for centuries is being totally destroyed with just one single blow!

To use the old name, Bactria is located in Central Asia right on the crossroads of old caravan routes, later the Silk Road, the meeting point of all trade routes between East and West. It is not surprising that Alexander the Great put so much time and effort into the conquest of this area, for it meant not only a way to secure his back while heading for India but also an economic asset precisely because of the geographic location of Bactria. His marriage with Roxana, the local chief's daughter, was, after all, a high political move rather than real or impulsive love, as some suggest. Who knows?

The first objects I encounter as I enter the exhibition are three statues from the Musée Guimet in Paris, dating from Buddhist times but showing a definite Hellenistic influence. You can’t miss them; the way they are presented in the floodlights against a black background instantly gives you a taste of what to expect. This tremendous high relief of a Genius with Flowers from the 4th-5th century AD was found in the Buddhist monastery of Hadda in remote northern Afghanistan, yet still magnificently Hellenistic.

At a right angle, right in front of me, stands a showcase filled with one hundred Buddhist heads, sorted by size, i.e., the smaller ones on the lower steps and the bigger ones at the top. It is a fascinating group, for all the heads are different, and as I take a closer look at each and every one of them, either at eye level or from the side, I see how they stare back at me or ignore me, looking away in an absent glance. I take my time to inspect and admire each face, some more Hellenistic than others, with a more elongated or rounder face, longer ears, closed eyelids, or just peeping at us visitors. All in all, an amazing group!

From here, the way leads to the movie theater, where this French documentary is shown about their exploration and excavations in the magnificent Afghan landscape. It is well documented with clear maps and a captivating view behind the scenes – absolutely worth watching. 

The oldest finds (2,000 BC) come from Tepe Fullol. There are only a handful of gold bowls and beakers made of thinly beaten gold that somehow reminds me of old Mycenae and the death mask of Agamemnon. Archaeologists disagree about the origins of this form of art, and the link to other cultures remains obscure. To complicate things, most of the treasures had disappeared, first because the gold was split up between the local tribal chiefs of Northern Afghanistan when it was discovered, and secondly, because the entire collection at the Museum of Kabul fell apart. These pieces are a little out of the way. That is unfortunate, for they deserve better after being hidden for four thousand years, don’t they?

The section about Ai-Khanoum is the most important one, at least in my eyes, for it is the reason for my visit, as this city was built in the wake of Alexander the Great’s conquest of the area in 328-327 BC. I am very much impressed by the idea of discovering this Hellenistic city at the banks of the Amu Daria River (modern Oxus River), complete with a Gymnasium, Citadel, Theater, and temples. It is not as evident as it would seem! The Greeks even built a Palace here. It is unlike anything else, for they never had a king to build it for. This one is based on the Persian model but decorated in Greek style with monumental Corinthian capitals on top of the columns and flat roofs with the so-called antefix decorations at the edge. A capital and several antefixes are on display here, together with objects like a water jet in the shape of a theatrical mask, a couple of sundials (which I didn’t expect to find here at all), a Hellenistic Hermes pillar of high quality from the Gymnasium; a face of either a man or a woman; bronze decorative elements; etc.

Eye-catcher is the Disk of Cybele from the 3rd century BC made of gilded silver picturing the goddess Cybele on a chariot in Greek style mixed with several eastern influences featuring the fire altar and Helios.

What excites me is the stone pedestal bearing the Delphic precepts. This wisdom comes from 5th century Delphi and teaches us something along the lines of “As a child, learn good manners. As a young man, learn to control your passions. In middle age, be just. In old age, give good advice. When you die, do so without regret.” Can you imagine the impact of this old text, this old wisdom that traveled from Greece to resurface unexpectedly 2,500 years later at the very edge of the desert steppes? That leaves me utterly speechless for a while!

