Tillya tepe, Tillia tepe or Tillā tapa ( fa, طلا تپه, literally "Golden Hill" or "Golden Mound") is an archaeological site in the northern

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

province of

Jowzjan Jowzjan, sometimes spelled Jawzjan or Jozjan (Dari: ), is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, located in the north of the country bordering neighboring Turkmenistan. The province is divided into 11 Districts of Afghanistan, districts ...

near

Sheberghan Sheberghān or Shaburghān ( Uzbek, Pashto, fa, شبرغان), also spelled ''Shebirghan'' and ''Shibarghan'', is the capital city of the Jowzjan Province in northern Afghanistan. The city of Sheberghan has a population of 175,599. It has four ...

, excavated in 1978 by a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

Afghan Afghan may refer to: *Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia *Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity ** Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pas ...

team led by the

archaeologist

Viktor Sarianidi Viktor Ivanovich Sarianidi or Victor Sarigiannides (russian: Ви́ктор Ива́нович Сариани́ди; el, Βίκτωρ Σαρηγιαννίδης; September 23, 1929 – December 22, 2013) was a Soviet archaeologist. He discovered ...

. The hoard found there is often known as the Bactrian gold. The hoard is a collection of about 20,600 ornaments, coins and other kinds of artifacts, made of gold, silver, ivory, etc., that were found in six burial mounds erected for five women and one man, with extremely rich jewelry, dated to around the 1st century BCE-1st century CE. The ornaments include necklaces set with semi-precious stones, belts, medallions and a

crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, partic ...

. After its discovery, the hoard went missing during the wars in Afghanistan, until it was "rediscovered" and first brought to public attention again in 2003. A new museum in

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...

is being planned where the Bactrian gold will eventually be kept. The heavily fortified town of Yemshi Tepe, just five kilometres to the northeast of modern Sheberghan on the road to Akcha, is only half a kilometre from the now-famous necropolis of Tillia-tepe.

Dates and context

Several coins dated up to the early 1st century CE, with none dated later, suggest a 1st-century CE date for the burial. The coins found in the excavations belonged to

Tiberius Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus (; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was the second Roman emperor. He reigned from AD 14 until 37, succeeding his stepfather, the first Roman emperor Augustus. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC. His father ...

(16-21 CE), Mithradates II (123-88 BCE), and the Yuezhi ruler

Sapadbizes Sapadbizes (Σαπαδβιζης), also Sapalbizes or Sapaleizis, was a ruler of western Bactria, sometimes linked to the Yuezhi. He is known only from his coins, which are rather rare, and are dated to circa 20 BC - 20 AD. Two clues provide an ...

(20 BCE - 20 CE)." Coins found in the graves include an aureus of the emperor Tiberius (16-21 A.C.), a gold minted coin which appears to be a local imitation of a Parthian coin (first half of the first century B.C.), a gold coin of undetermined Indian origin, a silver coin of Mithradates II (123-88 B.C.) and finally a Parthian silver coin of Phraates IV with the legend Sapaleizis, who is considered to be one of the Yueh-chih rulers. " in The burial could correspond to Scythian or Parthian tribes dwelling in the area. More probably, they belonged to the

Yuezhi The Yuezhi (;) were an ancient people first described in Chinese histories as nomadic pastoralists living in an arid grassland area in the western part of the modern Chinese province of Gansu, during the 1st millennium BC. After a major defeat ...

s/ early

Kushans The Kushan Empire ( grc, Βασιλεία Κοσσανῶν; xbc, Κυϸανο, ; sa, कुषाण वंश; Brahmi: , '; BHS: ; xpr, 𐭊𐭅𐭔𐭍 𐭇𐭔𐭕𐭓, ; zh, 貴霜 ) was a syncretic empire, formed by the Yuezhi, ...

after the fall of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom and before the rise of the Kushan Empire. They correspond to a time when the Yuezhis had not yet encountered Buddhism. A silver coin was found in one of the tombs from the reigns of the

Parthia Parthia ( peo, 𐎱𐎼𐎰𐎺 ''Parθava''; xpr, 𐭐𐭓𐭕𐭅 ''Parθaw''; pal, 𐭯𐭫𐭮𐭥𐭡𐭥 ''Pahlaw'') is a historical region located in northeastern Greater Iran. It was conquered and subjugated by the empire of the Med ...

n king Mithridates II, who ruled c. 123–88 BCE. The coin was found in tomb III, and was apparently held in the hand of the buried woman. An imitation gold coin of Parthian King

Gotarzes I Gotarzes I ( xpr, 𐭂𐭅𐭕𐭓𐭆 ''Gōdarz'') was king of the Parthian Empire from 91 BC to 87 or 80 BC. He was the son and successor of Mithridates II (), and was succeeded by his son Orodes I. Name "Gotarzes" is from Middle Iranian ''G ...

