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Hidden Treasures of Afghanistan- Four Seasons Magazine
1. hidden treasures from the National Museum of Kabul are once again
on view thanks to dedicated efforts to preserve the country’s cultural heritage.
By susan Weissman | Photography by Cade Martin & thierry Ollivier
142
issue three 2008 | FOUR seasOns magazine
4. thought gone forever were in the safekeeping
fact hidden in the Central
Bank of the Presidential
of Afghanistan’s
Palace, secreted away in crates most cherished
at great personal risk by the artefacts was
museum’s director, Omara a behind-the-
Khan Massoudi; the Deputy scenes effort
Minister of Information and whose planning
Culture, Omar Sultan; and
others who worked with them.
began in 1979,
The safekeeping of at the time of
Afghanistan’s most cherished the soviet inva-
artefacts was a behind-the- sion—curators
scenes effort whose planning and museum
began in 1979, at the time of workers hiding
the Soviet invasion—curators
and museum workers hiding
those items that
those items they could and they could and
recovering those damaged by recovering those
war. In 2003, the Ministry of damaged by war.
Information and Culture
unofficially confirmed that objects from the museum’s collections
were found intact in the vault of the Central Bank. But what
would be found once the vault was opened was a mystery.
In 2004, with the help of a National Geographic Society
contingent led by Dr. Fredrik Hiebert, a Society archaeology
Fellow and esteemed antiquities scholar, the vault was opened,
the crates unsealed and many of the museum’s long unaccounted-
for masterpieces revealed. Included in the discovery was the
famous Bactrian Gold, a cache of more than 20,000 gold and
precious stone–encrusted ornaments found originally in 1978 in
Tillya Tepe, the burial site of six nomads. Bactria, the northern
area of what is modern-day Afghanistan, was rich in natural
resources such as gold, copper, lapis, garnet and carnelian. Its
capital was Balkh, a city described by Marco Polo as “Balkh the
beautiful, Balkh, the mother of all cities.”
“When they started removing objects from the vault and it
was clear that many of the treasures were from the famous
Bactrian Gold, I was especially excited,” Hiebert says. “I was the
student of Viktor Sarianidi, the original excavator of the Bactrian
Gold, and to be able to return his find to the public eye and the 145
Afghan people, who have endured so much, is the fulfilment of a
personal quest.”
Also found in the inventory of objects overseen by Hiebert
were artefacts from three other important ancient archaeological
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5. Fragile Beauty
This page: Three glass
flasks shaped like fish;
a glass kantharos, or
drinking cup, etched
with grape-leaf motif.
Opposite page: glass
vases and drinking
vessels. artefacts on
these pages date from
the first century aD
and were discovered
at Begram.
146
issue three 2008 | FOUR seasOns magazine
6. Afghan Ambassa-
dor said t. Jawad
emphasises that
the artefacts in
the exhibition are
a testament to the
tenacity and spirit
of the Afghan
people. they exist
because of the
bravery and
selflessness of
those who could
do no less than
preserve and
protect their
heritage.
147
F O U R s e a s O n s m a ga z i n e | i s s u e t h r e e 2 00 8
8. Presidential Palace, who would A caretaker
sometimes go for months
without pay, arriving one day
arrived with a
with a marble fish that he had marble fish that
been safeguarding wrapped in a he had been
towel. His devotion was so safeguarding
great that he gave the fish back wrapped in a
only when he was sure the towel. his devo-
museum would be restored,
telling the curators exactly
tion was so great
where it should be positioned that he gave the
in the collection. fish back when
“Any one of the custo- he was sure the
dians,” he says, “the key museum would
holders to the museum, could be restored, tell-
have sold any piece of this
collection and gotten their
ing the curators
passports and visas to a where it should be
European country and had a positioned in the
comfortable life . . . which is collection.
not such a bad idea when you
live under the tyranny of the Taliban, and it seems there is no
hope for the future and you have a family to feed. But they didn’t
do that. They chose to put their lives on the line and care for the
art because ultimately this choice is more noble than to live with
millions of dollars.”
Today, objects such as the marble fish and the spectacular
collapsible crown have a home again and Afghanistan is rebuilding
its national museum. With the aid of cultural organisations
worldwide, there is the hope that additional artefacts will find
their way home. Aptly, the museum embraces the motto: “A
nation stays alive when its culture stays alive,” a fitting tribute to
the renewal empowered by brave Afghans who would not allow
barbarism to strip them of their heritage. 4s
susan Weissman is the executive editor of Four Seasons Magazine.
A First-hAND LOOK
Afghanistan: hidden treasures from the National Museum,
Kabul was organised by the national geographic society and the
national gallery of art, Washington, D.C., with support by a grant
from the national endowment for the Humanities and corporate 149
support from national Construction & Logistics and Hamed
Wardak. Other U.s. stops: 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
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