national gallery of art

May 25 – September 7, 2008

N ational geographic society
Archaeological masterpieces from the National Museum
of Afghanistan were long thought to have been lost dur-
ing the years of turbulence and war that followed the
Soviet invasion of 1979. Instead, most had been secretly
hidden in crates in the Central Bank within the presi-
dential palace in Kabul. In 2004 the crates were opened,
bringing to light the works of art that had remarkably
survived. This exhibition presents highlights from the
museum’s collection and reveals the exotic influences and
local artistic traditions that shaped the art of northern
Afghanistan, known as Bactria in antiquity.
The works on view span Afghan history from 2200 bc
to the second century ad and come from four archaeological
sites: the Bronze Age site of Tepe Fullol; the Greco-Bactrian
city of Aï Khanum; the trading settlement of Begram,
which flourished in the first and second centuries ad; and
the roughly contemporary necropolis of Tillya Tepe, where
a nomadic chieftain and members of his household were
buried with thousands of gold objects and ornaments,
many inlaid with turquoise, lapis lazuli, or other semipre-
cious stones (figs. 1 and 3).

bronze age culture of afghanistan

An urban culture developed in northern Afghanistan some four thousand

years ago. Its distinctive style of architecture featured massive fortified
buildings with towers constructed of unbaked bricks. As this culture had
no known writing, its original name is lost, but archaeologists call it the
“Oxus civilization,” after the Oxus River (modern Amu Darya) which
flows through the region. In 1966 farmers near the northern Afghan
village of Fullol accidentally discovered a burial cache that contained
the first evidence of the Oxus civilization in Afghanistan. The grave
contained several bowls made of gold that most likely came from the
Oxus riverbed. Their designs include animal imagery such as bearded
bulls (fig. 2) from distant Mesopotamian and Indus valley cultures
(present-day Pakistan), indicating that already at this early date,
Afghanistan was part of an extensive trade network.
advent of empires

The native wealth of Afghanistan — rich in gold, copper, tin, lapis

lazuli, garnet, and carnelian — did not go unnoticed by its neighbors.
In the sixth century bc, the region fell to the Persians. It is through
them that we first learn the local name of the lands of northern
Afghanistan: Bactria. In the fourth century bc, Alexander the Great
and his army conquered Bactria, and his successors established a
Hellenized government there, bringing Greek language, art, and
religion to the area. With the exception of some beautifully minted
coins, however, tangible traces of this Greco-Bactrian culture remained
elusive until recently. The subsequent history of Bactria is known from
several sources: Chinese chronicles, which describe waves of nomads
from the northern steppes moving into the region; Indian accounts,
which tell of the rise of independent states; and local coinage that

fig 1
1 2
Headdress ornament in
the form of a ram (Tillya
Tepe, Tomb iv), gold,
1st century bc –1st
century ad (cat. 108)

fig 2
Fragment of a bowl
depicting bearded bulls
(Tepe Fullol), gold,
2200 – 1900 bc (cat. 3)

fig 3
Ornament for the neck
of a robe (Tillya
Tepe, Tomb v),
gold, turquoise,
garnet, and pyrite,
1st century bc – 1st
century ad (cat. 129)
3

(cover)
One of a pair of
pendants depicting the
“Dragon Master”
(Tillya Tepe, Tomb ii),
gold, turquoise, garnet,
lapis lazuli, carnelian,
and pearl, 1st century
bc –1st century ad
(cat. 61)
documents kings of the Kushan Dynasty (1st – 3rd centuries ad).
The Kushans, who are said to have been descendants of the invading
nomads, established an empire reaching from southern Bactria to the
Ganges River Valley in India.

