More than 22,000 ancient cultural treasures from Afghanistan, feared lost or destroyed after decades of war and Taliban rule, have been taken out of dusty crates and safes in Kabul and inventoried for safekeeping, an archaeologist says.
The objects, including 2,500 years’ worth of gold and silver coins and ancient sculptures, represent a “Silk Road” of goods once traded from China, India, Egypt, Greece, Rome and ancient Afghanistan.
“By the end of the Taliban’s reign, most of us thought there was nothing left, just destruction and despair,” National Geographic fellow and archaeologist Fred Hiebert, who led an inventory project of the items, said during a conference call announcing the find Wednesday.
Many of the treasures were once on display in the Kabul Museum, which was shelled several times and lost its roof and door. Inventory cards were lost by fire and neglect, making it difficult to track down any of the items.
“This project has been an enormous boost for Afghanistan — finding the treasures intact and then working with the outstanding team to inventory each one of them, preserving our heritage for our children,” Afghanistan’s minister of information and culture, Sayed Makhdoom Raheen, said in a statement from National Geographic.
Hiebert told reporters he hoped the detailed inventory would make it easier for international law enforcement groups to track down precious items still missing.
Some looted artifacts have turned up in recent years at auction houses in Tokyo, London and New York, and Hiebert hopes these can be returned to Afghanistan.
Treasures in dusty boxes
The bulk of the newly inventoried items were found in April 2003 when a presidential palace vault in Kabul was cracked open to reveal a trove of famed, intact Bactrian gold pieces.
But many more artifacts, including giant Buddhist sculptures and ancient ivory statues, have been found in recent months in unmarked boxes and safes stashed for safekeeping during the Soviet-led coup and then during the years of hard-line Taliban rule.
After doing a first inventory of the Bactrian gold pieces, Hiebert was surprised when he was asked to look at 20 other boxes found to contain precious objects that Silk Road camels once carried between China and Rome and elsewhere.
“I looked at the eyes of the museum curators who had not seen these (artifacts) for 25 years, and it was a very emotional experience. They saw their own heritage coming to life,” he said.
Secret stash
Later, more trunks of precious artifacts were found in another location, which Hiebert declined to name because of security concerns.
Curators feared they would find only objects smashed by the Taliban, which had destroyed many pre-Islamic objects, but these trunks were filled with hundreds and hundreds of sculptures and carvings from Buddhist religious structures, Hiebert said.
None of the newly uncovered items is yet on display in Afghanistan, mostly due to security concerns, but also because a suitable exhibit space has not been found yet.
The old Kabul Museum is on the edge of the city, and Hiebert says there are hopes a new museum will be built in a central location. One option is to stage an international tour of these objects until a new museum space is built.
