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Bactrian Hoard Discoverer Honored by Afghanistan
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| Viktor Sarianidi (left), who excavated Tillya Tepe in 1978, examines some of the artifacts he called the Golden Hoard of Bactria. Photograph courtesy of Viktor Sarianidi. |
By STAN PARCHIN
August 21, 2009
Russian archaeologist Viktor Sarianidi was awarded the Medal of the President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in Moscow on August 19, 2009 in recognition of his contributions to the history of the Central Asian nation. Zalmay Aziz, Afghanistan's ambassador to the Russian Federation, bestowed his country's highest honor on the scientist.
During a Soviet-Afghan expedition in 1978, Sarianidi and his team discovered the so-called Bactrian Hoard, some 20,000 gold artifacts (mostly jewelry) that date from ca. 1000 B.C. A number of the priceless works are part of the traveling exhibition
Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul. Talks are underway for the show to appear in Russia in 2011 after stops in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
SourceHiebert, Fredrik and Pierre Cambon (eds.), et al.
Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul (exh. cat.). New York and Washington, D.C.: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and National Geographic Society, 2008, 211-293.