Afghanistan, rediscovered treasures, Collections from the national museum of Kabul 6th December 2006 – 30th April 2007

The exhibition was organised by the public establishment of the Guimet Museum of Asiatic Arts with the support of Crédit Agricole. In partnership with Le Monde 2, Metrobus, Métro, FIP, France Info, France 2 and France 5.

Introduction

Following Afghanistan, the story of a thousand years, which went on show at the Guimet Museum in March 2002, the exhibition Afghanistan, rediscovered treasures, Collections from the national museum of Kabul will put on public display findings from four major archaeological sites: Fulol, Aï-Khanoum, Tillia-Tepe and Begram. Behind the unique and exciting story of these rediscovered treasures, the exhibition pays tribute to the history of Afghanistan, which lay at the centre of kingdoms and empires extending all the way from Central Asia to northern India.

Aim of the exhibition

Thanks to the remarkable display of no less than 220 items, the exhibition puts the development of Afghan history into perspective, from the Bronze Age to the Kushan Empire. Even though the artefacts displayed have different geographical and historic origins, they also celebrate the continuity, the uniqueness and the wealth of the Afghan heritage, in a region that has been influenced by so many cultures: Iranian and Near Eastern, Indian, Scythian, Chinese and Hellenistic. The four sites

Tepe Fullol

The fortuitous discovery of the Fullol treasure in 1966 was to lift the veil on an area of history hitherto completely unknown, that of the vast ensemble which covers Afghanistan, eastern Iran and Turkmenistan during the Bronze Age, in about 2,000 years BCE. Between the Indus Civilisation and Mesopotamia, a « new » civilisation emerged with its bronze seals, its composite statues of « goddesses » in abstract silhouette, its gold and silver cups decorated with animals set in landscapes, with its troupe of strange creatures and bearded bulls, or geometric motifs, a distant echo of the Quetta ceramics.

After the digs at Mundigak, in the south, not far from Kandahar, which had revealed a veritable « Helmand Civilisation » during the Bronze Age, Fullol showed the north, a few centuries later, to have a very particular culture whose very existence goes some way to explaining the dynamism of the Indus Civilisation; and the excavations at Shortughai demonstrated that the two had had contact with each other. Controlling the lapis lazuli sources in remote Badakshan (north of Afghanistant), this culture is connected with Sumer and Ur, or Mohendjo-Daro. To the south of the town of Baghlan, a single discovery also revealed a whole hitherto unsuspected trading network between the Near East, Central Asia, Afghanistan and the Indus Valley, testifying to what Pierre Amiet would call « the age of inter-Iranian trade ».

Balkh (Bactra)

A mythical town, the place where the marriage of Alexander and Roxane took place in 327 BCE, Bactra or Balkh was feted by the classical authors, the Chinese, the Arabs and the Persians as, « Balkh the Beautiful, Balkh the Mother of all towns », before it was pillaged by Gengis Khan in 1220. Alfred Foucher, founder of the French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan (DAFA) attempted to carry out digs on the citadel, but was disappointed not to find any Greek remains under the deposits from the Islamic periods. After some chance discoveries of Hellenistic architectural features, near Balkh, at Tepe Zargaran, DAFA, after excavation was resumed on this collection of sites in 2003, was able to uncover in 2004, 7 metres below ground, an accumulation of architectural blocks. Many of these had originated from demolished Greek buildings, doubtless former neighbours, and had been used in the construction of a fortification. Under the ramparts from the Kushan period, appears an enclosure wall doubtless from the Greek period, while a stupa established by the king Mega Soter (Vima Takto), in the middle of the 1st century BCE, is the oldest Bactrian Buddhist monument. In the Balkh citadel, significant remains going back to the Achmenidean period, (6th – 4th centuries BCE) are currently undergoing excavation.

Tilla tepe

In 1978, Tillia tepe, the « golden hill », was to yield in the course of digs on a citadel dating back to the Iron Age, six tombs from around that time, in the north of Afghanistan, not far from Shebergan - six luxurious « barbarian » tombs, displaying unprecedented wealth. The tombs held five women and one man, and their bodies appeared dressed in clothes sewn with gold and encrusted with turquoise, garnet and lapis lazuli. If the clothes evoked Scythian gold from the banks of the Bosphoros and the Chersonnese, then the Chinese mirrors dating back to the Han epoch show a culture open to the whole of Eurasia, including the Far East.

Alongside these were classical intaglios showing Athena’s profile, and an ivory comb decorated with incisions whose style point directly to Begram or Dalverzine tepe. Crowned with flora, fragile and delicate, alluding to the Three Kingdoms of Korea (1st to 7th centuries), the Bactrian Aphrodite has the childish charm which evokes Sirkap and the Scytho-Parthian period. These objects are the echo of a nomadic society where luxury and refinement go hand in hand with tolerance, and curiosity about unknown cultures.