(95-90 BCE) was found in the left hand of the woman in tomb VI. The fact that this coin is in gold, and not silver or bronze as is usually the case for Parthian coinage, suggest that this imitation was made for prestige purposes. The coin is counterstamped with the frontal depiction of what might have been a local chieftain. The counterstamp was added so as to not damage the portrait of the Parthian king, perhaps indicating some degree of dependency on the Parthians. A gold coin was also found in tomb III showing the bust in profile of the wreath-crowned Roman Emperor

. On the reverse is an enthroned, sumptuously draped female figure holding a spray and scepter. Coins of this type were minted in the city of

Lugdunum Lugdunum (also spelled Lugudunum, ; modern Lyon, France) was an important Roman city in Gaul, established on the current site of Lyon. The Roman city was founded in 43 BC by Lucius Munatius Plancus, but continued an existing Gallic settle ...

Gaul Gaul ( la, Gallia) was a region of Western Europe first described by the Romans. It was inhabited by Celtic and Aquitani tribes, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy (only during ...

, between 16 and 21 CE. Tilia Tepe gold token

A Buddhist gold coin from India was also found in tomb IV (the male warrior). On the reverse it depicts a lion with a

nandipada The ''Nandipada'' ("foot of Nandi") is an ancient Indian symbol, also called a taurine symbol, representing a bull's hoof or the mark left by the foot of a bull in the ground. The nandipada and the zebu bull are generally associated with Nandi, S ...

, with the

Kharoshthi The Kharoṣṭhī script, also spelled Kharoshthi (Kharosthi: ), was an ancient Indo-Iranian script used by various Aryan peoples in north-western regions of the Indian subcontinent, more precisely around present-day northern Pakistan and e ...

legend "Sih vigatabhay ("The lion who dispelled fear"). The obverse shows an almost naked man only wearing an Hellenistic chlamys and a

petasus A ''petasos'' or petasus ( el, πέτασος) is a broad brimmed hat of Thessalian origin worn by ancient Greeks, Thracians and Etruscans, often in combination with the chlamys cape. It was made of wool felt, leather, straw or animal skin. Wome ...

hat (an iconography similar to that of

Hermes Hermes (; grc-gre, wikt:Ἑρμῆς, Ἑρμῆς) is an Olympian deity in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology. Hermes is considered the herald of the gods. He is also considered the protector of human heralds, travelle ...

/ Mercury) rolling a wheel. The legend in Kharoshthi reads "Dharmacakrapravata o ("The one who turned the Wheel of the Law"). It has been suggested that this may be an early representation of the

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in L ...

. Finally, a very worn coin has been identified as belonging to the Yuezhi chieftain

Heraios Heraios ( Bactrian: Ηλου ''Ēlou'', sometimes Heraus, Heraos, Miaos) was apparently a king or clan chief of the Kushans (reign: c. 1 –30 CE), one of the five constituent tribes of the Yuezhi, in Bactria, in the early 1st century CE. Sev ...

, or

(20 BCE - 20 CE). It is thought that the site most likely belonged to the

(future Kushans). Alternatively, it could have belonged to the

Sakas The Saka (Old Persian: ; Kharoṣṭhī: ; Ancient Egyptian: , ; , old , mod. , ), Shaka (Sanskrit ( Brāhmī): , , ; Sanskrit (Devanāgarī): , ), or Sacae (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) were a group of nomadic Iranian peoples who histor ...

(Asian

Scythians The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern * : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Centra ...

), who were later to migrate to India, known as

Indo-Scythians Indo-Scythians (also called Indo-Sakas) were a group of nomadic Iranian peoples of Scythian origin who migrated from Central Asia southward into modern day Pakistan and Northwestern India from the middle of the 2nd century BCE to the 4th centu ...

, or to the Eastern Parthians. Several of the artifacts are highly consistent with a Scythian origin, such as the royal crown or the polylobed decorated daggers discovered in the tombs. Several of the bodies exhibited ritual deformation of the skull, a practice which is well documented among Central Asian nomads of the period.

Cultural influences

These pieces have much in common with the famous

Scythian The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern * : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Centra ...

gold artifacts recovered thousands of kilometers west on the banks of the Bosphorus and the Chersonese. A high cultural syncretism pervades the findings, however.

