Fold­ing crown Tillya Tepe Tomb VI„ first cen­tury A.D. Gold 45.0 x 13.0 cm (17–3/4 x 5–1/8 in.) National Museum of Afghanistan, Kabul Photo: © musée Guimet / Thierry Ollivier

If are vis­it­ing New York City this sum­mer, please make sure you carve out time to see this exhi­bi­tion. I attended the press pre­view for the show, which opens to the pub­lic on June 23^rd and will remain at the museum until Sep­tem­ber 20, 2009, and was com­pletely blown away by the grandeur and sur­vival of these ancient exam­ples of gold­smithing, archi­tec­ture, and the dec­o­ra­tive arts. Of course my focus was the jew­elry and gold work, how­ever all the arti­facts were so com­pelling that I found myself walk­ing through the halls twice; the glass ewers, vases, and bowls are exquis­itely pro­duced and utterly breathtaking.

Afghanistan is a land locked coun­try that is bor­dered by Pak­istan to the south, Iran to the east, Turk­menistan, Uzbek­istan, and Tajik­stand to the north, and China to the north­east. Con­nect­ing south and cen­tral Asia and the Mid­dle East, Afghanistan’s cul­tural his­tory is lay­ered like the pen­ti­mento images ris­ing to the sur­face through the trans­parency of aged oil paint. The mer­chant trade that formed the metaphoric Silk Road, and its cen­ter was Afghanistan, was a cross­roads where car­a­vans and cul­tures met and blended. Influ­ences from ancient Greece, Rome, India, Eqypt, and China are found in these cul­tural remnants.

The daz­zle in these orna­ments is not sim­ply in their mag­nif­i­cence, but also in the deter­mi­na­tion of twenty peo­ple, whose com­pen­sa­tion at the museum in Kabul was, to say the least, nowhere near com­men­su­rate with the value that these objects could bring if sold qui­etly. And yet, they hid them, pre­served them, and most impor­tantly, kept them out of the hands of the those who would plun­der these trea­sures for incon­ceiv­able gain.

For these rea­sons, and for the sheer joy of the see­ing ancient crafts­man­ship you will not likely expe­ri­ence again, I whole­heart­edly encour­age you to make an after­noon of it and see the show. As the icing to the cake of this event, jew­elry designer Gurhan Orhan has devel­oped a col­lec­tion of high-end pieces for the museum. I will dis­cuss a choice few in The Jew­elry Stylist…

Neck­lace Tillya Tepe Tomb VI, first cen­tury A.D. Gold with gran­u­la­tion and turquoise Diam. of the beads 2.8 x 2.5 cm (1–1/8 x 1 in.) National Museum of Afghanistan, Kabul Photo: © musée Guimet / Thierry Ollivier

Pair of bracelets in the shape of antelopes Tillya Tepe Tomb II, first cen­tury A.D. Gold with turquoise and car­nelian 8.5 x 6.3 cm (3–3/8 x 2–1/2 in.) National Museum of Afghanistan, Kabul Photo: © musée Guimet / Thierry Ollivier

Belt Tillya Tepe Tomb IV, “Chieftain’s Bur­ial,” first cen­tury A.D. Gold 97.5 x 2.9 cm (38–3/8 x 1–1/8 in.) National Museum of Afghanistan, Kabul Photo: © musée Guimet / Thierry Ollivier 134 Folding