Ancient Bactrian is located in northern Afghanistan, on the border with the former Soviet Union. Today the region borders Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. In 330 BC, when Alexander the Great overthrew the Persian Empire, he arrived in Bactria in pursuit of its satrap, Byssus, who had killed Darius III and proclaimed himself king. Kandahar, which was once the capital, was built by the Macedonian soldier as Alexandria in Arachosia, and then the country came under the rule of his heirs, the Seleucids.
In 250 BC founded by the Greek satrap of Bactria Diodotus I the Savior, who seceded from the Seleucids, the Greek kingdom of Bactria. It constituted - together with the later Indo-Hellenic kingdom - the easternmost edge of the Hellenistic world, covering an area between Bactria and Sogdia in central Asia - modern northern Afghanistan - from 250 BC. to 125 BC
Hidden secrets
The area was explored in the late 1970s by a Soviet expedition of archaeologists, led by Viktor Sarigiannidis (1929-2013), born in Tashkent to Pontian parents. The archaeologist of Greek origin had arrived there in troubled times again, in 1978, just before the Soviet invasion of the country, to realize the dream of his life. He excavated a site called "Tilia Tepe" (Golden Hill), a necropolis in essence, where, although he has no evidence, he believed that a great civilization flourished. Even he was surprised by the findings. Bactrian gold shocked the world of archaeology. Nowhere else have so many different objects from so many different cultures been found.
Experts of the world community had decided that the findings can only be compared with the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb in Egypt. The reason; The case of Tilia Tepe was a unique cultural event, due to the coexistence and mixing of Indian, Scythian, Chinese, Egyptian and of course Greek elements. Sarigiannidis had identified nine graves. By February 1979, when he was forced to stop due to a rainy season, he had managed to excavate six. It was a male burial and five female burials. The archaeological treasure recovered by them was a collection including 21,000 gold gifts and ornaments.
Aphrodite with little Eros. Dionysus and Ariadne riding lions. Tritons on dolphins and small Erotidae riding fish. Godess Athena. The goddess Cybele. Warriors in Greek armor... Human figures, dragons, birds, mythical animals sculpted in gold and carved in ivory, elegant artifacts that "speak" of age-old myths and evoke the ancient past and connect the depths of the East with Greece and Alexander the Great.
The dead were buried between the 1st c. e.g. and of the 1st c. A.D. Sarigiannidis did not have time, due to the war that had broken out, to complete the excavation, leaving three more tombs that he did not investigate in the hands of the antiquarians. In one of the graves were found the remains of a woman in her 30s, wearing rings with images of the goddess Athena and a pair of matching jewelry, with golden S-shaped dragon figures, as if they had been tamed. Some archaeologists say that this tomb probably belonged to a Greek woman.
The finds from the hoard display a rare blend of aesthetic influences (from Persian to classical Greek and Roman) and a high level of craftsmanship. Diadems, rings, earrings, bracelets and necklaces, show the high skills of the craftsmen. Disks, weapons, other objects were found with them, some of which were probably ritual. In the years that followed, various items from the Tilia Tepe hill appeared in bazaars in Pakistan and in second-hand bookstores in Europe. Victor Sarigiannidis argued that they probably came from the three graves that he had not had time to excavate.
The first, cinematic, "rescue"
In the first and expected advance of the Taliban, in 1989, the officials of the Archaeological Museum of Kabul had hidden their national treasure in the underground vault of the Central Bank, where it was never found by the fanatical invaders. However, this had been done in secret, so when the museum was looted by the Taliban in 2003, one of the prevailing theories was that the treasure had been lost or destroyed. For many years the fate of the treasure of Tilia Tepe remained unknown, although it is based on the version that some of the world's archaeological community knew, among them of course Victor Sarigiannidis.
The precious treasures had been saved thanks to the secrecy of the collaborators of the National Museum of Kabul. In 2003, when the vault was opened, in a land now destroyed, the great Greek archaeologist was present. Of the 7 keys that were there, all necessary for the opening, none were found. They had to break it. The Greek government helped restore the museum, with then-culture minister Evangelos Venizelos arranging for $750,000 to be sent through UNESCO. This was followed by a major exhibition that was shown in the world's largest museums, in Europe and America, advertising Afghanistan as one of the wonderful "crossroads of the ancient world" and bringing the country 4.5 million dollars.
Passionate about his science and internationally recognized for his excavation work, Sarigiannidis, also known as the "poet of archaeology", was honored in 2002 with the Golden Cross of the Order of Honor of the Hellenic Republic. Since 1997 he had received Greek citizenship. Eight years after his death, his huge discovery is again in jeopardy.
Requires… remake
Kabul is back in the hands of the Taliban. The experience of how radical Islamists treat artefacts from ancient cultures does not bode well for positive developments. In 2001, the Taliban destroyed two huge Buddha statues (from the 6th century) in Bamigan, Afghanistan, while no one has forgotten the blowing up of an ancient temple in Palmyra with Greco-Roman antiquities by jihadists of the Islamic State, in 2015. At that time, in fact, they had decapitate the 82-year-old, venerable curator of antiquities of the ancient city.
In recent months, and while the situation in the country was dire, the government thought of sending the treasure to a neutral country so that it would not be stolen. Finally, in January he decided to exhibit it at the Presidential Palace, in Kabul. Since then the information has been mixed. The truth is that the Taliban have little to gain if it falls into their hands, as it is its archaeological dimension that makes it of untold value. If they melt the gold they will not yield more than 6-7 kg. The only thing that is certain is that they are not in the least interested in his cultural status. Consequently, the world archaeological community is... praying for a remake in its rescue operation.
SOURCE:MEN HOUSE