balkh, the capital of Bactria, was described in antiquity as

“Balkh the beautiful, Balkh the mother of all cities.” It was
destroyed by Mongols in 1220, but an account by Marco Polo
suggests its former grandeur:
Balkh is a noble city and very large. Formerly it was nobler and
larger, it was the most vast and beautiful city in the region, but the
Tartars and other people often ravaged and cruelly damaged it. Because
I tell you that formerly there were here a number of beautiful palaces and
beautiful houses of marble; and still there are, but destroyed and ruined.
And I tell you that in this city King Alexander the Great took as his
wife the daughter of Darius, king of the Persians, according to the people
of the city. — the description of the world, 1298

the greek colony at aï khanum

After Alexander the Great’s conquest of Bactria around 328 bc, the
region became the eastern outpost of Greek culture in Asia. One of
Alexander’s successors, Seleucius i, founded the Greco-Bactrian city
of Aï Khanum (“Lady Moon”) at a strategic location along the Oxus
River, on the frontier with nomadic tribes to the north. Defended by
massive mud-brick ramparts more than three miles long, Aï Khanum
developed into a cultural hub where Greek art merged with local eastern
traditions, and over time, a distinctive Greco-Bactrian style emerged.
A chance find in 1961 resulted in the discovery of the ancient city.
During a hunting expedition in the region, the late Afghan king Zahir
Shah was shown a Corinthian capital — similar to the one in the exhibi-
tion (fig. 6) — and recognized its antiquity. Exploration of the area led
to the excavation of Aï Khanum by French archaeologists from 1964
to 1978. They uncovered a city modeled on a Greek urban plan, with
a theater, a fountain, temples, tombs for the city’s benefactors, a resi-
dential area, and a gymnasium for education and sports. A limestone
statue found in a niche at the site probably portrays the gymnasium’s
director (fig. 5). Because Aï Khanum also contained a palace, it is
thought to have been a royal city.
 One of the oldest antiquities found at Aï Khanum is a ceremonial
plaque made of gilded silver (fig. 4). It depicts Cybele, Greek goddess
of nature, riding in a chariot. Next to her is the winged goddess Nike,
holding the reins. The chariot is drawn by two lions passing through
a mountainous landscape strewn with rocks and flowers. Cybele is
attended by two priests: one behind, holding a parasol, and the other
standing on a tall altar, making an offering. Three heavenly bodies
shine down from the sky: the sun god Helios, a crescent moon, and a
star. In sum, the plaque shows the goddess of nature presiding within
an orderly cosmos.

fig 4
4 Ceremonial plaque
depicting Cybele
(Aï Khanum, temple
with niches), gilded
silver, beginning
of 3rd century bc
(cat. 23)

fig 5
Portrait, probably of
the Gymnasiarch Strato
(Aï Khanum, gymna-
sium), limestone, 1st
half of 2nd century bc
(cat. 32)

fig 6
Corinthian capital
(Aï Khanum), limestone,
before 145 bc (cat. 24)

5 6
 the silk road is a metaphor for long-distance trade across Asia
that developed from c. 300 bc to c. 200 ad. It was not, in fact,
a “road” but a collection of land and sea routes linking cities,
trading posts, caravan watering-places, and hostels between the
eastern Mediterranean and the Chinese frontier. Afghanistan is
centrally located along the major routes.
Trade goods brought to China included precious metals,
coins, glass, and semiprecious stones. Silk textiles, lacquered
bowls, and other luxury wares traveled from China to the West.
The distances to be covered were so great — and the rigors of
travel so daunting — that only goods that combined small size
with very high value could be transported the entire distance.
By the first century ad, long-distance trade across Asia was fully
established, as demonstrated by the artifacts from Rome, India,
China, Persia, and Siberia found in Afghanistan.

begram

An unusual discovery at the ancient city of Begram shed light on the fig 7
role of Afghanistan in the network of trade along the Silk Road. In Mask of Silenus (Begram,
the 1930s and 1940s, French archaeologists excavated two sealed and Room 13), bronze,
1st – 2nd centuries ad
undisturbed storerooms containing luxury goods. Many of them came (cat. 221)
from distant lands: bronzes from the Greco-Roman world (fig. 7),
fig 8
painted glassware and porphyry from Egypt (fig. 8), lacquered bowls
Goblet depicting figures
from China, and ivory furniture ornaments probably from India. The harvesting dates (Begram,
hoard dates to the first and second centuries ad, during the rule of Room 10), glass and
paint, 1st – 2nd
the Kushan Dynasty. centuries ad (cat. 163)