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

cultural and artistic influences can be found in many of the forms and human depictions (from amorini to rings with the depiction of

Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretism, syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded ...

and her name inscribed in

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

), attributable to the existence of the Seleucid empire and Greco-Bactrian Kingdom in the same area until around 140 BCE, and the continued existence of the

Indo-Greek Kingdom The Indo-Greek Kingdom, or Graeco-Indian Kingdom, also known historically as the Yavana Kingdom (Yavanarajya), was a Hellenistic-era Greek kingdom covering various parts of Afghanistan and the northwestern regions of the Indian subcontinent (p ...

in the northwestern Indian sub-continent until the beginning of our era. The artifacts were also intermixed with items coming from much farther, such as a few

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

artifacts (especially Chinese bronze mirrors) as well as a few

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

ones (decorated ivory plates). This seems to be a testimony to the richness of cultural influences in the area of Bactria at that time.

Loss and re-discovery

The hoard was thought to have been lost at some point in the 1990s, the

National Museum of Afghanistan The National Museum of Afghanistan (Dari: موزیم ملی افغانستان, ''Mūzīyam-e mellī-ye Afghānestān''; ps, د افغانستان ملی موزیم, ''Də Afghānistān Millī Mūzīyəm''), also known as the Kabul Museum, is a ...

having been looted numerous times resulting in a loss of 70% of the 100,000 objects on display. In 2003, however, it was found in secret vaults under the central bank building in Kabul. In 1989 following a committee decision, the last Communist president of Afghanistan,

Mohammad Najibullah Mohammad Najibullah Ahmadzai (Pashto/ prs, محمد نجیب‌الله احمدزی, ; 6 August 1947 – 27 September 1996), commonly known as Dr. Najib, was an Afghan politician who served as the General Secretary of the People's Democratic Par ...

had ordered the hoard moved from the museum to an underground vault at the Central Bank of Afghanistan in Kabul. The doors of the vault were locked with keys which were distributed to five trusted individuals. In 2003, after the Taliban was deposed, the new government wanted to open the vault, but the keyholders (called "tawadars") could not be summoned because their names were purposefully unknown.

Hamid Karzai Hamid Karzai (; Pashto/ fa, حامد کرزی, , ; born 24 December 1957) is an Afghan statesman who served as the fourth president of Afghanistan from July 2002 to September 2014, including as the first elected president of the Islamic Repub ...

had to issue a decree authorizing the attorney general to go ahead with safecracking. But in time, the five key-holders were successfully assembled and the vault opened. Since then, the National Geographic Society has catalogued the collection, which appears to be complete – 22,000 objects. Also witnessing the re-opening were National Geographic Explorer and Archaeology Fellow Fredrik Hiebert and the archaeologist who originally found the hoard,

. Following an agreement between the Afghan government and

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, the collection was evaluated and displayed internationally in an exhibition through the cooperation of several prominent museums and the National Geographic Society. Objects were on display from 2007-2009 variously at the Musée Guimet in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, the National Gallery of Art in

Washington DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, the Asian Art Museum of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, the Museum of Fine Arts in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

, and the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

in New York.

Exhibitions

Some of the most spectacular finds were a part of the traveling exhibition titled "Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures From the National Museum, Kabul" or "Afghanistan: Crossroads of the Ancient World" which were first on displayed in December 2006 in France’s Musee Guimet in Paris. The exhibition supported by The National Geographic has also been to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. from May 25 to Sept. 7th, 2008; from Oct. 24th, 2008 to Jan. 25th, 2009 the collection was at the

Asian Art Museum of San Francisco The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco – Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture"About"
Asian Art Museum website. ...

; from February 22 to May 17, 2009 it traveled to The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston then to the

, New York from June 23 to Sept. 20th, 2009;

Canadian Museum of Civilization The Canadian Museum of History (french: Musée canadien de l’histoire) is a national museum on anthropology, Canadian history, cultural studies, and ethnology in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. The purpose of the museum is to promote the heritage of C ...

in Gatineau-Ottawa held the exhibition from October 23, 2009, to March 28, 2010; Bonn Museum in Germany from June 11, 2010 to January 2, 2011, from March 3, 2011 to July 3, 2011 the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

in London, and from November 2011 to March 2012, Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm. From July 26 to November 26, 2014 the exhibition shows at the

Western Australian Museum The Western Australian Museum is a statutory authority within the Culture and the Arts Portfolio, established under the ''Museum Act 1969''. The museum has six main sites. The state museum, now known as WA Museum Boola Bardip, officially re-ope ...

in Perth and later toured at the

Tokyo National Museum The or TNM is an art museum in Ueno Park in the Taitō ward of Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the four museums operated by the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage ( :ja:国立文化財機構), is considered the oldest national museum in Japan, ...

from April 12 to June 19, 2016 and later from May 17 to June 17, 2017 at the Palace Museum in Beijing. The exhibition also has toured the Museum of Oriental Art in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

, Italy, and Nieuwe Kerk in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

also saw displays. Later on, the travelling exhibition continued at the

Hong Kong Museum of History The Hong Kong Museum of History is a museum that preserves Hong Kong's historical and cultural heritage. It is located next to the Hong Kong Science Museum, in Tsim Sha Tsui East, Kowloon, Hong Kong. The collections of the museum encompass ...

from November 16, 2019 to February 10, 2020. By 2020, the displays brought in over 350 million Afs ($4.5 million) for Afghanistan. In 2021, Mohammad Tahir Zuhair announced that the gold will be sent abroad for display and safekeeping.

