Two decades ago, a crowd of Afghanistan’s VIPs gathered at the Koti Bagcha in the Presidential Palace for an exclusive one-day showing of a small collection of the country’s rarest antiquities. The collections had been securely stored in the vaults below the Presidential Palace during the later years of the Soviet occupation (1979–89), owing to a group of concerned Afghan officials who organized their protection under the auspices of then-President Mohammad Najibullah. After the exhibition, the pieces were returned to the bank vaults and a year later the country was amid the throes of the Mujahideen civil war (1992–94). It was not until 2004, after the Taliban overthrow and the installation of President Hamid Karzai, that the antiquities were once more exhumed. Representatives from the National Museum of Afghanistan collaborated with the Musée Guimet in Paris and the Délégation Archéologique Française en Afghanistan (DAFA) to organize a touring exhibition of a selection of the preserved artifacts, with sponsorship from the National Geographic Society. The pieces were catalogued and restored; then thrust into super-stardom on a round-the-world tour, beginning in 2006 at the Musée Guimet.

On March 1, 2011, Afghan and international VIPs met at the British Museum for the opening of the exhibition Afghanistan: Crossroads of the Ancient World. Once again Afghanistan’s most valuable archaeological discoveries were on display: the breathtaking bronzes from Ai Khanum (ca. third century BC), gold vessels from Tepe Fullol (ca. two thousand BC), ivories from Begram (first century AD), and Bactrian gold from Tillya Tepe (first century AD). Yet this time around the antiquities were not whisked back into storage; indeed, by opening night some 100,000 people had reserved tickets through the spring. President Karzai marked the promising milestone in his opening address: “What you will see here today will remind you of a different Afghanistan, of a peaceful Afghanistan, of an Afghanistan where societies lived and nourished (sic), where society mingled with the countries around.”

For the past few years the Silk Road has been a popular theme for exhibitions worldwide, displaying the diffusion of arts, cultures, religions, and technologies along these ancient trade routes that were in operation since around the second century BC. Afghanistan: Crossroads of the Ancient World showcases more than two hundred objects from four archaeological sites spread across northern Afghanistan, and taps into these same themes. Traces from Chinese, Hellenistic, Indian, Persian, and Roman civilizations are immediately evident in the extraordinary range of artifacts.

The exhibition was curated by St. John Simpson, the Assistant Keeper (curator for ancient Iran & Arabia) in the Department of the Middle East. The deal was brokered after extended renegotiations of the earlier contract—this time with representatives from the British Museum and Afghanistan’s Ministry of Information and Culture. In many respects, the exhibition is essentially the same as the tours in Europe and North America (2008–10). However, there is one noteworthy distinction.

Afghanistan: Crossroads of the Ancient World places a substantial emphasis on archaeology. Viktor Sarianidi, the Greek-Russian archaeologist who excavated at the necropolis of Tillya Tepe in 1978, recently noted during a conversation at his home in Moscow that he would hope to see a comprehensive display: one that included a range of maps and photos in order to give visitors a better feel for the excavation sites and a broader appreciation for the area that once included the ancient trade routes. Viewers are in fact offered a series of intuitively placed maps next to the exhibits and timelines on the outer walls of the galleries, which support a chronological arrangement of the show. Yet while the exhibition enjoys pride of place in the British Museum’s renowned Reading Room—the large, domed exhibition space resting in the heart of the museum’s Great Court—the artifacts are tightly cramped into the half-a-dozen makeshift rooms erected in the rotunda.

A short video comprised of commentaries, from both Afghan and international specialists, introduces the exhibition as visitors enter. From there, the galleries progress through the finds from the archaeological sites: Tepe Fullol, Ai Khanum, Begram, and Tillya Tepe. In the first gallery, visitors view the gold and silver beakers, bowls, and cups from the Bronze Age hoard of Tepe Fullol, found at the ancient Oxus River (present day Amu Darya). Many pieces feature geometric patterns and animal motifs, which are inspired by designs from Quetta and Mesopotamia, respectively. The imagery connects the area to what is now known as the “Oxus Cultural Complex,” which existed around two thousand BC, and suggests that inhabitants were involved in cross-cultural trade.

While observing the collection from the ancient Greek city of Ai Khanum (“Lady Moon”), viewers may note the merging styles of Hellenism and Bactria, manifesting a veritable melting pot of the Greco-Bactrian culture. Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Persian Empire, conquered the region for the Achaemenid Empire in the sixth century BC. Two centuries later, Alexander the Great defeated Darius III, then leader of the Persians. He expanded the Greco-Macedonian Empire beyond Ai Khanum and the Oxus River, leaving many of his troops at the outpost with the local inhabitants. The legacy of this cultural fusion is evident in many of the artifacts on display. This includes a gilded silver ceremonial plate with a Greek motif of Cybele standing in her chariot, which resembles structural designs from Iran and Syria.