7 8
 The finds at Begram are remarkable for the extraordinary number
of works in ivory, many of which depict voluptuous women relaxing,
dancing, or playing musical instruments. The ivories probably once
decorated wooden furniture that has since turned to dust. The ivory
statuette of a woman (fig. 9) perhaps embellished a table leg. The figure
represents the Indian river goddess Ganga, whose mount is the mytho-
logical makara, a creature that is part crocodile, part elephant, and part
fish. The leogryph — another hybrid beast with the body of a lion, wings
of an eagle, and beak of a parrot — served as a bracket supporting the arm
of a chair (fig. 10).
Ever since this discovery at Begram, art historians and archaeolo-
gists have puzzled over just why these marvelous and diverse objects
were gathered here in the sealed storerooms. The works of art may
have been a treasure hoarded over time by the Kushan kings, but more
likely they were a splendid repository of trade goods, sealed off to protect
valuable commodities awaiting distribution along the Silk Road. In any
event, the objects provide a glimpse into the heart of the Silk Road at
a time of intense commercial exchange.

fig 9
Statuette of a woman
tillya tepe standing on a makara,
possibly a furniture orna-
ment (Begram, Room
Nomads from the northern steppes, which stretch from the Black Sea 10), ivory, 1st – 2nd
to Mongolia, overran Bactria around 145 bc, bringing an end to the centuries ad (cat. 148)

Greco-Bactrian kingdoms that had flourished there. The first evidence fig 10
of this nomadic presence in the region was found at Tillya Tepe, a Bracket in the form of a
name meaning “hill of gold.” Excavated in 1978 by a Soviet-Afghan leogryph (Begram, Room
13), ivory, 1st – 2nd
team of archaeologists, the site contained the tombs of a chieftain and centuries ad (cat. 209)

9 10
 11

five female members of his household, who had been buried some time fig 11
in the first century bc or the first century ad. The graves, numbered in Dagger with hilt depicting
animals and a dancing bear
the order in which they were found, contained what today is known (Tillya Tepe, Tomb iv),
as the Bactrian Hoard: thousands of gold objects and ornaments that iron, gold, and turquoise,
1st century bc –1st
had been sewn onto the burial shrouds and clothing of the deceased. century ad (cat. 114)
Typical of nomadic burials, the graves were dug into an earthen
mound with the most important person — the chieftain — placed
in the center and the secondary burials arranged roughly in a circle
around him. In the northern steppes, funeral mounds were man-made
constructions requiring massive movement of earth. At Tillya Tepe,
however, the nomads reused an existing “hill” — actually the earth-
covered remains of a fortified mud-brick temple dating from the Iron
Age (1500 –1300 bc).
The nomads brought with them weapons, horse trappings, and
jewelry decorated in the animal style of the steppes, which features
images of both real and fantastic animals, often in combat or intricately
entwined. This style is readily evident in the turquoise-inlaid dagger
(fig. 11) from Tomb iv, that of the chieftain. The weapon’s design — 
animals devouring each other — suggests dynamism, aggression, and
invincibility. Nomadic traditions are also reflected in the collapsible
gold crown found in Tomb vi (fig. 12): five tall “trees” are inserted into
small gold tubes on the inside of the diadem, a system that allowed
the crown to be dismantled and easily transported.
The finds at Tillya Tepe revealed a culture that was more refined,
eclectic, and Hellenized than had been expected. After reaching
Bactria, nomadic artists became influenced by the diverse objects that
traveled along the Silk Road. The man depicted grasping two dragons
on a pendant from Tomb ii (cover) wears the tunic and flowing pants
typical of nomadic garb, but he has an Indian beauty mark on his
forehead and a crown similar to those worn by Iranian rulers. A pair of
clasps from a jacket depicts figures from Greek mythology: Dionysus,
the god of wine, and his consort Ariadne are accompanied by Nike
holding the wreath of victory, and drunken Silenus, Dionysus’s com-
panion, slouched on the ground (fig. 13). The monstrous steed with
the muzzle of a lion, beard of a goat, and crest of a dragon is alien to
Greek art, however, and reflects the aesthetic of the steppes.
Chinese influence is evident in the chieftain’s boot buckles, each of
which shows an exotic scene of chariots being drawn by dragons (fig. 14).
The pattern on the chariot’s side suggests a woven material, and the
uprights supporting the canopy resemble bamboo. Such lightweight,
two-wheeled chariots are known from excavations in Mongolia and
from Han Chinese burials of the first century bc. Like many of the
gold objects found at Tillya Tepe, this buckle shows signs of wear.
Because nomads carried all their wealth with them, often on the body,
the buckle was probably used by the chieftain during his life.
Most scholars believe that the adornments, jewelry, and weapons
at Tillya Tepe were made locally. The turquoise and most of the other
semiprecious stones used for inlays were abundant in the region, as was
gold from the Amu Darya. What is most telling is that the workman-
ship of the gold items is similar among all the tombs, suggesting the
possibility of a single workshop located nearby in northern Afghanistan.
The objects found at Tillya Tepe constitute a microcosm of the ancient
world at the center of the Silk Road, where the combination of
Chinese, Indian, Siberian, Persian, Greek, and Roman motifs created
a lavish and distinctive style.