2021

In August 2021, the Taliban took control of Kabul, and the treasure is apparently missing yet again.

Gallery

File:AphroditeAndEros.jpg,

Aphrodite Aphrodite ( ; grc-gre, Ἀφροδίτη, Aphrodítē; , , ) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. She was syncretized with the Roman goddess . Aphrodite's major symbols inclu ...

and

Eros In Greek mythology, Eros (, ; grc, Ἔρως, Érōs, Love, Desire) is the Greek god of love and sex. His Roman counterpart was Cupid ("desire").''Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia'', The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215. In the ear ...

. Tomb II, Tillia tepe. File:Tillya Tepe statuette.jpg, Statuette of winged figurine File:ClotheDecorations.JPG, Cloth decorations. File:ScythianBracelets.JPG, Bracelets. File:StarDecorations.JPG, Decorative stars. Tomb I. File:AmoriniOnFish.jpg, Amorini riding on fish, Tillia tepe. Tomb II. File:TilliaTepeRings.jpg, Rings from Tillia tepe; the left one represents a seated

. Tomb II. File:TilliaTepeNecklace.jpg, Necklace. Tomb II. File:MenWithDragons.jpg, "Kings with dragons". Tomb II. File:MenInArm4.JPG, Men in armor, in Greek fighting gear. Tomb III. File:DecoratedWeapons.JPG, "

Akinakes The acinaces, also spelled akinakes (Greek ) or akinaka (unattested Old Persian ''*akīnakah'', Sogdian ''kynʼk'') is a type of dagger or xiphos (short sword) used mainly in the first millennium BCE in the eastern Mediterranean Basin, especially ...

" polylobed decorated daggers. Tomb IV. File:LionRider3.jpg,

Dyonisos In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; grc, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre. The Roma ...

and

Ariadne Ariadne (; grc-gre, Ἀριάδνη; la, Ariadne) was a Cretan princess in Greek mythology. She was mostly associated with mazes and labyrinths because of her involvement in the myths of the Minotaur and Theseus. She is best known for havi ...

riding a lion. Tomb VI.

Notes

References

*Sarianidi, V. I. "The Treasure of Golden Hill." ''American Journal of Archaeology'', Vol. 84, No. 2 (Apr., 1980), pp. 125–13
"The Treasure of Golden Hill", JSTOR
*Sarianidi, Victor. 1990–1992. "Tilya Tepe: The Burial of a Noble Warrior." ''PERSICA XIV'', 1990–1992, pp. 103–130. *"Afghanistan, les trésors retrouvés", Musée des arts asiatiques Guimet, *''Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul'' (2008). Eds., Friedrik Hiebert and Pierre Cambon. National Geographic, Washington, D.C. . * "L'Or De La Bactriane Fouilles De La Necropole De Tillia-Tepe." En ''Afghanistan Septentrional'', Leningrad, Editions d'art Aurora, 1985

External links

A photograph of the Tillya Tepe burial ground

"An overview of the burials at Tillya tepe"
Sara Peterson, 2018, from

Academia.edu Academia.edu is a for-profit open repository of academic articles free to read by visitors. Uploading and downloading is restricted to registered users. Additional features are accessible only as a paid subscription. Since 2016 various social ...

Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC * Website dedicated to ''Afghanistan's Treasures'' by Musée Guimet (Paris, France)
Afghanistan, les trésors retrouvés
from

Radio Free Europe Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a United States government funded organization that broadcasts and reports news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, and the Middle East where it says tha ...

, June 9, 2006 – provides an overview.
"Afghan golden treasure on display"
from

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

South Asia, December 6, 2006
"Lost Treasures of Afghanistan Revealed "
from National Geographic, November 17, 2004
"Parthian Aspects of Objects from Grave IV, Tillya Tepe"
Sara Peterson, 2011 - 2012, from

{{Authority control Tells (archaeology) Archaeological artifacts Archaeological sites in Afghanistan Asian archaeology Bactria History of Jowzjan Province Former populated places in Afghanistan Iranian archaeological sites Saka Treasure troves of Asia Afghanistan–Soviet Union relations 1978 archaeological discoveries