Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul

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The extraordinary importance of northern Afghanistan at the end of the 3rd millennium B.C. is demonstrated by the richness of the grave goods from Tepe Fullol. They attest to the existence of elites whose wealth was the result of the very active role that they played in the trade of precious material—such as carnelian, copper, gold, silver, wood, and, particularly, lapis lazuli—among Mesopotamia, Elam, and the Indus valley. The bull with bearded human faces is significant for its association to images of the divine in the arts of the contemporary Mesopotamian dynasties of Ur III and Isin Larsa (2200–1900 B.C.).

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One of the oldest antiquities found at Aï Khanum, this spectacular disk depicts Cybele, the goddess of nature, and Nike, the personification of Victory, on a chariot drawn by two lions through a mountainous landscape. It is a remarkable example of hybrid Greek and Oriental imagery that typified the arts of Hellenized Asia. Ancient Near Eastern features include: the parasol—a royal symbol—here held by a priest; the stepped altar; the shape of the chariot; the scalloped pattern indicating mountainous terrain; and the moon crescent and the star. The cult of Cybele originated in Anatolia but had long been adopted by the Greeks. Also borrowed from the Greek tradition are the representation of the winged Nike, the bust of the sun god Helios, and the naturalistic rendering of the drapery and the lions. The overall composition of the scene, however, lacking any indication of perspective, is more typical of Near Eastern art.

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Similar to any other ancient Greek city, Aï Khanum had a theater and a gymnasium devoted to the intellectual and physical training of its youth. The "hermaic pillar," a typical Greek monument, comes from the gymnasium, and the bust shown here probably represents a master of the school. This lively and sensitive portrait perfectly depicts a sage teaching the moral values and the ideal virtues of the Greek man in this remote colony, where the legacy of Hellenistic culture endured for centuries and influenced the arts of Central Asia until the Islamic conquest.

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Like the theater and the gymnasium, public fountains are typical Greek monuments. The stone fountain next to the river Oxus had a spout in the shape of a dolphin, a lion head, and a very unique theatrical mask. The strikingly expressive head shown here—a reproduction of the grinning mask worn by the character of a slave-cook in Greek comedy—gives us a glimpse of the performances that were represented in the theater as part of the Greek cultural life of the city.

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Excavated in the 1930s, the city of Begram contained two large rooms filled with an amazing array of goods, including Roman glass and metalwork, Chinese lacquer, and ivory plaques and sculptures that show strong parallels to Indian art. This sculpture is one of three that were next to one another when unearthed. All three show a young, voluptuous woman standing on the back of a makara, a creature derived from Indian mythology that has the tail of a fish and the body and face of a crocodile. Symbolic of the powers of water, makara are often associated with a river goddess in India. However, this sculpture and the other two similar works were probably used as the legs of a table, making it unlikely that they were intended as representations of river goddesses.

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The fact that women and their activities predominate in the imagery of the Begram ivories has led some scholars to suggest that the ivories were intended for use in women's quarters. This densely carved plaque shows four women, one of whom is holding a child. The voluptuous bodies, diaphanous clothing, and lush jewelry parallel traditional Indian representations, which also focus on the beauty and fertility of young women. The figures are shown standing underneath gateways that derive from Indian architectural traditions and are lushly decorated with floral and geometric motifs.

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Rearing dramatically, the composite creature that forms this bracket has the body of a lion, the wings of an eagle, and the beak of a bird of prey. Known as a sardula in Indian art, this beast may be derived from the griffin of Greek and Roman art. While either tradition could have contributed this powerful animal to the repertory of the Begram ivories, the treatment of the female rider clearly points to India. Artistic traditions from India are also seen in the small figure supporting the front paws of the beast, one of the earth spirits known as yakshas, while the crocodile-like figure with the yawning mouth is the makara, which is symbolic of the powers of water.

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No less important than the extraordinary collection of Indian ivories—and found in the same "treasure chamber"—is a group of classical objects that includes glassware, stucco medallions, and bronze statuettes. The collection of glassware is of outstanding quality scarcely equaled by that of any museum in the Western world. The glass objects display different techniques, shapes, and decoration, but all seem to originate in workshops of Roman Alexandria. This bottle in the shape of a fish is an exquisite example of a type of perfume container that was very popular in the Greco-Roman world.

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The enameled goblets from Begram are a unique document of ancient glassmaking, previously known from only a handful of fragments of glassware found in various sites scattered within the Roman Empire, from the late first to the third century A.D. The favorite subjects were combat between gladiators or heroes and genre scenes, such as hunting and fishing, set in exotic landscapes evocative of Egypt. This goblet shows four figures, surrounded by a grove of palm trees, who seem to be engaged in harvesting dates. The strong sense of color and the sketchy freedom of this and other miniature paintings give them an extraordinary vivacity that places them in the ranks of pictorial masterpieces of the ancient world.

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The bust depicts a youth of idealized beauty—perhaps a poet or a young hero. It belongs to a distinctive group found at Begram of fifty plaster casts depicting mythological subjects and other images typical of the classical world.Plaster casts similar to this one have been found in various sites from Egypt to Ukraine, but the Begram group is unmatched in the highly refined delicacy of its modeling. These casts were most probably taken from the central medallions (emblemata) of Greek silver plates of the third century B.C. They may have been taken at Begram, although it is also possible that they reached the city through the Silk Road trade route as models for use by local metalworkers or samples for their clients.