d
Today the National Museum of Afghanistan is being renovated
after decades of war during which it was bombed, looted, and then
desecrated by the Taliban. Thousands of fragments of smashed sculp-
ture are being reassembled there, and the museum staff is receiving
training in conservation, photography, inventory, registration, and
exhibition design. It is hoped that the treasures in this exhibition
will eventually be on permanent display in the refurbished National
Museum of Afghanistan, which bears the inscription “A nation stays
alive when its culture stays alive.”

12

fig 12
13
Crown (Tillya Tepe,
Tomb vi), gold and
imitation turquoise,
1st century bc –1st
century ad (cat. 134)

fig 13
One of a pair of clasps
depicting Dionysus
and Ariadne
(Tillya Tepe, Tomb vi),
gold and turquoise,
1st century bc –1st
century ad (cat. 136)

fig 14
One of a pair of boot
buckles depicting a chariot
14 drawn by dragons
(Tillya Tepe, Tomb iv),
gold, turquoise, and
carnelian, 1st century
bc –1st century ad
(cat. 106)
national gallery of art, washington | may 25 – september 7, 2008
asian art museum of san francisco | october 24, 2008 – january 25, 2009
the museum of fine arts, houston | february 22 – may 17, 2009
the metropolitan museum of art, new york | june 23 – september 20, 2009

