Afghan Treasures on exhibit in the US.

[amyntoros]

The exhibition Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul includes the famous Bactrian gold as well as artifacts from Ai Kahnum. And it is now, finally, touring the United States!

The schedule is as follows:

National Gallery of Art
Washington, D.C.
May 25 to September 7, 2008

Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
San Francisco, California
October 24, 2008, to January 25, 2009

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Houston, Texas
February 22 to May 17, 2009

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York, New York
June 23 to September 20, 2009

It will be over a year before I get the opportunity to see it, but I reckon it will be worth the wait.

Best regards,

[Paralus]

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York, New York
June 23 to September 20, 2009

It will be over a year before I get the opportunity to see it, but I reckon it will be worth the wait.

What do reckon??

Algonquin to MMA....a good stiff walk but I could always get an itinerant Irish horse and carriage driver to take me from W59th to W70th eh?? Ninety-six cents to the Au$ is much more attractive than .77!

The compressed disc is still there at L3 but I can walk much better nowadays....

A bottle of white, a bottle of red
After viewing Ai Khanoum we said
We’ll get a table in the Blue Bar
At that old Algonquin place
Culture and red - face to face

[amyntoros]

Algonquin to MMA....a good stiff walk but I could always get an itinerant Irish horse and carriage driver to take me from W59th to W70th eh?? Ninety-six cents to the Au$ is much more attractive than .77!

My dentist is on West 62nd so I take the walk up to the Metropolitan (and back down to the 59th Street subway) after every visit, including one that recently involved a root canal! Have also gone to the Met on other days, of course, but I probably will think twice about walking it during the summer heat and humidity, especially with those cobblestone sidewalks next to the park. You'd have no luck with the horse and carriage ride unfortunately - and yes, I know you were joking! Apart from the fact that they severely limit travel to regular, timed routes through Central Park they wouldn't be able to go up on Fifth Avenue because it is downtown traffic only.


If we have any members who might be thinking of making a trip to NYC next year I'd say this exhibit is a must! I do believe that after its world tour the plan is to return all the artifacts to Afghanistan, so see them while you can. And the Met has now finished restoration on the Greek and Roman Galleries, Egyptian Galleries, and has even updated the Gandhara exhibit rooms. Here's a pic of the Atrium of the G & R Galleries, taken from the Etruscan rooms on the second floor.



Finally, something to rival the Getty's layout!

Best regards,

[Paralus]

Apart from the fact that they severely limit travel to regular, timed routes through Central Park they wouldn't be able to go up on Fifth Avenue because it is downtown traffic only.

Money speeks all languages Mother - particularly American.

I can see myself passing that bridge, the rink, the East Green and on up to near W70th. Who knows? By then the Aussie might be buying USD 1.40!

[jan]

HI Amyntoros, Thanks for the news about the Afghanisgan Exhibit. I will try to get to SF to see it if I can. Did you see the story about the Persian vase that is on today's Yahoo cover? I also just checked the ebay list of available goodies on ATG at EBay. Impressive group of items for you there too. Some coins are available I see.

[amyntoros]

Good news for those across the pond - the exhibition is coming to London! Unfortunately though, it will be a while. The information below is from The Art Newspaper (via PhDiva).

British Museum to show major works from Afghanistan


Martin Bailey | 18.12.08 |

The British Museum plans to exhibit the Bactrian gold from Afghanistan, which is currently touring America. The Art Newspaper can report that “Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul” is expected be presented in London in spring 2011.


The exhibition comprises 230 objects, including over a hundred gold ornaments from the 2000-year-old Bactrian hoard, discovered at Tillia Tepe in 1978. Once thought to have been subsequently stolen or destroyed, the treasures survived the Soviet invasion and Taliban rule, and were found in a vault beneath the presidential palace in 2003.

A travelling exhibition of the antiquities, organised by the US National Geographic Society, opened in Paris in 2006, and continued to Bonn and Amsterdam. Last May it went to Washington, DC, and it closes at San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum in on 25 January, before going to Houston (Museum of Fine Arts) and New York (Metropolitan Museum). Other venues are being lined up for 2010 before the show comes to London. Some of the proceeds from the exhibition will support the Kabul museum.

