Greeks in Afghanistan.pdf

Afghanistan Exhibition

UN representative : Sotirios Mousouris

Taliban destroyed 2,500 works of art, 2 statues in Bamiyan

Viktor Sarianidi : 21,618 gold, silver & ivory objects in the 6 tombs

Parapamisadai

Ai Khanum : acropolis 60 m higher than surroundings, abandoned ~ 130 B.C.

1. Tepe Fullol (N of Kabul)

200 km from Sari Sang Quetta Treasure 2200 – 1900 B.C. gold goblet

2. Ai Khanum (probably Alexandria-on-Oxus – Oxiana)

145 BC Greeks driven out, but the Greek Kingdom south of Hindu Kush held out for another century

1000 cities of Greek Bactria, everything but olives would grow. Easternmost extremity of the Bactrian

plain. Corinthian capital was first found. 300 BC Seleucos founded it, Kokcha river sun-dried bricks

royal city hall with 18 Corinthian columns 60 Doric columns antefixes local soft limestone

gymnasium theater(the easternmost of its kind in all Hellenistic world) had spacious loggias, honorary

seats were located halfway up the rows of seats Hermes Heracles Hestia Cybele temple with niches

さRed teﾏpleざ at Nisa, Turkﾏeﾐistaﾐ, the first Iapital of the Parthiaﾐ Eﾏpire  

Sarcophagus of Kineas who had been mandated to found the city Philosopher Clearchos of Soli, a pupil

of Aristotle author Megasthenes who wrote about Greeks of India some pages of a lost treatise of

Aristotle mosaics acroliths equatorial sundial iron armour Megarian bowls Eucratidia

gold ingots from melted down objects

Exceptional fertility of the region of Bactria (except olives)

The main legacy of Hellenism to the arts of Central Asia was the modeling of statues in clay or stucco

Funerary monument of Kineas: Clearchos donated a copy of the Delphic Precepts to the town after

having them engraved at the most sacred spot in the city, the temenos, or sacred precinct of the

founder Kineas

さ These ┘ise sa┞iﾐgs of the illustrious ﾏeﾐ of old ha┗e Heeﾐ IoﾐIeIrated at the saIred P┞tho. There, Clearchos transcribed them carefully, coming here to display them so that they shine in such a distant

place, in the sacred precinct of Kineas

AS A CHILD LEARN GOOD MANNERS

AS A YOUNG MAN LEARN TO CONTROL THY PASSIONS

IN THE MIDDLE AGE BE JUST

IN OLD AGE GIVE GOOD ADVICE, THEN DIE WITHOUT REGRETS

SUNDIALS one is a block of limestone shaped like a throne supported by two lion legs in front. The seat

of the throne forms the dial face, together with 11 vertical hour lines along which travels the

leﾐgtheﾐiﾐg aﾐd shorteﾐiﾐg shado┘ of the st┞le represeﾐtiﾐg the earth’s a┝is

At the summer & winter solstices the shadow reaches the two outermost curves whereas at the spring

and autumn equinoxes it stands on the central line. The curves show that this sundial was designed for a

latitude between 38 and 35 north values that take in Ai Khanum. This was the most widespread type of

sundial in ancient times

Another is made of a squared block of limestone that once stood on a horizontal base.

3. Begram

Alexandria ad Caucasum 1st

cent. AD ancient Kapisi 12,000 ft air is pure

Alexandria was a center of glass manufacture

The oldest representation of the lighthouse porphyry vase

4. Tillya Tepe Hill of Gold oasis of Sheberghan, 100 km W of Bactra

20,578 artifacts the fabled Bactrian Plain 100 AD The Golden Hoard of Bactria no wooden burial

chamber clandestine burials AD 16 to 37 shape of heart common leaf of sarsaparilla Sakas

Goddess Athena common also Aphrodite Dionysus recognizable from the ivy weight measures acc.

to the Ionic system