Film Program Documentary Films Lost Treasures of

Afghanistan (2006)
Afghanistan on Film Afghanistan: Hidden
A series of documentary Treasures Tuesday, June 17, noon
features and short subjects Free. No tickets required.
July 1 – September 7
made during the past decade Presented by National
explores Afghanistan’s East Building
Geographic Live!
recent history and Afghan Small Auditorium
National Geographic Society
society today. Daily, noon – 3:00 pm
Grosvenor Auditorium
with minor exceptions
Weekends, July 20 through 1600 M St. nw
September 7. East Building Auditorium 202.857.7700
Wednesdays and Sundays, [Link]
The screenings include: 11:30 am with minor
Standing Up (2007) This film relates the heroic
exceptions
Earth and Ashes (2004) efforts of artists and scholars
My Kabul (2007) Narrated by Khaled Hosseini, to protect works of art and
The Giant Buddhas (2005) author of The Kite Runner and film archives from destruc-
Beauty Academy of Kabul (2004) A Thousand Splendid Suns, tion by the Taliban in
Osama (2004) this 28-minute documentary Afghanistan. Curator and
The Kite Runner (2007) features footage of the 2004 National Geographic Archae-
Kandahar (2001) recovery of collections from ology Fellow Fredrik Hiebert
Buddha Collapsed Out the National Museum of will introduce the film and
of Shame (2007) Afghanistan, Kabul, that answer questions following
had been hidden in the vaults the screening.
For program times and of the Central Bank in the
information, visit (56 minutes)
presidential palace. It was
[Link]/programs/film produced by the National
Geographic Society. The Gallery Talks
film is supported by a Afghanistan: Hidden
generous grant from the Treasures from the
National Endowment for National Museum, Kabul
the Humanities.
East Building
A 12-minute version will May 30, June 6, 7, and 30
be shown continuously in at noon; June 10 at 1:00 pm
the exhibition.
(60 minutes)
Any views, findings, conclusions,
or recommendations expressed in Please consult the Calendar
this film do not necessarily represent of Events or [Link]
those of the National Endowment for full schedule and
for the Humanities. program information.
Audioguide Sunday Lecture Catalogue
Narrated by National East Building Auditorium The exhibition is accompa-
Gallery of Art director May 25, 2:00 pm nied by a fully illustrated,
Earl A. Powell iii, this audio 304-page catalogue,
Afghanistan: Hidden
tour includes commentary Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures
Treasures from the
by exhibition curator Fredrik from the National Museum,
National Museum, Kabul
Hiebert, National Geographic Kabul, edited by Fredrik
Society; Sanjyot Mehendale, Fredrik Hiebert, curator Hiebert and Pierre Cambon.
University of California, and National Geographic Published by National
Berkeley; and archaeologist Archaeology Fellow Geographic Books.
Paul Bernard, Paris, France. Book signing to follow Softcover: $30
The tour is available at
the entrance to the
On the Web General Information
exhibition for $5.
Created in conjunction with Hours: Monday–Saturday,
To reserve audio tours for
the National Geographic 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
groups, call 202.842.6592.
Society, the Web programs Sunday 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
show relevant archaeological Gallery Web site: [Link]
Concerts sites, an illustrated timeline For information about acces-
of ancient Afghan history, an sibility to galleries and public
West Building
audio slideshow, and recon- areas, assistive listening
East Garden Court
structions of lavish burial devices, sign-language inter-
May 25th, 1:00 pm
costumes adorned with gold. pretation, and other services
Instrumental ensemble led by and programs, inquire at
Visit: [Link]/afghanistan
Afghan singer and arranger the Information Desks,
or [Link]/
Vaheed Kaacemy consult the Web site,
afghanistan-treasures/
East Building Auditorium or call 202.842.6690
A family guide is available (tdd line 202.842.6176).
May 25, 4:00 pm in pdf form on the Gallery’s
Children’s choir led by Web site. It was originally Admission to the National
Afghan singer and arranger published in French by the Gallery of Art and all of its
Vaheed Kaacemy Musée national des arts programs is free of charge,
asiatiques-Guimet, Paris. except as noted.

This exhibition is organized by the National Geographic Society and This brochure is made possible by
the National Gallery of Art, Washington, in association with the the National Geographic Society.
Asian Art Museum of San Francisco; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston;
and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

The exhibition is supported by a grant from the National Endowment All of the works are from the National
for the Humanities and an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts Museum of Afghanistan and are the sole
and the Humanities. property of the Islamic Republic of
Afghanistan. Photos ©Musée Guimet/
In Washington the exhibition is made possible by the E. Rhodes and Thierry Ollivier
Leona B. Carpenter Foundation. It is also supported by The Charles
Engelhard Foundation.
Corporate support is provided by National Construction & Logistics
and Hamed Wardak.

This brochure was written by Fredrik Hiebert, curator and National

Geographic Archaeology Fellow, and Susan M. Arensberg, department
of exhibition programs, National Gallery of Art. It was produced by the
publishing office, National Gallery of Art.