The first reliable information about Bactria was obtained thanks to the discoveries of a prominent Soviet archaeologist, Professor Galina Anatolyevna Pugachenkova. Then the work was continued by the Soviet-Afghan archaeological expedition under the leadership of candidates of historical sciences I. Kruglikova and V. Sarianidi. And here chance helped them a lot.
It all started with the discovery of rich natural gas reserves in Northern Afghanistan, near the city of Shiberghan. From there to the Amu Darya and further across the territory of the USSR they began to build a gas pipeline. And so, when his route deepened into the waterless desert, Soviet engineer Alexei Markov noticed shards of ancient dishes in the sand dumps thrown out by earth-moving machines. He showed them to archaeologists. Markov’s find turned out to be so sensational that the route of the Soviet-Afghan archaeological expedition was changed almost on the same day. It turned out that the gas pipeline route ran through the territory of Bactria!
Earrings (left) and crown. Gold. Tilla Tepe, tomb VI, 1st century, Afghanistan
Largest quantity the finds were made in an area located north of the village of Akcha. Under the sand mounds were hidden traces of the most ancient settlement of this legendary country: the foundations of houses, burial grounds, utensils, weapons. Following this, another promising area emerged in Northern Afghanistan. And there, along the dull gray takyrs, through the endless ridges of huge dunes, where, it seems, no human foot had set foot since the creation of the world, the heavily loaded vehicles of archaeologists crawled.
Nowadays worldwide famous professor, Doctor of Historical Sciences Victor Sarianidi worked in northern Afghanistan for ten years. There, in the sun-baked sands, under a thick layer of earth, his expedition discovered a lost country - the once rich and prosperous Bactrian kingdom, which arose after the brilliant campaigns of Alexander the Great. Ancient authors called Bactria the land of a thousand cities. Every year, the USSR allocated 10 thousand dollars for excavations - considerable money for those times.
In 1978, a joint Soviet-Afghan archaeological expedition discovered a flat hill with a diameter of about 100 meters in the Jowzjan province in the vicinity of Shiberghan in northern Afghanistan, which local farmers dubbed “Tillya-Tepe”. Scientists, having stumbled upon the remains of a Zoroastrian temple that existed there about 2 thousand years ago, found a handful of small gold coins in one of the wall recesses.
During further excavations of this Tillya-Tepe hill (“Golden Hill” in Turkic), a major discovery was made - seven unlooted royal graves of the Kushan period and 20 thousand gold objects dating back two thousand years were discovered - the largest treasure in the history of world archeology. During excavations of burials, in one of them they found the remains of an ancient queen, secretly buried in a destroyed temple of fire worshipers.
“Kushan Aphrodite” plaque. Gold. Tilla Tepe, tomb VI, 1st century, Afghanistan
On November 15, 1978, after many years of grueling work in the waterless sands under the scorching sun near the Tillya-Tepe hill, where the monumental royal complex had been excavated earlier, archaeologists opened the first burial. A fantastic picture appeared before the eyes of archaeologists: a pile of gold jewelry that almost entirely hid the remains of the buried person! And ahead of the pioneers were six more such “golden excavations.” Moreover, they contained not just countless treasures, but also masterpieces of ancient art. Soviet and Afghan scientists brought to light golden bowls with patterns and embossing, belts, and richly decorated edged weapons. Golden crowns, decorated with figured flowers, inlaid with pearls and turquoise, stylized trees with birds on the branches. Massive gold bracelets, the ends of which were shaped by unknown craftsmen into animals - either predators with bared mouths, or rapidly rushing antelopes with turquoise pupils and the same hooves, ears, and horns. Rings and rings of the finest jewelry... Gold plates sewn onto clothes, sometimes in the form of a man carrying a dolphin, sometimes musicians, sometimes winged goddesses... A variety of gold pendants and buckles, sometimes depicting cupids sitting on fish with turquoise eyes, either a warrior in a helmet with a shield and a spear, at whose feet lie dragons, or some kind of fantastic creature with a lion's face... A dagger with a golden handle in a golden sheath with winged griffins and toothy predators.
The age of the finds was eloquently evidenced by the gold coins found there, minted under the Roman Emperor Tiberius, who began to rule Rome in 14 AD. Gold items, distinguished by their rich variety, belonged to the era of the conquest of the world by Alexander the Great and his war with the Persian king Darius.
The excavations of the “Golden Hill” were then called the find of the century by newspapers around the world. “The treasures found in Afghanistan,” wrote the New York Times, usually stingy with praise, especially to the Soviets, “can compete with the tomb of Tutankhamun.”
Scientists planned further research on the Golden Hill, but their work was interrupted by the entry of a limited contingent of Soviet troops into the country at the end of 1979. The war came close to Tillya Tepe, and countless treasures were then transported to the Kabul National Museum.
For the first time, the behind-the-scenes fuss around the gold of Bactria arose in the early 80s, when an article appeared in one of the Western newspapers, the author of which, from the words of an American who was in Peshawar, argued that “the Sarianidi expedition took everything that was excavated at Tillya-tepe to to yourself." Indeed, during the war, the treasure exhibition was exhibited with success in the Soviet Union, where scientists proposed to temporarily transport the exhibits to avoid their destruction or looting. But politicians were against it, and the treasures remained in Kabul.
Three years after the withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1989, during the storming of Kabul by Mujahideen groups, the museum was severely destroyed. Keepers of antiquities tried to save the treasures by transporting them to the presidential palace, but the war came there too. As a result, many valuable exhibits made of pure gold were considered lost.