In the Begram display an even wider array of influences converge to form an Indo-Greek culture. The ancient site, located in close proximity to the modern town, was first destroyed by Cyrus and rebuilt by his successor, Darius I. By the first century AD, the city was the summer residence for the infamous Emperor Kanishka of the Kushan Empire. Throughout the rise and fall of these empires, Begram served as a commercial center along the Silk Road, to which the Indian-inspired ivory panels, Chinese lacquer bowls, Greek plaster medallions, and Roman glassware all attest.

The finds from Tillya Tepe (“Hill of Gold”) introduce new stylistic ideas of Greco-Bactrian culture. As a primary example, the iconographic nomadic crown stands as the foremost exhibit in the gallery. The crown includes a band attached to five gold-leaf elements that separate for easy transportation; and though it shares a number of features to those crafted by the Greeks and Kushans, the design is believed to be unique to the nomads who wore it. Displayed on the adjacent walls of the gallery are a glistening array of opulent belts, bracelets, earrings, necklaces, pendants, rings, and other adornments. The pieces are crafted from amber, garnet, gold, ivory, lapis lazuli, and mother-of-pearl, demonstrating the vast mineral resources that were available to craftsmen along the Silk Road.

The final room of the exhibition comes as a pleasant surprise. On the day of the opening, the British Museum announced a last-minute addition to the exhibition of a small collection of twenty ivory artifacts, hitherto presumed lost. The previous summer, an anonymous donor had come forth with the pieces, claiming that they had been stolen from the Begram collection at the National Museum of Afghanistan during the civil war. The artifacts had been excavated by the French in 1937 and 1939 at the ancient site of Begram after Afghanistan had signed an agreement for archaeological cooperation with France in 1922. The intricately carved ivories likely date to the Kushan Empire and display a range of animal and human motifs: ducks, elephants, lions, and wild beasts, as well as women chatting, dancing, and resting in their personal quarters. The British Museum received the pieces for inspection, conservation, and exhibition with the intention of returning them to the National Museum of Afghanistan once the show is closed.

The ivory pieces are complemented by labels and photographs depicting the previously dire situation of pillaging at the museum in Kabul. The museum was initially designed as a municipality for King Amanullah Khan (1919–28) across from Darulaman Palace, located six miles south of the city center. During the civil war, the museum stood naked along the front line. Each time control over the area shifted between the warring Mujahideen factions, looters ransacked the museum’s collections. In 1993, a rocket hit the roof and burnt the second story where the Islamic collection was housed. It is important to note that while the British Museum dates the looting to the civil war from 1992–94, looting continued at the museum in Kabul well into 1995 as the Mujahideen were fighting the emerging Taliban forces in the south and Herat. Estimates placed the loss at the National Museum as high as seventy percent of the entire collection, though most of the important finds from Ai Khanum, Begram, Tepe Fullol, and Tillya Tepe were kept safe in the vaults at the Presidential Palace.

The museum was subsequently abandoned until the Taliban captured and restored order in Kabul in 1996. Indeed, in 1999, Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader, issued two edicts that protected Afghanistan’s cultural sites and forbade looting. Yet two years later the policy was dramatically reversed when Mullah Omar demanded the destruction of Afghanistan’s pre-Islamic statues, including the two Buddhas of Bamiyan—a course of action chosen after isolation from the international community and pressure from al-Qaeda. Within the week, Taliban policemen decimated the museum’s statues in front of the distressed museum staff.

Today, a few of the current employees from the National Museum of Afghanistan are receiving training and support from specialists at the British Museum while the exhibition is in London. An events program is also being held at the museum throughout the spring to accommodate a wide range of interests, including workshops on Afghanistan’s jewelry and textiles to lectures on the country’s history and culture. The latest edition of the catalogue still offers detailed histories and descriptions of the collections, though it also boasts a few new photos. While no show can address every subject, particularly for so complex an issue, the British Museum is doing an admirable job of offering so many educational opportunities for museum staff and visitors alike.

Upcoming venues for the exhibition are being negotiated in Austria, Greece, Japan, and other countries. With each exhibition opened abroad, funds are given to the Afghan Ministry of Information and Culture, which oversees the country’s museums. In Kabul, the National Museum recently opened an exhibition of artifacts from Mes Aynak, a fourth to fifth century Buddhist monastery currently being excavated in Logar Province by the National Institute of Archaeology and DAFA. Meanwhile, in March of 2011, the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, announced a $5 million donation to help construct a new museum that would house a permanent exhibition of the artifacts now on display at the British Museum. Without a new museum that provides an essential state-of-the-art security system and ample visitor space—unlike the current National Museum—the touring exhibition faces the prospect of either travelling indefinitely overseas or being reinterred immediately in the presidential bank vaults upon return to Afghanistan. Thus, if the security conditions continue to improve in Kabul and a new National Museum is constructed, the rare collections may come home soon to a well-deserved welcome, not only by Afghanistan’s VIPs, but also the Afghan public.