Next comes the collection from Begram, a small town north of Kabul. In the years before WWII, two sealed chambers were uncovered, still containing their treasures of ivory furniture from India, plaster medallions, and, most strikingly, an extensive collection of glasswork of Hellenistic origin. Here too, each archaeologist seems to have their own theory of whether these chambers were set up as storage areas (since all the ivory was put together, and so was all the bronze and all the glass), as religious offerings, or maybe this is a hidden treasure. 

In any case, the glasswork alone is absolutely fabulous and unique in shape, color, and decoration. There are, for instance, these three goblets (they look more like vases to me, so tall). The countless pieces have been glued back together, but just by looking at the colors of these fishing and hunting scenes, you would swear they were painted only yesterday – so vivid and lively! Now try to imagine the impact of such a find, for these drinking beakers were produced in Alexandria in the first century AD and traveled all the way from Egypt to Kabul.

You have to admit that you are looking at something very exceptional. We all know there was an active exchange of goods in antiquity, and it comes to us like a simple statement from a history book, but here you are faced with the very product of such trade! I keep staring at this glasswork with wide-open eyes. Wow! Next to these painted glasses are a couple of glass drinking goblets or vases in the shape of fish, blue and off-white, with shiny eyes and sharp fins. I’ve never seen anything like this. There are glass-blown vases with honeycomb motives or wrapped in a net of glass lace; an elegant black glass vase with a high handle next to a translucent one covered with designs applied with gold leaf; for me, an unprecedented variety of delicate, colored, and painted glass that makes the cut-crystal bowl look rather primitive and dull. Amazing!

In another showcase, all the ivory artifacts have been brought together.

These objects from the first century AD originally all come from India but again are drenched in a Hellenistic sauce. Unique is the ivory River Goddesses approximately 45 cm high, clearly from a Buddhist background, among the exquisite openwork ivory panels showing Indian ladies in exotic gardens with fountains and temple-like buildings, a few monster figures, etc. Strange is the odd-shaped earthenware jar with blue-green glaze representing a bird-woman, for I cannot tie this style or shape to anything I have seen before.

The bronze artifacts somehow don’t add anything new. I only remember the cute figurine of Amor carrying a lamp and the young rider who seems to refer to Alexander the Great because of the way he is sitting on the horse that is lost from underneath him.

I stop to admire the row of plaster medallions, each about 15 cm in diameter, also dating from the first century AD. They look like oversized molds for the production of coins but were used to create the bottom motives for silver plates and goblets as the silver was poured and hammered around these molds. There are a few striking designs, like the Winged Amor or the high relief of a youth. Just imagine these portraits staring back at you from the bottom of your silver goblet filled with water or wine. I certainly would love to give this a try, wouldn’t you?

Finally, there is the gold treasure from Tillya Tepe, a tomb hill just outside the Greek Bactrian city of Emshi-Tepe in the oasis of Sherberghan. The content of these six tombs was barely rescued when the Soviet Union entered Afghanistan in 1979, and it was safely transferred to the Museum in Kabul. There was a seventh tomb on that hill at the Turkmenistan border, but Viktor Sarianidi, the Russian archaeologist who had led these excavations together with his Afghan colleagues, ran out of time, and when he recently returned, the tomb had been thoroughly plundered. Such a shame! Luckily for us, Sarianidi managed to travel to the Museum of Kabul in the 1980s in order to take pictures of all 20,000 excavated objects, and he published an impressive book. So at least we know exactly what was found at Tillya Tepe.

What followed were uncertain times for the art world, and we owe it to a handful of brave Afghans that this treasure was rescued, safely locked away in the vaults of the Presidential Palace. They managed to keep the place a secret. The Museum itself has suffered a great deal from the civil wars as it was repeatedly plundered and artifacts were stolen, and in 1994 it was hit by a rocket setting it on fire. How dreadful! The worst, however, was still to come when in 2001, the Taliban decided not only to destroy the huge Buddha statues at Bamyan but also to annihilate the 2,500 statues and reliefs of the Museum. We had to wait till 2004 when the government of Afghanistan decided that the situation was safe enough to bring the gold treasures out in the open again, but as the Museum in Kabul could not shelter this precious collection yet, they contacted the Musée Guimet in Paris. Together they agreed to send these rich finds on a traveling tour. After Paris and Turin (Italy), the collection can presently be seen in Amsterdam, moved on to the United States, and is now touring Australia.