In the chaos and collapse of the 90s, it seemed that the sensational discovery of Soviet scientists was forgotten. In Russia they also forgot about the one who might have been envied by the legendary Schliemann, who found the gold of Troy. But Sarianidi’s merits were highly appreciated in the West. Greek President Kostis Stephanopoulos awarded him the country's highest award, the golden cross of the Order of Honor. The Germans made a film about him and respectfully called him “the second Schliemann.” But “New Schliemann” Viktor Ivanovich Sarianidi, although he lives today in Greece, is a Russian citizen, born in Tashkent, graduated from the Central Asian State University, worked at the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Over half a century of hard work, V.I. Sarianidi and his colleagues made a series of epoch-making discoveries. They discovered new eras, unknown kingdoms, new civilizations; magnificent architectural monuments, a huge collection of art objects. Professor V.I. Sarianidi has published more than three dozen books. Now Viktor Ivanovich Sarianidi, one of the world's leading archaeologists, a true legend of Central Asian archeology, continues excavations in Turkmenistan.
But what about the treasures found by Sarianidi’s expedition in Tillya-Tepe, which lay underground for 2000 years? Since 1993, nothing has been known about them. But with the arrival of the Americans in Afghanistan, it turned out that they were stored in the basements of the National Bank of Afghanistan. The Taliban, destroying any “idolatrous” works of art, came to the bank, but the employees deceived them. And the gold of Bactria - the greatest archeological find of the 20th century made by Soviet scientists - survived. It was not lost, destroyed or melted down into ingots, as many feared.
However... the National Geographic magazine, after inviting Victor Sarianidi to an “identification” in Kabul, suggested that the Afghan government take the treasures of Bactria to the United States. There they will be shown at an exhibition, which will then be transported around the world for several years. The funds received from this will supposedly be used for the development of culture in Afghanistan. To appease the authorities there, the Americans spent 100 thousand dollars, bought computers for the Afghans, etc. The Americans took away the collection...
IN AND. Sarianidi; Rep. ed. Koshelenko; Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Institute of Archeology. - M.: Nauka, 1989. -236 p.: ill. ISBN 5-02-009438-2
IN AND. Sarianidi “Bactria through the mists of centuries”
Publisher: Mysl, 1984. Paperback, 176 pp. Circulation: 100,000 copies. Format: 84x108/32 Colour. illustrations
IN AND. Sarianidi "Afghanistan: treasures of nameless kings"
Publisher: Main editorial office of oriental literature of the publishing house "Nauka", 1983. Paperback, 160 pages. Circulation: 15,000 copies.
In 1978, a sensational event occurred that received enormous resonance throughout the world. A Soviet-Afghan expedition conducting excavations in Afghanistan completely unexpectedly discovered a treasure, one of the most expensive and largest on the planet, which was valued at a huge amount!
But the outbreak of war, which plunged the country into chaos and turmoil, with endless bombings and changes in power, interrupted the work of archaeologists and led to the fact that the priceless treasures found mysteriously disappeared...
The background of the sensational discovery
Rumors about the untold riches of Bactria, a once powerful state that was part of the empire of Alexander the Great, had been circulating for a long time, however, no one knew where to look for them.
In the 60s, Soviet engineers, engaged in the development of a natural gas field in Afghanistan, during the construction of a tunnel for a gas pipeline, discovered many shards from various vessels. Archaeologists, having carried out additional excavations, established that ancient and mysterious Bactria was once located on this territory, and after that active archaeological work began here under the leadership of Viktor Ivanovich Sarianidi, which lasted about ten years. The ruins of an ancient city with powerful defensive walls emerged from under the sand...
golden hill
In 1978, excavations began on the territory of one of the small hills scattered around. The name of this hill turned out to be prophetic - Tillya-Tepe (Golden Hill).
Inside it, archaeologists discovered seven ancient burials, about 2,000 years old, which turned out to be completely intact, which was extremely rare at that time. When the first burial was opened, everyone was simply dumbfounded by the fantastic picture that appeared before their eyes - the remains of the buried person were hidden under a huge pile of magnificent, skillfully made gold jewelry, the number of which reached 3000.
Archaeologists were able to explore five more burials, and all of them were also filled to the brim with jewelry, the total number of which reached 20,000 and weighed more than six tons. The sensational find was called “Gold of Bactria.” And although the designs of the graves themselves were quite primitive, their contents, as well as the crowns on the heads of the buried, clearly indicated that they were royal burials, and, most likely, secret ones.
Rumors about the sensational discovery instantly spread not only throughout the country, but also around the world.
A real pilgrimage began to the excavation site, the military was called in for security, and strict control was established over all participants in the excavation. The expedition members were not prepared for such a volume of work and responsibility. Now I had to work in an atmosphere of general suspicion, under close surveillance and at an accelerated pace. And it seemed that literally from behind every bush someone’s eyes were watching them. But, despite the measures taken, some of the jewelry still disappeared. But basically, almost all of them were counted, photographed, copied, put in plastic bags, sealed and sent to Kabul. What was there - golden crowns decorated with pearls and turquoise, bracelets, rings, rings, buttons, pendants, buckles... Many of them were decorated by unknown craftsmen with skillfully carved figures of people, cupids, animals, plants, flowers, trees.
Viktor Ivanovich recalls: “One Turkmen came to the excavations and just sat. I ask: “Why aren’t you working?” And he says: “My wife kicked me out. This hill - Tillya-Tepe - stands on my land. And the wife said: “We’ve been poor all our lives, but you had such wealth under your feet!”
