Tillya Tepe

Tillya tepe, Tillia tepe or Tillā tapa (Persian: طلاتپه, romanized: Ṭalā-tappe, literally "Golden Hill" or "Golden Mound") is an archaeological site in the northern Afghanistan province of Jowzjan near Sheberghan, excavated in 1978 by a Soviet-Afghan team led by the Soviet archaeologist Viktor Sarianidi. The hoard found there is often known as the Bactrian gold. The hoard is a collection of about 20,600 ornaments, coins and other kinds of artifacts, made of gold, silver, ivory, etc., that were found in six burial mounds erected for five women and one man, with extremely rich jewelry, dated to around the 1st century BCE-1st century CE. The ornaments include necklaces set with semi-precious stones, belts, medallions and a crown. After its discovery, the hoard went missing during the wars in Afghanistan, until it was "rediscovered" and first brought to public attention again in 2003. A new museum in Kabul was being planned where the Bactrian gold would eventually be kept. The heavily fortified town of Yemshi Tepe, just five kilometres to the northeast of modern Sheberghan on the road to Akcha, is only half a kilometre from the now-famous necropolis of Tillia-tepe.

Dates and context

Several coins dated up to the early 1st century CE, with none dated later, suggest a 1st-century CE date for the burial. The coins found in the excavations belonged to Tiberius (16-21 CE), Mithradates II (123-88 BCE), the Yuezhi ruler Sapadbizes (20 BCE - 20 CE) and Indian coin. The burial could correspond to Scythian or Parthian tribes dwelling in the area. More probably, they belonged to the Yuezhis/ early Kushans after the fall of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom and before the rise of the Kushan Empire. They correspond to a time when the Yuezhis had not yet encountered Buddhism. A silver coin was found in one of the tombs from the reigns of the Parthian king Mithridates II, who ruled c. 123–88 BCE. The coin was found in tomb III, and was apparently held in the hand of the buried woman. An imitation gold coin of Parthian King Gotarzes I (95-90 BCE) was found in the left hand of the woman in tomb VI. The fact that this coin is in gold, and not silver or bronze as is usually the case for Parthian coinage, suggest that this imitation was made for prestige purposes. The coin is counterstamped with the frontal depiction of what might have been a local chieftain. The counterstamp was added so as to not damage the portrait of the Parthian king, perhaps indicating some degree of dependency on the Parthians. A gold coin was also found in tomb III showing the bust in profile of the wreath-crowned Roman Emperor Tiberius. On the reverse is an enthroned, sumptuously draped female figure holding a spray and scepter. Coins of this type were minted in the city of Lugdunum in Gaul, between 16 and 21 CE.

A Buddhist gold coin from India was also found in tomb IV (the male warrior). On the reverse it depicts a lion with a nandipada, with the Kharoshthi legend "Sih[o] vigatabhay[o]" ("The lion who dispelled fear"). The obverse shows an almost naked man only wearing an Hellenistic chlamys and a petasus hat (an iconography similar to that of Hermes/ Mercury) rolling a wheel. The legend in Kharoshthi reads "Dharmacakrapravata[ko]" ("The one who turned the Wheel of the Law"). It has been suggested that this may be an early representation of the Buddha. Finally, a very worn coin has been identified as belonging to the Yuezhi chieftain Heraios, or Sapadbizes (20 BCE - 20 CE). It is thought that the site most likely belonged to the Yuezhi (future Kushans). Alternatively, it could have belonged to the Sakas (Asian Scythians), who were later to migrate to India, known as Indo-Scythians, or to the Eastern Parthians. Several of the artifacts are highly consistent with a Scythian origin, such as the royal crown or the polylobed decorated daggers discovered in the tombs. Several of the bodies exhibited ritual deformation of the skull, a practice which is well documented among Central Asian nomads of the period.

Cultural influences

These pieces have much in common with the famous Scythian gold artifacts recovered thousands of kilometers west on the banks of the Bosphorus and the Chersonese. A high cultural syncretism pervades the findings, however. Hellenistic cultural and artistic influences can be found in many of the forms and human depictions (from amorini to rings with the depiction of Athena and her name inscribed in Greek), attributable to the existence of the Seleucid Empire and Greco-Bactrian Kingdom in the same area until around 140 BCE, and the continued existence of the Indo-Greek Kingdom in the northwestern Indian sub-continent until the beginning of our era. The artifacts were also intermixed with items coming from much farther, such as a few Chinese artifacts (especially Chinese bronze mirrors) as well as a few Indian ones (decorated ivory plates). This seems to be a testimony to the richness of cultural influences in the area of Bactria at that time.

Loss and re-discovery

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