Bactian hoard survives Taliban

After remaining locked for 14 years in a Kabul bank vault, which the Taleban Islamist militia tried hard to crack but failed, a gold hoard excavated in northern Afghanistan and associated with the Greco-Bactrian successors of Alexander the Great saw the light of day yesterday.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai was present at the opening of the vault containing some 20,000 artifacts excavated in Tillya Tepe (which means “the golden hill”) by Greek-Russian archaeologist Victor Sarianidi in 1978.

“Fortunately, the gold exists,” Karzai said. “We opened one box and saw it. Everything is safe and in its place.”

From Kathimerini. This has also been reported elsewhere (the BBC, for example), but with greater emphasis on the ingots of the Afghan gold reserve also kept in the same vault.

Posted by David on August 30, 2003 3:02 PM