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This superb bronze statuette belongs to a group of bronze objects bearing classical subjects that was imported from the Roman Mediterranean, probably Egypt and Italy. The child shown here with his finger to his mouth represents Harpocrates, the Hellenized form of the Egyptian god Horus, son of Isis and Osiris. The soft modeling and the curve of the body derive from the style of the fourth-century-B.C. Greek sculptor Praxiteles. Together with glassware from Alexandria, the bronzes are evidence of an active long-distance maritime trade. Sea routes connected the Mediterranean to the Far East through the Indian Ocean when Afghanistan, under the Kushan dynasty, was one of the major powers of the ancient world.

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Sets of small decorative plaques made in a wide variety of shapes—such as these lotus-shaped appliqués—were found in all of the tombs at Tillya Tepe and constitute the largest group of objects from that site. They were sewn or otherwise affixed to hats, robes, and other pieces of clothing. Some are made of gold; others are gold with stone inlay. While the gold used to make these decorations was local, the semiprecious stones attest to a wide range of trading contacts. Turquoise, which is the most-used inlay material found at the site, was probably mined in the area of Khorassan, in northern Iran. The carnelian found on other items may have come from further west, while the rare examples of amethyst were probably from India.

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These bracelets provide a perfect example of the visual vocabulary of the nomadic world. They are shaped to suggest the bent spines of two facing antelopes with muzzles acting as terminals, the ears flattened by the wind while they run. Carnelian stones define the eyes, while pieces of turquoise indicate the haunches, horns, and hooves. The use of turquoise inlay is also found in the art of the Sarmatians, the nomads whose burial sites in southern Russia display similarities with the contemporaneous tombs of Tillya Tepe.

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This two-sided pendant—one of a pair—is among the most extraordinary objects found in the nomadic graves at Tillya Tepe. The pair were thought to have been worn suspended from a headdress along either side of the face. The theme of a human figure standing with animals to either side is well known in the art of the ancient Near East; it is understood to represent a heroic and dominant Master or Mistress of Animals. In this case, however, the animals are Chinese dragons with contorted bodies and reversed rear legs, but with the head and hooves of a horse—thus reflecting ties between China, the nomads of the Central Asian steppes, and regions further west. The theme of the "Master of Animals" makes a brief appearance in Chinese art in the third and fourth centuries.

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These youths sitting astride two big fish, whose fins and scales are inlaid with turquoise, draw inspiration from the Greek image of the youthful god Eros (the Roman god Cupid) astride a dolphin. However, these "cupids" lack the wings found in Graeco-Roman representations. Moreover, the fish bear little resemblance to dolphins, and may have been inspired by local river fish such as catfish or sturgeon. This combination of artistic traditions defines the art of Tillya Tepe, in which elements from the classical world, India, China, and the Central Asian steppes were melded to create a new visual language.

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The inlay of teardrop-shaped turquoise stones seen in these shoe buckles is typical of the manufacture of local Bactrian goldsmiths, but the motif of chariots drawn by dragons is exotic. The pattern on the side of the chariot suggests a woven material, and the uprights supporting the canopy look like bamboo. Such lightweight, two-wheeled chariots are known from excavations in Mongolia and from Han Chinese burials of the first century B.C., suggesting eastern origins for these motifs. The buckles show signs of wear and were probably used by the chieftain during his life.

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A winged, somewhat feline creature bites the haunch of a sinuous dragon in the center of this gold covering for a leather sheath. The combat between these two ferocious mythical beings derives from longstanding nomadic traditions that have been updated to include the dragon of Chinese mythology. The design continues on the handle of the dagger to which it belongs. This sheath is one of two found to either side of the male buried in tomb IV. Sheaths in this style—which is characterized by two side pieces at the bottom and an oval band at the top—have a long history. They can be traced back to the second century B.C. and to areas in the vicinity of the Altai Mountains. Examples have also been found in the region of Bukhara and in areas associated with Parthian rulers (247 B.C.–A.D. 224) of Iran.

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Within the goods deposed into the grave of the "chieftain," this gold bowl conveys a very special significance. It belongs to a type of Greek, shallow drinking bowl, or phiale, with thirty-two radiating ribs. On the outside of the rim an inscription in Greek letters gives the weight of the object. The bowl was found upside-down under the skull of the deceased and can be interpreted as a luxurious version of the wooden cushion often found in nomadic graves in Siberia. According to the Greek historian Herodotos, it was a symbol of royal power among the Scythians.

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This clasp—one of a pair—reflects the mixture of Greek and other traditions that characterizes the art of Tillya Tepe. The Greek inspiration is clear in the subject of the scene: Dionysus and his consort Ariadne riding a feline. Further classical allusions are found in the winged goddess Nike shown at the right, who holds a wreath in one hand and a feather in the other, and the drunken Silenus, a traditional attendant to Dionysos, who lifts a drinking horn at the left. At the same time, the couple may also allude to the mithuna (male and female) pairings found in Indian art as well as to the imaginative world of the Central Asian steppes, through the fantastic creature, the lion-griffin, lavishly inlaid in turquoise.

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Five tree-like shapes and a diadem-like base provide the structure of this extraordinary crown, which is collapsible and easily transported. Flowers, discs, and two tiny birds fill the trees. The roundels that decorate the interiors of the flowers are inlaid with pieces of turquoise that have been altered to show a red tinge. A wonderful example of ancient nomadic design, this type of crown with tree and bird motifs has many parallels in the vast nomadic world of the steppes, extending from Ukraine to Kazakhstan. The most dramatic parallels, however, are with crowns found much later in fifth- and sixth-century-A.D. Korean tombs of the Baekje and Silla kingdoms. The similarities between the first-century crowns found in Afghanistan and those produced later in Korea provides a stunning testimony to the geographic breadth of artistic styles and forms that traversed the Silk Road, and to the longevity of many of these traditions.