The further fate of the treasures
It didn’t even get to the seventh burial; there was already a smell of war in the air, and the expedition stopped working. And when the rains began, two more graves were exposed. Guards were assigned to them. But after the outbreak of hostilities in 1979, when our troops were brought into Afghanistan, the fate of these graves is unknown. Scientists, trying to save the treasures, proposed to temporarily take them to Soviet Union or another neutral country, but President Najibullah refused. After our troops left, civil war continued in Afghanistan. The Kabul National Museum and the Presidential Palace, which housed the treasures, were severely damaged by the bombing, and the treasures were eventually lost in the civil war-torn country. It later turned out that they were hidden in anticipation of future destructive events, and they were hidden so well that years later no one really knew where they were, although there were many assumptions about the location of the treasure. The Taliban, who came to power in 1992, tried to find the treasure, but were also unsuccessful. Viktor Ivanovich Sarianidi says: “When the Taliban came to power, they started looking for this gold. They were told that it was kept in a Kabul bank. But the bank security came up with a fairy tale for the Taliban: they say, there were five people and five keys, all these five people went around the world, and safes with gold can be opened only when all five get together ... "
Chance find
In the early 2000s, sensational news spread around the world - treasures had been found! At that time, an attempt was made to locate assets in Afghanistan state bank, hidden in the presidential residence. And in the process of this search, Bactrian treasures, which had long been considered irretrievably lost, were completely unexpectedly found in special storage facilities in the basement of the palace. When the vaults were opened in 2004, Viktor Ivanovich Sarianidi was also present as an expert, confirming the authenticity of the treasures - he was holding in his hands the same plastic bags that he himself had once sealed. And finally, in the spring of 2004, a quarter of a century after its discovery, the jewelry was presented to the world. And since 2006, the exhibition "Gold of Bactria" has been successfully traveling around different countries and is shown in major museums. But whether they will ever be shown in Russia is unknown.
In 1978, a sensational event occurred that received enormous resonance throughout the world. A Soviet-Afghan expedition conducting excavations in Afghanistan completely unexpectedly discovered a treasure, one of the most expensive and largest on the planet, which was valued at a huge amount! But the outbreak of war, which plunged the country into chaos and turmoil, with endless bombings and changes in power, interrupted the work of archaeologists and led to the fact that the priceless treasures found mysteriously disappeared...
The background of the sensational discovery
Rumors about the untold riches of Bactria, a once powerful state that was part of the empire of Alexander the Great, had been circulating for a long time, however, no one knew where to look for them.In the 60s, Soviet engineers, engaged in the development of a natural gas field in Afghanistan, during the construction of a tunnel for a gas pipeline, discovered many shards from various vessels. Archaeologists, having carried out additional excavations, established that ancient and mysterious Bactria was once located on this territory, and after that active archaeological work began here under the leadership of Viktor Ivanovich Sarianidi, which lasted about ten years. The ruins of an ancient city with powerful defensive walls emerged from under the sand...
golden hill
In 1978, excavations began on the territory of one of the small hills scattered around. The name of this hill turned out to be prophetic - Tillya-Tepe (Golden Hill).
Inside it, archaeologists discovered seven ancient burials, about 2,000 years old, which turned out to be completely intact, which was extremely rare at that time. When the first burial was opened, everyone was simply dumbfounded by the fantastic picture that appeared before their eyes - the remains of the buried person were hidden under a huge pile of magnificent, skillfully made gold jewelry, the number of which reached 3000.
Archaeologists were able to explore five more burials, and all of them were also filled to the brim with jewelry, the total number of which reached 20,000 and weighed more than six tons. The sensational find was called “Gold of Bactria.” And although the designs of the graves themselves were quite primitive, their contents, as well as the crowns on the heads of the buried, clearly indicated that they were royal burials, and, most likely, secret ones.
Rumors about the sensational discovery instantly spread not only throughout the country, but also around the world.
A real pilgrimage began to the excavation site, the military was called in for security, and strict control was established over all participants in the excavation. The expedition members were not prepared for such a volume of work and responsibility. Now I had to work in an atmosphere of general suspicion, under close surveillance and at an accelerated pace. And it seemed that literally from behind every bush someone’s eyes were watching them. But, despite the measures taken, some of the jewelry still disappeared. But basically, almost all of them were counted, photographed, copied, put in plastic bags, sealed and sent to Kabul. What was there - golden crowns decorated with pearls and turquoise, bracelets, rings, rings, buttons, pendants, buckles... Many of them were decorated by unknown craftsmen with skillfully carved figures of people, cupids, animals, plants, flowers, trees.
Viktor Ivanovich recalls: “ One Turkmen came to the excavations and just sat. I ask: “Why aren’t you working?” And he says: “My wife kicked me out. This hill - Tillya-Tepe - stands on my land. And the wife said: “We’ve been poor all our lives, but you had such wealth under your feet!”»
