Introduction

“It may be superfluous to dwell upon the importance of the Begram collections; in-dependently of the revelation of unknown kings and dynasties, they impart great positive knowledge, and open a wide field for speculation and inquiry on the very material subjects of the languages and religions prevailing in Central Asia during the dark periods of its history.”

(Charles Masson, 1842)

The ruins of an ancient town situated near modern Begram [1] , Afghanistan, approximately 50 miles north-east of Kabul, first came to be known among modern scholars through the reports of the 19th century explorer Charles Masson who journeyed through Afghanistan on the track of Alexander the Great's route of conquest.  Masson's 1830’s discovery of ancient coins on the plains where the Ghurband and Panjshir rivers meet, set off substantial though unsystematic coin exploring near Begram through the remainder of the 19th century.  Despite the sense expressed in his memoirs that the coins hinted at a “wide field of inquiry”, Masson could have no idea that approximately one hundred years after his first explorations at Begram, the ancient ruins there would reveal a remarkable trove of antiquities which have their origins in China, the Indian subcontinent, Rome and Central Asia, the significance of which indeed has become  ‘superfluous to dwell upon’.

Despite Masson’s mid-19th century report of the existence of ancient ruins at Begram, it was not until the 1920s that organized archaeological attention was paid directly to the site.   It was then that A. Foucher, director of the French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan, identified the site at Begram as ancient Kapisi [2] , believed to be a summer capital and residence of the Kushan emperors in the 1st to 3rd centuries CE.  Foucher based this identification primarily on the records of the Chinese pilgrim Hsüan-tsang, who is thought to have traveled through the area in the 7th century CE.  Although Foucher's report occasioned significant interest in Begram, save for preliminary surveys by J. Hackin (1924) and J. Barthoux (1925), serious excavations did not take place there until 1936 under direction of J. Carl and J. Meunié. This was the first of a number of excavations which took place over the next decade and which resulted in the uncovering of a large urban area consisting of two fortified sets of structures:  in the north, the more ancient  'Old Royal City', also known by its local name the Burj-i 'Abdullah; and to the south, what was believed to be the more recent 'New Royal City’.  Since 1946, however, no major excavations have taken place [3] . The fame of the site at Begram rests on the 1937 and 1939 discovery, under the direction of J. Hackin, of a large number of extraordinary artifacts in two sealed-off rooms in that part of the 'New Royal City' referred to by the excavators as the 'Palace', the construction of which dates to the 1st century CE Kushan period and the destruction of which, according to some scholars, came with a Sasanian invasion in the mid-3rd century CE.  These objects consisted of numerous pieces which were as diverse as their places of origin: glassware, bronzes, plaster medallions, porphyry and alabaster objects from the Graeco-Roman world; fragments of Chinese lacquer boxes and bowls; and Indianesque carved ivory and bone objects. Initial efforts at dating the objects placed several pieces two or three centuries apart, leading some scholars to believe they had been gathered over several centuries. This dating, abetted by the operating assumption that they had been discovered in a royal ‘palace’, led the excavators and most subsequent scholars to refer to the artifacts as a whole as a ‘treasure’ or royal hoard.     

When I first came upon Begram materials as a beginning graduate student at the University of Leiden, Netherlands, I was struck by the enormous wealth for study presented by the site:  a rare opportunity not only to examine the region's official trade in commodities but also to view elements of indirect cultural exchange in the region through a stylistic analysis of the ivory and bone objects. I was also struck by the paucity of work that had been done on the finds. Aside from the two excavation reports, subsequent studies focused only on specific parts of the finds. In particular, those studies that concerned themselves with the ivory and bone objects focused, in the main, on issues of chronology and the general placement of the pieces within the art of India. And in the past quarter century, no significant study at all has been published with regard to the site or the finds.

My initial research on the site of Begram culminated in a Doctorandus thesis submitted to the University of Leiden, The Netherlands (1992), which was primarily a reexamination of previous research done on the site. In the early stages of research, I considered a focus on the entire site, since it is my belief that in the case of Begram, art historical and in situ archaeological research should be combined for a fuller understanding of the nature of the settlement and of the objects uncovered within. However, since further on-site archaeological research and a close examination of many of the finds has been made impossible by the present political situation in Afghanistan, I have concentrated my research on the ivory and bone objects discovered at the site of Begram. Nonetheless, within this focus, I have frequently drawn upon evidence provided by the other types of archaeological material from Begram.