Although Londoners will get the opportunity to see this important collection, the prolongation of the tour to 2011 suggests that it will be some years before the National Museum in Kabul will be in a position to display its treasures. This reflects problems with the existing museum building and the general lack of security in Kabul.

Best regards,

[marcus]

The British Museum plans to exhibit the Bactrian gold from Afghanistan, which is currently touring America. The Art Newspaper can report that “Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul” is expected be presented in London in spring 2011.

So, the best plan is to fly to NYC to see it at the Met, then pop up to the BM in 2011 and say in a loud voice things like: "Of course, when I saw this in New York ..." or "When we saw this in New York it seemed so much bigger ..."

That works for me!

ATB

[amyntoros]

Managed to check out the exhibition a couple of weeks ago. The Metropolitan Museum allocated some relatively spacious rooms for the exhibit and even though there were quite a number of visitors it didn't feel crowded at all.

I am familiar with the gold from Tillya Tepe having seen many photographs over the years, but some things still surprised me. The winged Aphrodite is unexpectedly small and the detail on even smaller items is incredible; this in contrast to a bangle and ankle bracelet which are completely undecorated, thick, round, and huge! They seem so incongruous and must have been quite painful to wear, I think.

The items from Begram area are a study in contrast, being mostly from the 1st century AD. Some demonstrate Greek influence on Indian art while others are recognizably Greek. Especially delightful are the large decorated glass fish in which (it is believed) were kept perfumes. Some other glass pieces actually shocked me - painted glass goblets which look almost like ancient versions of the plastic tumblers given out by McDonalds or Burger King!

There are a couple of possible "Alexanders" also: one a bronze "young horse rider" with fairly long hair and an anastole, very similar to other bronzes thought to be Alexander. Interestingly, the catalogue description does not mention Alexander, but the card at the exhibit makes the comparison. Then there's another piece where neither the museum or the catalogue makes any reference to Alexander - a scale weight which "originally may have functioned as a cosmetic jar" and is described as "depicting the bust of a helmeted individual wearing a cuirass, perhaps the god Mars". Well ... the hair under the helmet falls in long curls and has an anastole; the eyes (which once held jewels) are looking upwards; the nose and lips are familiar from other representations of Alexander, and the head is tilted to one side! My first thought on catching sight of this bust was, "Alexander!" and I was quite surprised to see it referred to only as "perhaps" the god Mars. Just goes to show how reticent most archaeologists and museum curators are about suggesting that a find might be an Alexander (quite in contrast to the little piece found recently in Egypt).

There wasn't much at all from Ai Khanum and it's extremely unlikely that anything will be found there in the future. A short film is on display in an attached room at the exhibit and includes a photograph of the site taken in 2004 (it can also be seen in the catalogue). The photograph was taken looking towards the river and in the background can be seen what little remains of the original excavations. Even the excavated short walls appear to have been destroyed and only a few foundation platforms are visible. Worse though is the foreground, from the excavation remains right up to where the cameraman stands. It looks for all the world like a close-up of the moon with thousands and thousands of small craters, or the beach at the beginning of a rainstorm when the first drops form holes in the sand. From an archaeological perspective this has to be one of the saddest photographs I have ever seen.

We weren't allowed to take photographs and this has been the norm at other museums where the exhibit has been shown, but the catalogue more than makes up for it. There's one currently available on Amazon - Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul - but when I looked a couple of weeks ago there were others so if you're interested you could keep checking the site. Alternatively, go to Addall.com and type the title in the Used Books field. There are quite a number there, including bookstores in other parts of the world and not just the U.S. Personally, I wholeheartedly recommend this book - think it is absolutely beautiful and invaluable for those with an interest in Alexander in the east and the Greek influence after his conquest.