The further fate of the treasures
It didn’t even get to the seventh burial; there was already a smell of war in the air, and the expedition stopped working. And when the rains began, two more graves were exposed. Guards were assigned to them. But after the outbreak of hostilities in 1979, when our troops were brought into Afghanistan, the fate of these graves is unknown. Scientists, trying to save the treasures, offered to temporarily remove them to the Soviet Union or another neutral country, but President Najibullah refused. After our troops left, civil war continued in Afghanistan. The Kabul National Museum and the Presidential Palace, which housed the treasures, were severely damaged by the bombing, and the treasures were eventually lost in the civil war-torn country. It later turned out that they were hidden in anticipation of future destructive events, and they were hidden so well that years later no one really knew where they were, although there were many assumptions about the location of the treasure. The Taliban, who came to power in 1992, tried to find the treasure, but were also unsuccessful. Victor Ivanovich Sarianidi says: “When the Taliban came to power, they started looking for this gold. They were told that it was kept in a Kabul bank. But the bank security came up with a fairy tale for the Taliban: they say, there were five people and five keys, all these five people went around the world, and safes with gold can be opened only when all five get together ... "Chance find
In the early 2000s, sensational news spread around the world - treasures had been found! At that time, an attempt was made in Afghanistan to find the assets of a state bank hidden in the presidential residence. And in the process of this search, Bactrian treasures, which had long been considered irretrievably lost, were completely unexpectedly found in special storage facilities in the basement of the palace. When the vaults were opened in 2004, Viktor Ivanovich Sarianidi was also present as an expert, confirming the authenticity of the treasures - he was holding in his hands the same plastic bags that he himself had once sealed. And finally, in the spring of 2004, a quarter of a century after its discovery, the jewelry was presented to the world. And since 2006, the exhibition “Gold of Bactria” has successfully traveled to different countries and is shown in major museums. But whether they will ever be shown in Russia is unknown. The first reliable information about Bactria was obtained thanks to the discoveries of a prominent Soviet archaeologist, Professor Galina Anatolyevna Pugachenkova. Then the work was continued by the Soviet-Afghan archaeological expedition under the leadership of candidates of historical sciences I. Kruglikova and V. Sarianidi. And here chance helped them a lot...It all started with the discovery of rich natural gas reserves in Northern Afghanistan, near the city of Shiberghan. From there to the Amu Darya and further across the territory of the USSR they began to build a gas pipeline. And so, when his route deepened into the waterless desert, Soviet engineer Alexei Markov noticed shards of ancient dishes in the sand dumps thrown out by earth-moving machines. He showed them to archaeologists. Markov's find turned out to be so sensational that the route of the Soviet-Afghan archaeological expedition was changed almost on the same day. It turned out that the gas pipeline route ran through the territory of Bactria!
The largest number of finds were made in the area located north of the village of Akcha. Under the sand mounds were hidden traces of the most ancient settlement of this legendary country: the foundations of houses, burial grounds, utensils, weapons. Following this, another promising area emerged in Northern Afghanistan. And there, along the dull gray takyrs, through the endless ridges of huge dunes, where, it seems, no human foot had set foot since the creation of the world, the heavily loaded vehicles of archaeologists crawled.
Now a world famous professor, Doctor of Historical Sciences Victor Sarianidi worked in northern Afghanistan for ten years. There, in the sun-baked sands, under a thick layer of earth, his expedition discovered a lost country - the once rich and prosperous Bactrian kingdom, which arose after the brilliant campaigns of Alexander the Great. Ancient authors called Bactria the land of a thousand cities. Every year, the USSR allocated 10 thousand dollars for excavations - considerable money for those times.
In 1978, a joint Soviet-Afghan archaeological expedition discovered a flat hill with a diameter of about 100 meters in the Jowzjan province in the vicinity of Shiberghan in northern Afghanistan, which local farmers dubbed “Tillya-Tepe”. Scientists, having stumbled upon the remains of a Zoroastrian temple that existed there about 2 thousand years ago, found a handful of small gold coins in one of the wall recesses.
During further excavations of this hill, Tillya-Tepe (“Golden Hill” in Turkic), a major discovery was made - seven unlooted royal graves of the Kushan period and 20 thousand gold objects dating back two thousand years were discovered - the largest treasure in the history of world archeology. During excavations of burials, in one of them they found the remains of an ancient queen, secretly buried in a destroyed temple of fire worshipers.
November 15, 1978. After many years of grueling work in the waterless sands under the scorching sun near the Tillya-Tepe hill, where a monumental royal complex had been excavated earlier, archaeologists opened the first burial. A fantastic picture appeared before the eyes of archaeologists: a pile of gold jewelry that almost entirely hid the remains of the buried person! And ahead of the pioneers were six more such “golden excavations.” Moreover, they contained not just countless treasures, but also masterpieces of ancient art. Soviet and Afghan scientists brought to light gold bowls with patterns and embossing, belts, and richly decorated edged weapons. Golden crowns, decorated with figured flowers, inlaid with pearls and turquoise, stylized trees with birds on the branches. Massive gold bracelets, the ends of which were shaped by unknown craftsmen into animals - either predators with bared mouths, or rapidly rushing antelopes with turquoise pupils and the same hooves, ears, and horns. Rings and rings of the finest jewelry... Gold plates sewn onto clothes, sometimes in the form of a man carrying a dolphin, sometimes musicians, sometimes winged goddesses... A variety of gold pendants and buckles, sometimes depicting cupids sitting on fish with turquoise eyes, either a warrior in a helmet with a shield and a spear, at whose feet lie dragons, or some kind of fantastic creature with a lion's face... A dagger with a golden handle in a golden sheath with winged griffins and toothy predators.
The age of the finds was eloquently evidenced by the gold coins found there, minted under the Roman Emperor Tiberius, who began to rule Rome in 14 AD. Gold items, distinguished by their rich variety, belonged to the era of the conquest of the world by Alexander the Great and his war with the Persian king Darius.