  

The tombs are beautifully presented in high rectangular boxes covered with a glass plate showing the contours of the deceased with underneath each piece of jewelry in its original place. They unearthed one warrior and five women, the man lying at the top of the hill between the two most beautifully dressed women, the other three women being found on the hillside, which should have looked like a kurgan according to the nomads’ rituals.

This part of the exhibition clearly states that Northern Afghanistan was the melting pot of different cultures where the influence of China and Greece are interwoven with the lifestyle of the steppe people. Each tomb is an exploration by itself, where all kinds of artifacts of different origins keep each other company in breathtaking harmony.

Of course, they all have gold bracelets and anklets inlaid or not with semi-precious stones, but I notice how some women hold a Chinese mirror, from the Han Dynasty apparently; gold pins with on top a gold flower with open petals and vibrant pistils; hairpins as I know them from Japanese geishas but executed in thin flaky gold and tiny pearls; a ring engraved with an Athena figure and Greek inscription, and rings inlaid with precious stones; ornaments for the neck of the robe laid out as a necklace made of gold, turquoise, garnet, carnelian, and pyrite; gold earrings preferably inlaid with turquoise; pendants like those of the Dragon Master with turquoise, garnet, lapis-lazuli, carnelian and pearls in a rare symbiosis of Greek, Indian and Chinese elements; a set of gold clasps showing Amor riding a dolphin with turquoise and mother of pearl; even gold foot soles! 

The warrior, supposedly a prince, carries an iron dagger with gold covered handle depicting animals and inlaid with turquoise. His belt made of braided goldthread-strings connecting nine gold medallions showing a warrior riding a lion is an exceptional masterpiece. His head rested on a phial, a plate used for offerings, made of pure gold and measuring nothing less than 23 cm in diameter!

       

The list seems endless, for besides the most striking objects, the collection contains numerous coins, pendants, and various decoration items. As the most recent coin found in these tombs is that of Emperor Tiberius (who ruled from 14 to 37 AD), they could be dated with certainty to the first century AD. We see a true amalgamation of art from the steppes (I would personally call this Scythian art), Greek, Indian, and Chinese art.

I am terribly excited to finally catch up with the Aphrodite of Bactria, a five centimeters high gold appliqué inlaid with turquoise. I know the piece from pictures and references, but here she is. I go down on my knees to look closer; for an instant, she is mine alone. The piece de resistance, however, seems to be the gold crown with gold spangles and flowers. It is, in fact, a travel crown that can be taken apart as it consists of five separate pieces mounted around a tiny stem holding flattened branches that fit into the band of the crown itself. The spangles gently shake as people walk by, so imagine this crown in the open steppe where the wind can play freely with every tiny detail! A true gem!

It is still unclear to which nomad tribes the tombs of Tillya Tepe belong and how far this melting pot of civilizations reached out. Generally, these steppe people came from northwestern China or Parthia (now part of Iran and Turkmenistan), but who knows? Further investigations will tell us. For now, we have to accept that this territory is vast, for we have jade from China, garnets from India, turquoise from eastern Iran, and lapis lazuli from the mines of Badakhshan (today’s Afghanistan), all found together in this area. And yet we have not mentioned the traders and artists who were constantly moving between China, India, and the Roman Empire to produce these beautiful artifacts. It’s a small world – or is it not so small after all?

Anyway, I am convinced that this wide exchange of art and knowledge would not have been possible without Alexander the Great conquering these territories and organizing his Empire as he did.

[Pictures from The Australian by Ollivier Thierry]