V.I. Sarianidi
Bactrian Gold
from the Excavations
of the Tillya-Tepe Necropolis in Northern Afghanistan.
// Leningrad: Aurora Art publishers. 1985. 260 p.
Text and selection by Victor Sarianidi, Doctor of History.
Translated from the Russian by Arthur Shkarovsky-Raffé.
Design and layout by Stanislav Malakhov.
Photography by Leonid Bogdanov and Vladimir Terebenin.
Contents
The story of the excavation. — 7
Necropolis. — 17
Burial 1. — 19
Burial 2. — 22
Burial 3. — 27
Burial 4. — 35
Burial 5. — 44
Burial 6. — 46
Plates. — 57
Catalogue. — 225
Burial 1. — 226
Burial 2. — 230
Burial 3. — 236
Burial 4. — 246
Burial 5. — 252
Burial 6. — 254
This volume describes the discoveries of the Afghan-Soviet Archaeological Expedition which in 1978-79 conducted excavations of the ancient burials (100 B.C. — A.D. 100) near the town of Shibargan in Northern Afghanistan.
Some 20,000 gold objects have been found, the bulk of which consists of multitudinous plates and pendants sewn onto the cloth. Personal ornaments such as brooches, hairpins, buckles, and sheath plaques, usually decorated with precious stones and turquoise inlays, attest to the fine skills and techniques of metalworking achieved in ancient Bactria.
The author of the book is Victor Sarianidi, Doctor of History, Co-Director of the Afghan-Soviet Expedition.
166 colour plates and 260 black-and-white illustrations.
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