The excavations of the “Golden Hill” were then called the find of the century by newspapers around the world. “The treasures found in Afghanistan,” wrote the New York Times, usually stingy with praise, especially to the Soviets, “can compete with the tomb of Tutankhamun.”
Scientists planned further research on the Golden Hill, but their work was interrupted by the entry of a limited contingent of Soviet troops into the country at the end of 1979. The war came close to Tillya Tepe, and countless treasures were then transported to the Kabul National Museum.
For the first time, the behind-the-scenes fuss around the gold of Bactria arose in the early 80s, when an article appeared in one of the Western newspapers, the author of which, from the words of an American who was in Peshawar, argued that “the Sarianidi expedition took everything that was excavated at Tillya-tepe to to yourself"...
Indeed, during the war, the treasure exhibition was exhibited with success in the Soviet Union, where scientists proposed to temporarily transport the exhibits to avoid their destruction or looting. But politicians were against it... and the treasures remained in Kabul.
Three years after the withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1989, during the storming of Kabul by Mujahideen groups, the museum was severely destroyed. Keepers of antiquities tried to save the treasures by transporting them to the presidential palace, but the war came there too. As a result, many valuable exhibits made of pure gold were considered lost.
In the chaos and collapse of the 90s, it seemed that the sensational discovery of Soviet scientists was forgotten. In Russia they also forgot about the one who might have been envied by the legendary Schliemann, who found the gold of Troy. But Sarianidi’s merits were highly appreciated in the West. Greek President Kostis Stephanopoulos awarded him the country's highest award, the golden cross of the Order of Honor. The Germans made a film about him and respectfully called him “the second Schliemann.” But “New Schliemann” Viktor Ivanovich Sarianidi, although he lives today in Greece, is a Russian citizen, born in Tashkent, graduated from the Central Asian State University, worked at the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Over half a century of hard work, V.I. Sarianidi and his colleagues made a series of epoch-making discoveries. They discovered new eras, unknown kingdoms, new civilizations; magnificent architectural monuments, a huge collection of art objects. Professor V.I. Sarianidi has published more than three dozen books. Now Viktor Ivanovich Sarianidi, one of the world's leading archaeologists, a true legend of Central Asian archeology, continues excavations in Turkmenistan.
But what about the treasures found by Sarianidi’s expedition in Tillya-Tepe, which lay underground for 2000 years? Since 1993, nothing has been known about them. But with the arrival of the Americans in Afghanistan, it turned out that they were stored in the basements of the National Bank of Afghanistan. The Taliban, destroying any “idolatrous” works of art, came to the bank, but the employees deceived them. And the gold of Bactria - the greatest archeological find of the 20th century made by Soviet scientists - survived. It was not lost, destroyed or melted down into ingots, as many feared.
However... the National Geographic magazine, after inviting Victor Sarianidi to an “identification” in Kabul, suggested that the Afghan government take the treasures of Bactria to the United States. There they will be shown at an exhibition, which will then be transported around the world for several years. The funds received from this will supposedly be used for the development of culture in Afghanistan. To appease the authorities there, the Americans spent 100 thousand dollars, bought computers for the Afghans, etc. The Americans took the collection away. It's a shame... After all, it was our scientists who found the treasures, and the excavations were carried out with Soviet money. But the train seems to have already left...
Bactrian gold from the collection of the Kabul National Museum has already traveled around the world. So from December 2006 to April 2007. the collection was exhibited at the Museum of Asian Art in France in Paris under the title "Afghanistan, Treasures Rediscovered".
Then the treasures of Tila-Tepe, together with other Bactrian treasures, went to Turin (Italy), Amsterdam (Netherlands) and then overseas to the USA. From May to September 2008, the treasures were exhibited at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, from October to January 2009 at the San Francisco Museum of Art, from March to May 2009 at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, from June to September 2009 The exhibition is running at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. Will the treasures of Bactria ever reach Russia?
The legendary treasures survived the Afghan war, almost died during the Taliban regime, and traveled to museums in many countries around the world. But they never made it to Russia, where the archaeologist who discovered the gold of Bactria had been waiting for them for 35 years.
“Even a saint, seeing gold, changes his face” - this eastern wisdom Viktor Ivanovich Sarianidi, who led a group of Soviet archaeologists in Afghanistan in 1978, often repeated. Among those whom fate connected with the gold of Bactria - a sensational discovery made that year - there were, of course, no saints. Not everyone managed to save face. But there were also those for whom gold helped to manifest best qualities. Amazing Adventures The royal treasures are, first of all, the story of people: their passions and weaknesses, selfless labor and extraordinary courage.
Under the cover of darkness, a small group of people left the city. Four men carried a cloth-covered coffin without a lid on their shoulders. After walking about a thousand steps to the southeast, the procession reached the ruins of the Temple on the hill. On one of the ledges there was a freshly dug oblong hole. The coffin was hastily lowered into the grave, with its head facing west. In the light of the moon, the golden discs with which the bedspread was embroidered glittered. After reciting a short spell, the funeral team quickly covered the grave, camouflaging it with turf. Thus ended the stay of the ruler’s young wife in this world. She, crowned with a golden crown, dressed in an embroidered gold dress, decorated with bracelets, beads and pendants with the image of the Great Goddess Anahita, was given a fitting welcome in the Kingdom of the Dead. She will never be seen in the kingdom of the living. The secret burial is reliably hidden from human eyes. No one is destined to enter the queen's golden tomb.
