In the winter of 1878, very ancient gold and silver coins with inscriptions began to appear in the antique markets of India, which indicated that some of them were made in Ancient Greece, others in Iran, and others in Bactria (present-day Central Asia). However, antiquities traders swore that all these coins were found far to the north, near the Amu Darya River, in the ruins of some ancient city.
In the next 3 years, hundreds of the same coins, many gold and silver jewelry, gold plates, figurines, vessels with images of people and animals were brought from there more than once. The British (and they were the main buyers of the treasures) began to show a great interest in artifacts. They found people who delivered goods and, by trick or deception, squeezed out the necessary information from them.
The story of a Bukhara merchant
“A caravan of three local merchants left Bukhara. We were on our way to India to buy tea and spices there. Such a product was in great demand in the bazaars of Bukhara and Khiva.
Our path ran through Kobadian, a small town located not far from Termez and the Amu Darya River. Here we learned the unpleasant news: across the river, Afghan border guards take away all the money from passing merchants. So, by the will of fate, we had to stay there, and once in a conversation with local Tajiks we learned an interesting story. It turned out that a few years ago, local residents found a treasure here. How did you find it? It's very simple. An old man in a rich robe and turban with a white beard appeared to a shepherd in a dream and indicated the place. The next morning the shepherd went there and near the ruins of an ancient settlement, on the banks of the river, he found gold objects. They were washed away by the water and sparkled in the sand. For a while, they managed to keep everything secret, but soon one of the shepherd's relatives spilled out. The news of the treasures instantly spread throughout the village. People rushed to search - and they also began to find gold things. These were ancient jewelry, completely unlike Muslim, as well as dishes, many figurines of people and animals, plates with images of kings and warriors in strange outfits.
We bought the local treasures for almost nothing, because people in Kobadian lived very poorly."
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In the cave of robbers
The merchants rubbed their hands - they knew the value of these things very well, because they were eagerly bought by the British in India. But then the unexpected happened.
Once, when the caravan with gold had already reached the borders of India, robbers blocked its way. The guards were quickly disarmed, and the merchants were tied up and thrown into a cave.
But one servant managed to escape at night. He reached the English residence and told Captain Burton what had happened. The captain with two soldiers went to the cave. A scuffle ensued, as a result of which the robbers still managed to escape, taking with them most of the fake.
The British freed the merchants and brought them to the village of Sekh-Baba. Captain Burton gathered the locals and announced that he would move his troops against them if the thieves (and it was, of course, someone from the local) did not give the gold. The next day, the robbers returned the jewelry to the merchants and they set off.
Priceless exhibits
It is not known how this happened, but later the treasure fell into the hands of dealers. They, in the hope of making more money, made gold copies of ancient artifacts. However, the fake was discovered by a well-known collector - General Kan-ningham. He put pressure on the criminals, so skillfully that they, in order to avoid prison, sold him the originals.
Later, the treasure came to another collector, W. Frank, and only from his private collection was transferred to the British Museum in London, where it was named the Amu Darya treasure. Naturally, part of it was lost, and 180 precious items (mostly gold) and 1.5 thousand coins of 2.5 thousand years old have come down to us.
In search of the golden idol
At the end of the 19th century, General Nikolai Maev, a traveler, editor of the first Russian newspaper in Central Asia, Turkestanskie vedomosti, went to Kobadian. He wanted to study the history of the Amu Darya treasure, and he succeeded. He established that the treasures were found on the ruins of the ancient city of Takhti-Kubad. And in his diaries, the general wrote: “The natives accompanying us said that ancient treasures had been found in these ruins before. Once they even found a tiger and other golden things in a pile of rubbish. All of them were sold to the Indians in Badakhshan for a high price."
A year later, another Russian officer, Nikolai Pokolotylo, went there in search of the treasure. On horseback, he reached the Takhti-Kubad settlement and this is what he said: “Despite the desolation of the place, several dozen people are constantly digging there, looking for treasures: according to legend, some man buried a golden idol in the height of a man.” Pokolyo spent a lot of time looking for him, but he never found anything.
Russian scientists considered the story of the golden idol a legend and did not attach importance to it. But the local bek became seriously interested in her and forbade unauthorized excavations to outsiders. He himself organized a treasure hunt, but soon abandoned this venture, since his people did not find anything. Then he came up with another way to profit and began to sell the right to search for treasures. To the surprise of the bey, people began to find gold items again. The gold found was sold to merchants and army officers in Afghanistan, who resold it to the British.
Who is the owner?
The mystery of this find lies in the fact that in the ancient settlement of Takhti-Kubad, items were collected that were created over five centuries in different parts of the world: in Greece, Iran, Bactria. The treasure contains items from the times of the ancient Iranian kings of the Achaemenids, then the Macedonian and his successors. The last items of the hoard date back to the 2nd century BC. But why did they all end up in one place? Who collected them for five centuries?
Scientists hoped to get an answer by studying the gold tablets. Many of them depict the Zoroastrians during the sacrifice. Consequently, these treasures could belong to some rich temple in Bactria. Believers often made offerings to temples, among the donations were gold jewelry. But researchers are confused: isn't there too much gold for one temple?
The historian E. Kuzmina has her own version of the origin of the Amu Darya hoard. According to her, these could be items from the treasury of the royal family of Bactria. Evidence of this is the images of people in royal robes with a crown, who also act as priests.
According to other researchers, most of the products were made in Greece and Iran, and then brought to Bactria. After all, objects similar in style were found by archaeologists in the Scythian mounds of the Black Sea region, where the ancestors of the Bactrians were from. True, then they were called … Aryans.
They have no value
The uniqueness of the items of the Amu Darya hoard is not that they are made of gold, but that they are the rarest historical exhibits that have not been found anywhere before. Therefore, they simply have no price. The figurines and plates show the faces, hairstyles, clothing, weapons, and even the customs of the Zoroastrians. Golden figurines represent kings, priests and warriors. Some have straight noses, like the Greeks, while others have a hump, like the modern Pamirians.
There are also drunk figurines of various animals, chariots, plaques and jewelry: rings, bracelets, tiaras. Particularly interesting are the gold plates depicting people who are similar in clothing to the Bactrians. They are dressed in caftans, soft boots and trousers, and for some reason they hold flowers and twigs in their hands, which are used for dowsing. Many works were made at the highest artistic level for that time.
Oracle Steps # 1, Max Maslin