ILAM
07-11-2008, 04:23 AM
video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhHVd8P5RqU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i3-SNF_1c4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uYhCBYkfFA
Bear-Adorned Dagger, Gold Bowls on Display at Afghan Exhibit
By Irv Chapman
July 10 (Bloomberg) -- Archaeologist Fredrik Hiebert cried when he visited Afghanistan's National Museum in 2003. The museum, which had been bombed during civil strife in 1994 and ransacked by the Taliban two years later, had no roof or windows and the inside was empty.
``There were no artifacts,'' Hiebert recalled. ``The Taliban came in and smashed whatever sculpture was left.''
Hiebert is now curator of a traveling exhibit featuring 228 Afghan artifacts recovered in 2004 from a vault under the presidential palace in Kabul. The exhibit is on display at Washington's National Gallery of Art through Sept. 7 before moving to San Francisco, Houston and New York.
Hiebert said workers at Kabul's National Museum kept the treasures hidden in the vault so they wouldn't be looted or destroyed.
``It was really saved by a code of silence,'' he said. ``One single piece could have been sold on the market and it would have been the ticket out of that war-torn country.''
The objects, dating from 2,200 B.C. to 200 A.D., include gold bowls, bronze and stone sculptures, and painted glassware. They were found inside two sealed storerooms in the palace.
``For an archaeologist, this is really remarkable,'' Hiebert said. ``Usually we find just fragments of pottery, fragments of glass.''
Warrior's Dagger
In the late 1970s, just before the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, a Russian archaeologist found a treasure of artifacts in tombs left by a nomadic tribe 2,000 years ago.
``Many of them were inlaid with stones, mostly turquoise.'' Hiebert said as stood before a display case at the National Gallery of Art. ``Here is a nomadic belt, with these fabulous medallions. There's also a dagger with a Siberian bear at the very top. You can see they had been probably worn every day by this warrior.''
This isn't the first time ancient artifacts have been salvaged in Afghanistan. During a hunting trip in 1961, Hiebert said, the Afghan king was shown a Corinthian capital, leading to the excavation of a city founded by Alexander the Great.
A silver gilt plaque from that period, which was used to demonstrate the Greeks' concept of the cosmos, is part of the current exhibit.
The exhibit will be at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco from Oct. 24, 2008 to Jan. 25, 2009. It will move to the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston from Feb. 22 to May 17, and New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art from June 23 to Sept. 20.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=an1sx_dgeFDI&refer=muse
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i3-SNF_1c4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uYhCBYkfFA
Bear-Adorned Dagger, Gold Bowls on Display at Afghan Exhibit
By Irv Chapman
July 10 (Bloomberg) -- Archaeologist Fredrik Hiebert cried when he visited Afghanistan's National Museum in 2003. The museum, which had been bombed during civil strife in 1994 and ransacked by the Taliban two years later, had no roof or windows and the inside was empty.
``There were no artifacts,'' Hiebert recalled. ``The Taliban came in and smashed whatever sculpture was left.''
Hiebert is now curator of a traveling exhibit featuring 228 Afghan artifacts recovered in 2004 from a vault under the presidential palace in Kabul. The exhibit is on display at Washington's National Gallery of Art through Sept. 7 before moving to San Francisco, Houston and New York.
Hiebert said workers at Kabul's National Museum kept the treasures hidden in the vault so they wouldn't be looted or destroyed.
``It was really saved by a code of silence,'' he said. ``One single piece could have been sold on the market and it would have been the ticket out of that war-torn country.''
The objects, dating from 2,200 B.C. to 200 A.D., include gold bowls, bronze and stone sculptures, and painted glassware. They were found inside two sealed storerooms in the palace.
``For an archaeologist, this is really remarkable,'' Hiebert said. ``Usually we find just fragments of pottery, fragments of glass.''
Warrior's Dagger
In the late 1970s, just before the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, a Russian archaeologist found a treasure of artifacts in tombs left by a nomadic tribe 2,000 years ago.
``Many of them were inlaid with stones, mostly turquoise.'' Hiebert said as stood before a display case at the National Gallery of Art. ``Here is a nomadic belt, with these fabulous medallions. There's also a dagger with a Siberian bear at the very top. You can see they had been probably worn every day by this warrior.''
This isn't the first time ancient artifacts have been salvaged in Afghanistan. During a hunting trip in 1961, Hiebert said, the Afghan king was shown a Corinthian capital, leading to the excavation of a city founded by Alexander the Great.
A silver gilt plaque from that period, which was used to demonstrate the Greeks' concept of the cosmos, is part of the current exhibit.
The exhibit will be at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco from Oct. 24, 2008 to Jan. 25, 2009. It will move to the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston from Feb. 22 to May 17, and New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art from June 23 to Sept. 20.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=an1sx_dgeFDI&refer=muse