The crown crowned the head of the young woman from burial 6. Neither in earlier nor in later eras did Bactria know such crowns. But similar ones, with images of trees and birds, were found in the burial mounds of the nomads - the Saks and Sarmatians.
Today no one will say exactly how the burial took place, but it is known for certain under what circumstances the peace of the tombs was disturbed two thousand years later. The Soviet-Afghan archaeological expedition excavated monuments of the Early Iron Age (late 2nd - early 1st millennium BC) near the city of Shiberghan in Northern Afghanistan.
Work on the site of the ancient settlement on the Tillya-Tepe hill began in October, and by mid-November it got colder and rained. On November 15, the head of the expedition, Victor Sarianidi, was not at the site; the day before he left for Kabul for an international seminar. But the rain that had been falling for several days stopped, and the excavations proceeded as usual - they cleared the fortress wall of soil. Suddenly, on the shovel of one of the workers, an Afghan peasant named Khudaydot, something flashed - yellow, the size of a coin - something that they didn’t even think of seeing here on Tillya-Tepe. Until now, ceramics and remains of iron products have been searched for and found here. And now - gold. A lot - dozens of objects, small and larger. Soon their number will go into the hundreds, and then into the thousands.
“My God, all this passed through my hands... Everything, everything... What horror,” expedition restorer Vladimir Prokofievich Bury sighs with unexpected melancholy in his voice, leafing through a catalog of Tillya-Tepe treasures published in the 1980s. – What a horror it was, you can’t imagine! Everything is studded with turquoise, it was once placed on mastic and fell out... Everything had to be picked up, washed, glued together. And count! The archaeologist hands over the items to me and we count them. Then I process them, lay them out on the tablet, hand them back and count them again. Sometimes it doesn’t add up, we recalculate again... My hands are shaking - it’s gold!”
A long evening visiting Professor Stroganov is filled with memories. For the first time in 35 years, Vladimir Bury is rereading his 1978 field diary. Here it is, a historical entry in a thick general notebook: “November 15. Clouds, cold... At 10:00 Zafar [Khakimov, an archaeologist from Uzbekistan] arrived. – Editor's note.] and said: “Get ready, let’s go.” It turned out that a burial had been found in Tillya-Tepe... not looted... The upper part of the skull was demolished with a shovel, and part of the gold jewelry was thrown into the rubble along with the earth. Now the workers are going through the rubble and pulling out the gold.” At the beginning of the expedition, the notes are detailed: every day is described, important finds are sketched. The further I went, the fewer entries there were: there wasn’t enough time. Gold fell on the excavation participants out of the blue. The expedition was not ready for such a volume of work - and for such a huge responsibility.
From November 15, 1978 to February 8, 1979, led by Victor Sarianidi, a group of four Soviet and two Afghan archaeologists, a Soviet restorer and his three Afghan assistants excavated six royal burials from two thousand years ago in the territory of ancient Bactria. 20,600 pieces of gold jewelry - patches, pendants, necklaces, rings, brooches, bracelets, belts, scabbards, crowns - as well as items made of silver, bronze, other materials. Sarianidi himself later said that under “normal conditions” each burial of this kind required about a month and a half of work. Less than three months for everything - in the rain and wind, with a shortage necessary materials, from chemicals to packaging (even dental drill boxes from a dentist's office in Shibergan were used) - conditions were far from normal. In addition, news spread throughout Afghanistan: the Shuravi had found gold! Hundreds and thousands of people from surrounding towns and villages began to come to the excavations. “Tillya-Tepe was constantly guarded by Afghan soldiers, but no one forbade local residents to crowd around,” recalls Vladimir Bury. “It’s an incredible burden on the psyche to work while constantly feeling eyes on you, hearing whispers, seeing fingers pointed at you. Besides, don’t forget – there was gold!”
Among those who came to see the excavations were Shuravi, Soviet citizens. The largest oil and gas field in Afghanistan is located near Shiberghan. Since the late 1960s, gas has been exported via pipeline to Uzbekistan. The gas factor was decisive in the economic and political relations between the USSR and Afghanistan until 1990. Soviet specialists lived in Shibergan with families, and Russian speech was heard everywhere in the city. One day, oil and gas explorer Anatoly Chernoivan came to Tillya-Tepe from Shibergan. An experienced amateur photographer, he took his camera with him. “When I started filming, they came up to me: “You can’t, it’s forbidden!” But I still took a few pictures. And a couple of days later they sent for me from Sarianidi with a request for help. For several weeks, my colleague Vitaly Koshelev and I carried out technical photography at the excavations. During this time, about eight thousand gold items passed through my hands!” says Chernoivan. The oldest member of the Chernigov photo club, Anatoly Kondratyevich still remembers working on Tillya-Tepe as the main adventure of his life.
View of the Tillya-Tepe temple complex at the height of the excavations of the 1978-1979 season. On the horizon are the outskirts of the city of Shibergana. The burials of the Tillya-Tepe hill date back to a time about which little is known - to the end of the 1st century BC. The graves of a young noble warrior and five women (apparently the wives of rulers) were found here. Items from the graves indicate that those buried in them led a nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyle. “The nomadic environment is like a sea with many currents and whirlpools,” explains historian Veronica Schiltz. “It is difficult to judge who is who, especially if these people have not left a trace in written history.”
