The Treasure of Begram or Begram Hoard is a group of artifacts from the 1st-2nd century CE discovered in the area of

Begram Bagram (; Pashto/ fa, بگرام) is a town and seat in Bagram District in Parwan Province of Afghanistan, about 60 kilometers north of the capital Kabul. It is the site of an ancient city located at the junction of the Ghorband and Panjshir Val ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

. The '' French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan'' (DAFA) conducted excavations at the site between 1936 and 1940, uncovering two walled-up strongrooms, Room 10 and Room 13. Inside, a large number of

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

, alabaster,

glass Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenching) of ...

(remains of 180 pieces), coins, and ivory objects, along with remains of furniture and Chinese

lacquer Lacquer is a type of hard and usually shiny coating or finish applied to materials such as wood or metal. It is most often made from resin extracted from trees and waxes and has been in use since antiquity. Asian lacquerware, which may be ca ...

bowls, were unearthed. Some of the furniture was arranged along walls, other pieces stacked or facing each other. In particular, a high percentage of the few survivals of Greco-Roman

enamelled glass Enamelled glass or painted glass is glass which has been decorated with vitreous enamel (powdered glass, usually mixed with a binder) and then fired to fuse the glasses. It can produce brilliant and long-lasting colours, and be translucent or o ...

come from this discovery. The

Begram ivories The Begram ivories are a group of over a thousand decorative plaques, small figures and inlays, carved from ivory and bone, and formerly attached to wooden furniture, that were excavated in the 1930s in Bagram (Begram), Afghanistan. They are rare ...

are a sub-group of over a thousand decorative plaques, small figures and

inlays Inlay covers a range of techniques in sculpture and the decorative arts for inserting pieces of contrasting, often colored materials into depressions in a base object to form Ornament (art), ornament or pictures that normally are flush with th ...

, carved from ivory and bone, and formerly attached to wooden furniture, that were excavated in the 1930s in Bagram (Begram),

. They are rare and important exemplars of

Kushan The Kushan Empire ( grc, Βασιλεία Κοσσανῶν; xbc, Κυϸανο, ; sa, कुषाण वंश; Brahmi: , '; BHS: ; xpr, 𐭊𐭅𐭔𐭍 𐭇𐭔𐭕𐭓, ; zh, 貴霜 ) was a syncretic empire, formed by the Yuezhi, i ...

art of the 1st or 2nd centuries CE, attesting to the cosmopolitan tastes and

patronage Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...

of local dynasts, the sophistication of contemporary craftsmanship, and to the ancient trade in luxury goods.

History

The ancient city of Kapisa (near modern Bagram), in

Bactria Bactria (; Bactrian: , ), or Bactriana, was an ancient region in Central Asia in Amu Darya's middle stream, stretching north of the Hindu Kush, west of the Pamirs and south of the Gissar range, covering the northern part of Afghanistan, southwe ...

was the summer capital of the

Kushan Empire The Kushan Empire ( grc, Βασιλεία Κοσσανῶν; xbc, Κυϸανο, ; sa, कुषाण वंश; Brahmi: , '; BHS: ; xpr, 𐭊𐭅𐭔𐭍 𐭇𐭔𐭕𐭓, ; zh, 貴霜 ) was a syncretic empire, formed by the Yuezhi, i ...

, which stretched from northern Afghanistan to northwest

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

between the 1st and the 4th centuries. Some eighty miles from

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...

, the strategically located city dominated two passes through the Hindu Kush, connecting Bactria with

Gandhara Gandhāra is the name of an ancient region located in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, more precisely in present-day north-west Pakistan and parts of south-east Afghanistan. The region centered around the Peshawar Vall ...

(modern north-east

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. The finds were divided, in accordance with the system of

partage Partage, from the French word "partager" meaning "to share," was a system put in place to divide up ownership of excavated artifacts during the early part of the 20th century. This system was mostly notably employed in Egypt, Iraq, Cyprus, Syria, ...

, between the

Musée Guimet The Guimet Museum (full name in french: Musée national des arts asiatiques-Guimet; MNAAG; ) is an art museum located at 6, place d'Iéna in the XVIe arrondissement, 16th arrondissement of Paris, France. Literally translated into English, its ful ...

and the

National Museum of Afghanistan The National Museum of Afghanistan (Dari: موزیم ملی افغانستان, ''Mūzīyam-e mellī-ye Afghānestān''; ps, د افغانستان ملی موزیم, ''Də Afghānistān Millī Mūzīyəm''), also known as the Kabul Museum, is a ...

. After the Kabul Museum closed in 1978 the whereabouts of the ivories was uncertain, and many items were looted in the 1990s. A number of the missing items were located in 2004, and a further group of twenty pieces, illicitly traded by antiquities dealers, was later recovered and is to be repatriated. After conservation treatment in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

they were exhibited there in 2011.

Major artifacts

Glass

File:Gladiateur Begram Guimet 18117.jpg, Glass with painting of a Roman

gladiator A gladiator ( la, gladiator, "swordsman", from , "sword") was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gla ...

. File:Afghanistan, bottiglia ansata, dal tesoro di begram, vetro soffiato, I sec, 01.JPG, Blue bottle with amphora shape. File:BegramBowls.jpg, Glass bottle File:Afghanistan, flacone ittiomorfo, dal tesoro di begram, vetro soffiato, I sec, 02.JPG, Vial in the shape of a fish.

Ivory

File:BegramPlaque.jpg, Ivory plaques. File:Afghanistan, avori a tema ellenistico, dal tesoro di begram, I sec, 01.JPG, Ivory plaques File:Afghanistan, cofanetto V, dal tesoro di begram, avorio, I sec, 0.JPG, Ivory box with ornaments. File:Furniture part Begram Hoard Guimet MA230.jpg, Ivory furniture part, Begram Hoard, Guimet Museum (MA230).

Plaster

File:BegramMedallion6.jpg, Emblema with

Endymion Endymion primarily refers to: * Endymion (mythology), an Ancient Greek shepherd * ''Endymion'' (poem), by John Keats Endymion may also refer to: Fictional characters * Prince Endymion, a character in the ''Sailor Moon'' anime franchise * Raul ...

and SeleneMédaillon de plâtre servant probablement de modèle, réinterprété dans les cultures locales en fonction de divers programmes : palettes à fards ou plats pour des rites domestiques, monnaies Kushan, décors aujourd'hui disparus. File:BegramMedallion.jpg, Medallion

Other materials

File:Mercury Begram Hoard Guimet MG21230.jpg, Mercury, Begram Hoard, Guimet MG21230. File:BegramWoman3.jpg, Yakshini on top of a makara.

References

External links

Begram Ivory and Bone Carvings
( Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative) {{DEFAULTSORT:Begram Ivories Afghan culture Ivory works of art Indian sculpture Archaeological discoveries in Afghanistan History of Parwan Province Kushan Empire