One last minor item of interest … well, to me anyway. The voiceover on the museum film pronounced Ai Khanum as Ai Hanum, with the "H" being a guttural sound as if the letter is being swallowed and then spit back out again. (Yes, I’m sure there is a word exactly describing this sound, but I wouldn't know how to begin Googling for it! ) At the time I laughed and thought "I've been saying it wrong for years," ... and then the announcer pronounced gymnasium with a hard "g" and completely threw me off! Now, this is a National Geographic production and I doubt that such an error would slip by them, so I'm wondering if they intentionally used pronunciation in the language of origin. Which leads me to ask. Is gymnasium in Greek pronounced with a hard "g"?

Best regards,

[agesilaos]

Yes, in Attic Greek gamma is always a hard g unless it is in a dipthong with another gamma when it is 'ng'. It is also hard in Latin, but unless the commentary actually said 'gymnasioN' it would be a height of pedantry from which even I would shy.

There is some value in using the original language term i.e. 'gymnasion' as the modern equivalents often carry different and misleading baggage. I suspect it is also the current 'trend'.

[agesilaos]

Yes, in Attic Greek gamma is always a hard g unless it is in a dipthong with another gamma when it is 'ng'. It is also hard in Latin, but unless the commentary actually said 'gymnasioN' it would be a height of pedantry from which even I would shy.

There is some value in using the original language term i.e. 'gymnasion' as the modern equivalents often carry different and misleading baggage. I suspect it is also the current 'trend'.

[marcus]

Managed to check out the exhibition a couple of weeks ago. The Metropolitan Museum allocated some relatively spacious rooms for the exhibit and even though there were quite a number of visitors it didn't feel crowded at all.

I am immensely jealous! It's now a case of waiting, and waiting, and waiting, for the expo to come to London. All I have to look forward to in the meantime is Montezuma at the BM - which will have nothing to do with Alexander, unless one remembers AB Bosworth's comparison of Alexander with Cortez ...

ATB

[Paralus]

unless one remembers AB Bosworth's comparison of Alexander with Cortez ...

"We have no descriptions of what it was like to be spitted by the sarisa"... to paraphrase ... as we do descriptions of the lethality of Toledo steel...

[amyntoros]

Yes, in Attic Greek gamma is always a hard g unless it is in a dipthong with another gamma when it is 'ng'. It is also hard in Latin, but unless the commentary actually said 'gymnasioN' it would be a height of pedantry from which even I would shy.

There is some value in using the original language term i.e. 'gymnasion' as the modern equivalents often carry different and misleading baggage. I suspect it is also the current 'trend'.

Interesting ... thanks for posting this. I'm not sure now, but it could be that the word in the commentary was gymnasion rather than gymnasium. I was so thrown by the hard "g" that it's possible I misheard the rest of the word.

Best regards,

[artemisia]

hello to all,
I've got the catalogue and agree with Amyntoros

There are a couple of possible "Alexanders" also: one a bronze "young horse rider" with fairly long hair and an anastole, very similar to other bronzes thought to be Alexander. Interestingly, the catalogue description does not mention Alexander, but the card at the exhibit makes the comparison. Then there's another piece where neither the museum or the catalogue makes any reference to Alexander - a scale weight which "originally may have functioned as a cosmetic jar" and is described as "depicting the bust of a helmeted individual wearing a cuirass, perhaps the god Mars". Well ... the hair under the helmet falls in long curls and has an anastole; the eyes (which once held jewels) are looking upwards; the nose and lips are familiar from other representations of Alexander, and the head is tilted to one side! My first thought on catching sight of this bust was, "Alexander!" and I was quite surprised to see it referred to only as "perhaps" the god Mars. Just goes to show how reticent most archaeologists and museum curators are about suggesting that a find might be an Alexander (quite in contrast to the little piece found recently in Egypt).

wondering why they didn't identify the rider statuette No. 227 as Alexander, because in the previous bibliography it is treated as that (see A. Stewart, Faces of Power, page 423).
Also the scale weight No. 182 is surely an Alexander. I would suggest that also No. 79 is meant to be, but it's in that local syncretistic style, idealised and far from reality as for instance the coins of Aesillas.

There will be an exhibition in Mannheim
Reiss-Engelhorn-Museum
3. October 2009 till 21. February 2010
"Alexander der Grosse und die Öffnung der Welt" (Alexander the Great and the Opening of the World). The catalogue can be ordered in advance from Amazon.

.