During the preparation of this article, I managed to meet with Viktor Ivanovich twice. All his thoughts were occupied with the ongoing excavations in Turkmenistan. Sarianidi recalled Bactria as a short episode of his rich scientific biography. He admitted that he did not believe in luck until he himself, returning from Kabul, saw human remains. Only then did he realize that this was not a random treasure, but a necropolis: “I was surprised that we managed to do this. I’m generally unlucky in life... Although I’m lucky with women and gold!” Viktor Ivanovich managed to find gold twice – in Afghanistan and in Turkmenistan. For an archaeologist this is amazing luck. Vladimir Bury, who worked with Sarianidi for several years, claims that this luck comes from the ability to take risks: “Viktor Ivanovich is lucky, very lucky. He and I played cards more than once. Usually it was like this - we were playing, and suddenly he caught the moment: the card went. And then a stormy risky game begins. That was his style."
According to the calendar, the field season was coming to an end, but there was no end in sight to the work. Three days after the first, a second burial was discovered, on December 14 - a third, on December 26 - a fourth, then a fifth, sixth... It was then, in order to save time, Sarianidi decided to simplify as much as possible all procedures for inventorying finds: “I probably did , the most courageous and decisive step in my life - everything was based on trust.” It was risky: trust is a heavy burden. The sequence of events is restored by looking into the diary, restorer Vladimir Bury: “I had a team of assistants - two local Turkmen, Gafur-aka and Chary-kara, and a young Afghan from Kabul, Aref Inoyat. Chary worked with me the longest - seven or eight years. A very smart guy, a jack of all trades. And then one day Aref comes up to me: “Volodya, here’s the story. I asked Chara for a smoke. He took a pack out of his pocket and handed it to me - there was only one cigarette left in it. I took the pack for myself. Now look – what are we going to do?” And he shows a pack: soft, paper, with cellophane on top, and between the cellophane and paper there is a tiny stone, turquoise. They called Abdul Habib, one of the two Afghan archaeologists. We agreed to remain silent.
Chinese style chariot buckles.
The working day ended, and we all went to the hotel where Chary lived with Gafur-aka. Not a hotel - a rooming house: a room a meter high, into which you could only crawl on all fours. There, on pieces of foam rubber that I gave to Gafur and Chara, they slept as if on mattresses. And there, under the foam rubber, we found another piece of gold. Dirty: just as he took it with the earth, he threw it away.” They took pity on the unlucky thief - they did not give the matter an official move, but simply kicked him out. The next morning, Bury found the assistant near the car: “He’s standing, waiting, going to work. I say: “Go away. All". He trudged away and disappeared. I truly feel sorry for him. But there was no other way..."
The restorer continues to leaf through the diary and reads aloud: “December 30. At burial number 2, Abdul Habib swept away all the layers of surviving tissue. Under the mirror was a fabric preserved with copper. I was very irritated..." Brown puts down his notebook and tells almost incredible story. Abdul Habib studied to be an archaeologist at Moscow State University, but for some reason was expelled. He ended up on the expedition, one might say, for re-education - Sarianidi promised to work for restoration. Khabib desperately tried to earn the approval of his boss, but his pride and obstinate disposition got in the way. The more work there was, the more often Khabib lost his temper. However, in his work he was careful to the point of pedantry. In burial 2, which he excavated, a young woman was buried; a Chinese mirror lay in the coffin. Having lifted it, the archaeologist was speechless: under the mirror there was a piece of fabric preserved - thin threads different types the weaves were preserved due to contact with copper. A unique find!
“I spent half a day thinking about how to preserve the fabric,” recalls Vladimir Bury. - I figured it out, I calmed down. The next day we arrived at the excavation site with Zafar Khakimov and went to look at Khabib’s find. We go into burial number 2 - and my eyes widen: Khabib is sweeping away the last remnants of fabric with a brush. All I could do was whisper: “What have you done?” And he looks - his face is distorted, it’s clear that he drank at night. He did this as if in revenge on Viktor Ivanovich, saying: “He doesn’t care about me.” Khabib was a very good specialist, but... with a breakdown.”
Everyone’s nerves were getting worse in those days – both the Afghans and ours. But on Tillya-Tepe, every specialist was literally worth his weight in gold. And the work was not interrupted for an hour. Subsequently, Sarianidi helped the Afghan return to Moscow State University. Alas, this story has a sad ending: a few years later, Abdul Habib died of a cold in his kidneys.
January 1979 was coming to an end. According to the plan, Sarianidi was supposed to fly to Kabul with those items that he had managed to describe and photograph, leaving some of the employees to complete the work. Viktor Ivanovich recalled: exactly a week before his departure, the archaeologist from Ashgabat Terkesh Khodzhaniyazov called him aside, extended his hand in front of him and unclenched his fist. Golden plaques flashed in the sun - a new, seventh burial! There was no time or energy left for excavations, and they decided to preserve the find until the next season. Archaeologist Zafar Khakimov and restorer Vladimir Bury were responsible for delivering the remaining gold to the capital: they accepted it, packed it in boxes, and loaded it into the back of an old GAZ-66 truck. They put quilted jackets, sleeping bags, and dishes on top of the truck, camouflaged it as best they could, and early in the morning of February 13 we left for Kabul. There are more than 500 kilometers ahead - through the Hindu Kush, the Salang tunnel. There was no security, it was not possible to contact Viktor Ivanovich for several days, and the trip could not be postponed! Zafar got behind the wheel, Vladimir did not know how to drive. Before we had time to drive away, the engine stalled.
The clasp depicts ancient - perhaps Macedonian - warriors, but surrounded by lions and birds, completely alien to the ancient tradition.
