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Archaeologist tells of digs in Central Asia
Victor Sariyiannidis has spent his life searching for traces of Greeks...
What an inspiring story that was...it's going straight into my FR Favourites.
Bactrian Gold
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The Bacterian Treasure (also known as the Bacterian Gold) is a treasure cache that lay dormant under the "Hill of Gold" (or "Golden Hill"), or Tillya-tepe, for 2,000 years until Soviet archeologists exposed it shortly before the 1979 invasion. The hoard then went missing during subsequent wars in Afghanistan, when it was "rediscovered" and first brought to public attention again in 2003.
The hoard is a collection of about 20,600 gold ornaments that was found in six burial mounds near Sheberghan, in the northern Afghanistan province of Jawzjan, and was excavated in 1978 by a team led by the Greek-Russian archaeologist Victor Sariyannidis, a year before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The ornaments include coins, necklaces set with gems, belts, medallions and crowns. A new museum in Kabul is being planned where the Bactrian gold will eventually be kept.
As of 2005, preparations are under way to exhibit some of the 20,000 pieces. The U.S., France, Germany, Japan and Greece are interested in hosting the exhibit. The collection has never been seen outside Afghanistan.
It was thought to have been lost at some point in the 1990s, but in 2003 it was found in secret vaults under the presidential palace in Kabul.
The collection is particularly valuable to the Afghan people, as much of their heritage was looted from museums during the civil wars after the fall of the Soviet-backed regime.