The decree by the Taliban Chief Mullah Omar in 2000 triggered what was supposed to be the destruction of all non-Islamic art and tombs in Afghanistan, the horrendous results of which are well known. Among the victims were assumed to be the amazing 2000 year old gold jewellery from Tillia Tepe, as well as several other Afghan treasures. The gold hoard from Tillia Tepe (a necropolis in northern Afghanistan near the Turkmenistan border), was excavated by a joint Russian-Afghan expedition in 1978, and brought to light a second time in 2004 when it was revealed that it had been prevented from being melted down by the extraordinarily courageous act of concealing it in the vaults of the Central Bank of Afghanistan. Nothing was missing.
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