With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

British Museum to exhibit Afghan gold

The British Museum will exhibit a hoard of ancient Afghan gold jewellery after Kabul today (THURS) signs an agreement loaning the treasure to Britain.

The discovery of the Bactrian Hoard in a burial mound in northern Afghanistan is considered one of the greatest archaeological events of last century.

The collection of 21,000 pieces of finery buried by Afghanistan’s nomadic ancestors was feared looted from Kabul or melted down during the 1990s as the country endured civil war and Taliban rule.

Its rediscovery, hidden in 10 tin trunks in a bank vault inside the presidential palace’s grounds after the Taliban had left, was a source of national pride.

Examples will now go on show in Britain for the first time in an exhibition called: “Afghanistan: Crossroads of the Ancient World,” from next spring....

Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)