The Golden Nobles of Shibarghan

Uncovering a dark epoch in an ancient melting pot's past

As long as anyone can remember, villagers called it Tillya Tepe--the Golden Mound. Even so, no one dreamed of the precious relics that might be unearthed in the strange, 12-ft.-high rise of ground located in a cotton field three miles north of the town of Shibarghan in northern Afghanistan. In 1977 a Soviet-Afghan archaeological team began serious excavations. By last fall they had uncovered the mud-brick columns and cross-shaped altar of an ancient temple dating back to at least 1000 B.C. Then they struck pay dirt--a glittering trove of gold that some Soviets said rivaled Tutankhamun's treasure.

The startling find came to light during routine follow-up digs around the temple's foundation. To their astonishment, the scientists stumbled upon a nobleman's grave with gold artifacts, some 1,000 years more recent than the temple. Soon they located six nearby graves of similar vintage, all between 100 B.C. and A.D. 100. Each contained an open, raised wooden coffin wrapped in fabric adorned with small gold and silver discs. The skeletal remains --four men and two women, aged 25 to 60 --had even more gleaming adornments:

remarkably crafted gold-and-turquoise bracelets, pendants, necklaces and daggers. So far, the archaeologists have counted some 20,000 pieces from six graves.

They are almost pure (70%) gold, with a few larger objects weighing up to 2 lbs. each. The last grave has been resealed and remains under guard until the team returns in the fall.

Although comparisons at this time with Tut's treasure are surely exaggerated, there is no denying that the excavation will yield important information on a particularly puzzling gap in the murky past of one of the crossroad regions of the world, a melting pot of ancient Mediterranean and Eastern cultures. Says Archaeologist Viktor I. Sarianidi, leader of the research team: "These discoveries fill that gap and we learn that there was no break in the development of the culture."

Astride the silk and spice routes, the region, known as Bactria in ancient times, came under the influence of numerous cultures: Indian, Mongolian, Parthian (a Persian people), nomadic (from the Eurasian steppes) and even Roman. All collided with the Hellenistic Greek domination of Alexander the Great, who conquered Bactria in 331 B.C., and his Seleucid successors. Two centuries later, the Greco-Bactrian kingdom was overrun by nomadic groups, among them the Parthians, Saka from the steppes and five Central Asiatic tribes called the Yiieh-Chih.

It is at this point that Bactria's history becomes a mystery. Not until one Yueeh-Chih ruler united the five tribes circa A.D. 50 to form the Kushan dynasty does the record resume.

The Soviet archaeologists conjecture that the buried nobles of Shibarghan were members of a local ruling family in the midst of this dark period. One sign of kinship: two skeletons bore rings of identical design. Sarianidi's theory is that a family patriarch stumbled upon the long buried temple and appropriated it as a royal necropolis. For 200 years successive generations were apparently buried at the unmarked site, probably by night to outwit grave robbers.

While most other pieces of ancient jewelry and art found in northern Afghanistan were clearly imported, the Shibarghan treasure is uniquely Bactrian: the work of local artisans using the technique and style of the steppe nomads, mostly Scytho-Sarmatians, skilled artisans who ranged over wide areas of Eurasia. Yet the pieces strongly reflect the cultural crosscurrents of the region, a synthesis of themes and designs never before seen in Afghan art. Figures and symbols from classical Greek mythology fuse with Chinese, Indian and Parthian motifs, all in the steppe art form. As Classicist Claireve Grandjouan of Manhattan's Hunter College told TIME Reporter-Researcher Carol Johmann last week: "It is a new and thrilling element to see Greek myth transformed by the art of the steppes."

Examples:

P: One gold-and-turquoise pendant features a figure of late Hellenistic design, holding at bay two winged creatures similar to griffins--classical monsters with an eagle's beak, wings and talons and the body of a lion. Yet the use of turquoise inlays in teardrop shapes is a telltale mark of the Scytho-Sarmatian and Saka influence.

P: A figurine with a well-rounded bust seems to represent Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, but also has the wings, wreath and drape often associated with Eros, the male god of love. Besides muddling these mythic details, the Bactrian craftsmen incorporated Indian features in the figure's arm rings, the shape of its eyes and mouth, and the possible caste or marriage mark on its forehead.

P: A turquoise-encrusted scabbard portrays the Sarmatian motif of ridged, convoluted animals, one chewing the other, as well as rams' heads with curving horns on the crossbars, but is also lined on both sides with swastikas, a geometric symbol common at this time throughout Central Asia, Europe and India.

P: A gold clasp shows Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and ecstasy, in a stunning mix of styles. According to the classical story, Dionysus triumphs over India and is carried back to Greece by a leopard. On this piece, he is astride a creature that seems to be a cross between a griffin and a Chinese dragon. Still he is shown as a classical Greek figure, accompanied by what may be the Cretan princess Ariadne, with the traditional representation of the winged goddess of victory, Nike, behind them. Before them kneels another figure with the face, pointed animal ears and hair of a Greco-Roman satyr, yet he drinks from a Greco-Persian vessel called a rhyton, made of a beast's head and neck.

P: A gold belt with clasps also depicts Dionysus, but with a distinctly Eastern twist. The reveling Greek god wears his familiar boots and short tunic and carries a fluted cup, yet sports a small Buddhist hair bun.

P: A clasp shows a clearly Chinese image of a man, topped by an umbrella, who rides in a cart pulled by an Eastern-style beast, emblematic of the Han dynasty ruling China at this time. Once again the turquoise teardrops encircling the scene mark it as a work with a steppe influence.

Indeed, the treasure seems to abound with unexpected nuggets of history. One of the graves has yielded a coin that totally baffles the archaeologists; it could be evidence of a semi-mythical Indo-Parthian kingdom thought to have existed in the area. Another of the skeletons shows strong Greek religious influence. Stuck between the teeth is a coin, symbolic payment to the boatman who ferries the dead across the River Styx to the Underworld.

Yet for all the gold, it is the mud-and-brick temple that may prove to be the real scientific treasure, providing insights into Afghanistan's even remoter past. It contains two halls whose flat roofs were supported by 15 square columns; the altar in the larger room shows traces of ash. No one knows who the builders were, what they were burning or where they ultimately went. (One theory: they may have been Aryans, who spoke an Indo-European language and who later decamped to India.) Says Sarianidi: "The temple may yet tell us something about those people, who otherwise have left nothing behind but shards of painted pottery."

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