Indian ivory pieces found alongside Roman bronzes, glass from Alexandria and Chinese lacquer articles right in the midst of Afghanistan: archaeology has many (beautiful) surprises in store for us!
The warm and humid climate of most of the Indian subcontinent was scarcely favourable to the conservation of ivory pieces. For a long time the oldest Indian ivory sculpture was a small figurine (element of furniture or mirror handle) discovered… buried in Pompei by the eruption of the Vesuvius in 79 AD. It certainly comes from the same ateliers as the ivories discovered in Afghanistan in eh famous “Begram treasure”. Thus these works attest to the commercial exchanges between India and the Mediterranean basin/ in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD.
So obviously/ the discovery of the “Begram treasure” was exceptional. Since 1936 the French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan (DAFA) directed by Joseph Hackin excavated that city supposedly founded by Alexander the Great. In 1937, then in 1939, Ria Hackin hit upon two “caches”, whose object is still being discussed, assembling a disparate ensemble of precious objects coming from all parts of the classical world: Graeco-Roman bronzes and plaster medallions, glasses from Alexandria and the Levantine coast (some in the shape of fish, another one representing the famous lighthouse), lacquer items from China… and Indian ivories! The latter, that adorned wooden furniture in which/ they were inlaid with nails, evoke wealth, luxury and a certain voluptuousness of the Indian courts in the first centuries AD.
On the way out of the Hindu-Kouch, Begram appears to have been an important stage on one of the Silk Roads crossing Eurasia. In conformity with the agreement signed in 1922 between France and Afghanistan, the treasure was equally divided between the Musée Guimet and the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul, the latter preserving the unique and exceptional works, such as the great ivories representing river deities in the round.
