Afghanistan - Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul

This catalogue documents 230 objects from four archaelogical sites. There are fragmentary gold vases from Tepe Fullol in the north; bronze, ivory and stone sculptures from the site of the former Greek city of Ai Khanum; carved ivory reliefs and other items from Begram, the passage point to India on the Silk Road. The book concludes with the spectacular collection of gold artifacts from the famed `Bactrian Hoard', objects from the fraves of six Bactrian nomads discovered at Tillya Tepe in northern Afghanistan in 1978 and not exhibited until 2003. The extraordinary objects presented here range in date from 2200 BCE - 200 CE. Ancient Afghanistan was the crossroads of civilization in Central Asia. Its archaeological treasures date back more than 4000 years and bear the imprint of numerous cultures, attesting to Afghanistan's pivotal importance in the exchange of goods and ideas from Asia to the Mediterranean...