The artefacts are accompanied by pendants in which a king overcomes dragons; a belt decorated with horsemen leaping over fantastical creatures; a realistic ibex which derives directly from Achaemenid art. Who were these princesses and this princes buried on the Afghan border? Should we see them as the very first yuezhi, whom the Chinese envoy Zhang Qian saw camped to the north of the Bactrian towards 138 BCE; or should we simply view them as members of one of the saka clans, the cousins of the Scythians to the west, and who led a nomadic life between the Urals and the Altai mountains. If the mystery remains, it is no less than that of the piece of gold with the enigmatic theme, called «the man at the wheel», stamped on the triratna.

In tomb III, one of Tiberius’s coins (14-37 CE.) was found. This treasure shows that the nomadic world was master of the Golden Road which originates in the Altai. It also shows it to be at the centre of a vast trading network whose influence extended for long distances: jade from China and garnets from India; turquoise perhaps from Nichapur and eastern Iran; the lapis-lazuli, itself, from the Badakhshan mines (today Afghanistan).

Begram

On the site of the ancient Alexandria of the Caucasus, digs carried out by DAFA in 1937 and then in 1939 revealed, in site II, the existence of two walled chambers, filled with artefacts from the Mediterranean, China and the Indian sub-continent - this was called the « Begram Treasure ». In the absence of any other references as ancient, this discovery was to remain at the centre of many controversies both in the West and in the East. Indian ivories had been unknown until then, apart from a mirror handle found in Pompeii.

Should we view this as a Kushan collection from Augustus’s era (1st century CE) or even of Kaniska (2nd century.), or should we assign a much earlier date, back to the Indo-Parthian period, when the sovereign Gondopharnes governed Taxila, or indeed the Indo-Greek epoch, the time of the very last Greek king in the south of Hindukush, Hermaios who reigned over Kabul? Whether this « Treasure » was hidden through fear of invasions, was a merchant’s stock or was just a simple collection, even today the collection refuses to give up its secrets.

The collection nonetheless shows Afghanistan to be at the crossroads of Asia, between Greece, China, and India, through the variety of artefacts, some of which are unique: Chinese lacquers dating from the Han period (40-50 CE), glasses and emblemata originating from Alexandria, Greco-Roman bronzes reminiscent of Sirkap and above all furniture inlaid with carved Indian ivory, engraved or in relief, may be a « treasure » of quality artefacts, although a priceless currency.

The organisation of the exposition

The exhibition begins with the presentation of three golden vases from Fullol, evoking the Bronze age Bactrian civilisation, dating back to about 2,000 years BC, and its connection with Mesopotamia. Next, a larger section is devoted to the town of Aï Khanoum, founded during the reign of Alexander the Great and an example of Hellenism at the edge of the steppes (4th – 2nd centuries BC) which DAFA, under the supervision of Paul Bernard, which was excavated until 1979. After that, a selection of jewellery and other objects from the six Tilla Tepe tombs, which were excavated under the supervision of Viktor Sarianidi, and which make up an dazzling ensemble of finery where art from the steppes mingles with Greco-roman iconography and Chinese objects dating back to the very beginning of the 1st Century AD. The exhibition ends with Begram, where two rooms, apparently sealed, and dug by DAFA under the supervision of Joseph Hackin in 1938 and 1939, contain ivory furniture from India, glasses, vases, bronze artefacts as well as plaster emblematic of Hellenistic manufacture from the 1st and beginning of the 2nd century AD.

Conclusion

The exhibition is accompanied by the restoration of a great many works with the aim of re-integrating them into the Kabul museum collections. The presentation reveals a very particular facet of Afghanistan, given the current political climate. Through this restoration, and by giving due acknowledgement to the marvellous Afghan heritage, as well as the cultural influences which fed into it, this unique exhibition reminds us of the fragility of these treasures, and the necessity of protecting them. Indeed, these sites are loci memoriae for the Afghan people, in a country which is slowly and gradually trying to reconstruct itself.

Click to download the press release.

Téléchargez le livret-jeu pour les enfants

Ticket prices for the exhibition "Afghanistan, les trésors retrouvés". The tickets prices are revalued to contribute to the reconstruction of the Museum of Kabul.  Horaires : Open every days ecxept thusday from 10h to 18h (17h 45).  Exhibition only : full fare 8 €, reduced fare: 6 €  Exhibition + museum : 9,50 €, reduced fare:7 €  Individuals : you can buy yours tickets on line (fnac )  Free under 18.

Commissaire : Jean-François Jarrige, commissaire général Pierre Cambon, conservateur en chef du patrimoine, section Afghanistan/Pakistan Muséographie: Massimo Quendolo, architecte dplg Président du musée: Jean-François Jarrige, membre de l’Institut

 Publication : Catalogue de l’exposition, co-édition RMN / musée Guimet,

 Site internet : www.guimet.fr

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