The E-Sylum:  Volume 7, Number 3, January 18, 2004, Article 22

HIDDEN GOLD TREASURES REDISCOVERED

  Arthur Shippee forward the following story about
  the remarkable survival of the Iraqi Nimrud Gold
  hoard and the Afghani Bactrian horde.  The story
  came from an Australian source, thanks to Explorator,
  a weekly notice of classics, history, archaeology news
  on the net.  Non-numismatic, but fascinating nonetheless.
  I recommend reading the original article.  Here are
  some excerpts:

  "There were many features common to both the Iraqi
  campaign and the Afghan conflict: American hi-tech weaponry,
  vigorous anti-war protests all over the world, the sudden
  collapse of opposition forces ? and, less obviously,
  archaeological catastrophe.

  Great publicity was given to the looting of the Baghdad and
  Kabul museums, and also to the criminal destruction of the
  Buddhas of Bamiyan by the Taliban.

  Less attention has been given to the unexpected reappearance
  a few months ago of two fabulous hoards of ancient golden
  objects with oddly similar histories. Both have been compared
  with the objects found in the tomb of Tutankhamen; neither
  has ever been seen, except very briefly.

  In each case, the initial rediscovery was made just before the
  fog of war descended and the treasures were hidden away
  again, only to re-emerge in circumstances of Tintin-like
  daringdo."

  IN IRAQ:
  "On August 2, 1990, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, the
  United States took military action (Desert Storm) early in
  1991, and the gold vanished from view into the most secure
  vault of the Iraqi Central Bank, which was then flooded with
  sewage.

  The treasure was next seen last summer, after a team of Iraqi
  investigators, assisted by National Geographic, had pumped
  out two million litres of water (a process that required three
  pumps operating for three weeks). The Nimrud finds were in
  three boxes with intact seals, exactly where they had been
  left."

  IN AFGHANISTAN:
  "The current issue of The Economist, on the other hand,
  reports that although the vault was indeed sealed, it had been
  done by the director of the bank having deliberately broken
  his key in the lock, thus jamming it.

  As coalition troops were poised to take Kabul in 2002,
  Taliban officials had tried in vain to enter the vault. What
  they could not have known is that although the gold bars
  were in the vault, the Bactrian treasures were, in fact,
  stored in a room upstairs, in a number of ordinary travel
   trunks underneath bags containing old coins.

  The Taliban had walked straight past the treasure. But four
  months ago, Hamid Karzai, the new President of Afghanistan,
  and a number of his ministers inspected the vault, which had
  finally been opened by a local locksmith, and announced to
  the world that everything was safe.  It appears that they did
  not actually see the Bactrian gold (as they claimed) but even
  so, according to The Economist, it is apparently intact."

  To read the full story, see:
  http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/01/13/1073877824063.html

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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