NEH Connect! - June 2004

The New York Times (6/24/04) reported that a National Endowment fir the Humanities grant to the National Geographic Society supported the recently completed work of Prof. Fred Hiebert, who collaborated with Afghan scholars and museum officials in documenting and cataloguing Afghanistan’s famed collection of Bactrian gold. Widely believed to have been lost, stolen, or melted down, the recently rediscovered collection includes 2,000-year-old jewelry, funeral ornaments, and other priceless pieces representing the cultural history of Afghanistan. RH: This brings up Bactria, a geographic name now forgotten. It corresponds to the northern section of Afghanistan. Bactra, a small town in northern Afghanistan now called Balkh, was once an important market town linking East amd West. It was the center of an independent Greek kingdom which struck fine Greek coins. The two humped camel is known as a Bactrian camel because it was an important market for them- Recalling its great past, we must conclude Sic transit gloria mundi.