“The February sun was shining brightly, but an icy wind was blowing,” recalls Bury. “I stand and watch Zafar tinker with the engine. I also noted that his clothes were lifted up, his lower back was bare.” We arrived in Puli-Khumri, a city on the outskirts of the Hindu Kush, in the dark. The huge hotel buildings were empty: February - dead Season for tourists, and it was an alarming time, the fateful year for the country was 1979... “We drove the truck into the yard,” says the restorer. “And Zafar’s forehead was burning, he caught a cold in the cold wind. The hotel is not heated, there is no light. Somewhere I got boiling water and covered Zafar with everything I could. There was no medicine, but there was alcohol. What to do? I found a piece of wire and somehow wrapped it around the canvas top. Returned to the room. Puli-Khumri, February, there are two of us in the hotel, and in the yard there is a car full of gold. Some kind of absurdity. I drank alcohol and fell asleep...”
The next morning, life got better: Zafar’s temperature had subsided, the car was in place, the wire was intact. We hit the road again. And so, when the lights of Kabul appeared in the valley below, soldiers jumped out onto the road in the headlights, guns drawn. “As it turned out later, the American Ambassador Adolph Dubs was killed in the capital that day,” recalls Bury. “And now they are going to search us.” At this moment it became truly scary. I remember Zafar saying something in Farsi, I climbed into the back, picked up the sleeping bags... We were lucky, the patrol was too lazy to get to the very bottom. Who knows what would have happened if the soldiers had discovered gold on that night road. Even if saints change their faces..."
All the gold safely reached Kabul, where it found a place in the National Museum, but the situation in Afghanistan in 1979 was not favorable for a new expedition. And in December, the USSR sent troops into the country. I had to forget about the seventh burial (as it turned out, forever: the grave was plundered). But in 1982, Sarianidi came to Afghanistan again - with photographers from the Hermitage Vladimir Terebenin and Leonid Bogdanov. They spent a month in Kabul photographing gold for a photo album. “The war was going on, every evening we heard the explosions of artillery shells, but, strangely enough, I never had a better rest in my life,” recalls Terebenin. – A luxurious hotel room, breakfast on snow-white tablecloths, with well-trained waiters, then Sarianidi visits us on the Pobeda, and we head to the museum. Work, lunch, hotel, dinner, business trips... The situation is paradoxical.”
Years passed, and the situation turned from paradoxical to critical. When the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the country began in 1988, shells began to reach Kabul. Five years later, one of them hit the National Museum building, destroying the roof and upper floor. But by that time the gold of Bactria was no longer in the museum. Its whereabouts remained a mystery to everyone, including the press and experts, many of whom were sure that the Shuravi took the treasure with them when leaving Afghanistan. But the gold was located some ten kilometers from the building of the National Museum: with the sanction of President Najibullah, in early 1989, museum employees transported and hid the jewelry in one of the vaults in the basement of the presidential palace. Three years later, the Mujahideen came to power, then the Taliban, Najibullah was executed, the museum was looted, exhibits surfaced on the black market - but nothing from the treasures of Tillya-Tepe. All sorts of rumors circulated then: Sarianidi took the gold out (French newspapers wrote), the gold was taken out by the French special services (wrote Russian newspapers), gold has become “Bin Laden’s cash register” and is being sold to private collections...
“Journalists asked us about the gold of Bactria, but we did not give away our secret, it was dangerous,” says museum director Omara Khan Massoudi. “It was only in 2003 that President Hamid Karzai was informed that the treasures were intact. He was so happy that he made a public statement." Victor Sarianidi flew to Kabul to identify the jewelry. Over the course of 13 years, the key to the safe was lost. “They found a craftsman, he cut out the lock,” Sarianidi recalled. “The first thing they pulled out of the safe was a flower, an element of a large crown. It was like meeting a loved one whom you had not seen for many years and did not know what was wrong with him, whether he was alive or dead. And finally you saw: after all, he is alive, he is here, he is waiting for you.”
“The history of the treasures of Tillya-Tepe is waiting for its Dan Brown,” says Anatoly Chernoivan, looking at old photographs. Yes, the adventures of Bactrian gold could form the basis of an adventure novel, but for science it is better if experts write about the treasures. French historian of nomadic art Veronica Schiltz states: the number of publications about Tillya-Tepe is growing, not least thanks to the success of the exhibition “Afghanistan. Hidden Treasures”, which, along with the finds of archaeologists from France, also presents the gold of Bactria.
Over the course of eight years, the exhibition traveled to Paris and Turin, London and New York... but, alas, never made it to Russia. Since the early 1980s, Victor Sarianidi has been trying to organize an exhibition of his finds in the Hermitage. "IN last years“I carried Viktor Ivanovich’s letters to all the high offices of the country,” says anthropologist Nadezhda Dubova, who was Sarianidi’s deputy on his expeditions since 2002. “I know that Sergei Lavrov, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, issued an approval visa, but that was all.” Throughout 2014, the exhibition of treasures of Afghanistan is touring Australia.
“I’m sorry that Russia is still on the sidelines,” complains Veronica Schiltz. – Items from Tillya-Tepe deserve serious research at the international level and with the obligatory participation of Russia, where there is a strong tradition of studying the culture of nomads. And an exhibition in your country would also be a wonderful opportunity to present Sarianidi’s archive to the public.” ...AND the best way to honor the memory of the great archaeologist, we will add. Gold is a suitable material for this.