The collection of ivory and bone carvings discovered at Begram is among the largest finds of such objects in South and Central Asia, and in particular presents an unmatched number of artifacts to add to the scarce finds of ivory and bone objects from the Indian cultural sphere. Moreover, with the depiction in many of the objects of the ‘private’ domains of women, the ivory and bone pieces offer a rare glimpse of the renderings in art of quotidian life of the period. Further, the styles and motifs used in the decoration of the carvings are a testament to the eclecticism of the Kushan period. Clearly belonging to the Indian artistic sphere, they nonetheless demonstrate the characteristics of what has come to be referred to as ‘Silk Road Art’: a commingling of various artistic traditions, most notably, as in the case of Begram, Iranian, Greek and Roman, and Indian. Finally, the ivory and bone carvings provide an opportunity for scholars to investigate, and perhaps to shift, the existing parameters of the study of ancient South and Central Asian art: the Begram ivory and bone objects clearly suggest that different styles and carving techniques do not necessarily develop in a chronologically linear fashion but may indeed occur simultaneously, either in parallel traditions or within the same artistic sphere. And the argument that some of these ivory and bone objects could have been carved by itinerant artisans may provide a further opportunity to reconsider some of the geographical and historical classifications which have come to delimit the various categories of South and Central Asian art.

From the outset it should be noted that this study of the ivory and bone objects perforce remains incomplete because it has not been possible to examine first hand the Begram objects in the Kabul Museum in Afghanistan. However, the remainder of the objects were accessible in Musée Guimet in Paris and present a full cross-section of the various categories of the entire corpus of material [4] .  Moreover, a number of ivory and bone objects in Musée Guimet the photographs of which have not previously been published have been identified and are included in the present study. And as to those objects, which have not been examined in person, the two original excavation reports included photographs of approximately half the finds now located in both museums [5] . This work has been organized into two volumes. Volume I, the text, which includes non- Begram ivory and bone illustrations; and Volume II, the catalogue, which presents an inventory of the ivory and bone finds [6] in new categories and classifications (see Introduction to Volume II) and harbors the plates to the catalogue of ivory and bone carvings [7] . The separation of text and catalogue into two volumes was intended to permit the latter to be considered an independently accessible work.                                  

Volume I presents and analyzes the various types of art historical and archaeological evidence regarding the objects, culminating in a new hypothesis that the ivory and bone carvings from Begram are contemporaneous, and may have formed part of a commercial stock. To better understand the nature of the Begram finds in general, and the ivory and bone objects in particular, it is important to begin with an assessment of the geographical and historical setting of the site at Begram. Thus Chapter 1 introduces the general context of the site at Begram and examines both the immediate vicinity of the site and its particular location at the junction of various Silk Road trade routes. It also places the settlement's blossoming within the expansion of the Kushan Empire’s trade-based economy.  In this regard, it is propounded that the early identification of the site – as Kapisi, ancient capital and residence of the Kushan rulers -- may not be as certain as its proponents have suggested, raising the related question of what effects this identification may have had on interpretations of the finds.  In addition, this initial chapter presents a brief overview of the history of archaeological exploration at the site and describes much of the archaeological evidence uncovered, including the variety of objects which were part of the so-called Treasure.

Lastly, Chapter 1 summarizes the previous arguments pertaining to the nature of the settlement, identified as a royal city, and to the finds therein, seen as a royal treasure. This early identification of the site as a royal capital seems to have had a significant effect on the excavators' interpretations of the ivory and bone carvings.  In Chapter 2, the methodologies of discovery, preservation and reconstruction of the ivory and bone objects, and the implications of such methodologies, are outlined and analyzed.  Further, an attempt is made to source the bone and ivory and to identify the different social meanings of bone and ivory respectively, differences which directly relate to the nature of the finds. Also, Chapter 2 presents an overview of the various carving techniques and styles, and addresses the role, to this point neglected in the literature, that artisans may have played in determining the style in which the objects were created, as evinced by the variety of carving techniques and subject matter.  In this connection, the positions that artisans may have taken in a market economy, as opposed to one based on patronage, is explored.

The artist’s contribution to the design contents of the objects is further addressed in Chapter 3, which outlines the subject matter of the carvings.  Chapter 3 is primarily descriptive in nature, with motifs broadly organized within three categories: animate, inanimate, and auspicious symbols.  Where warranted, motifs are traced to their places of origin to demonstrate the eclectic nature of the art that evolved along ancient trading routes in Central Asia.  The last section of Chapter 3 focuses on the subject matter of the ivory and bone carvings.

Chapter 4 traces the relation of the ivory and bone objects from Begram to the analogous art of the ancient world, by way of similar ivory finds in Central Asia, South Asia, and Europe, and by comparison with the arts of Mathura, Sañci and Gandhara. Further, Chapter 4 reexamines the long-standing view that the ivory and bone objects clearly have their place of origins within Indian art of Mathura and Sañci and were transported to Begram along the trade routes.  As an expansion upon that view, it is proposed that much of the stylistic forms of the ivory and bone objects could have resulted from itinerant artisans and merchandise introducing new motifs as they moved through the region. It is argued that while many of the Begram motifs do have their place in the art of India, such as Mathura and Sañci, other motifs point instead to either a Gandharan (Pakistan and Afghanistan) or Central Asian origin.

The importance of a stylistic analysis for the chronology of the objects is discussed in Chapter 5.  In addition to a summary of the initial interpretations of the finds as non-contemporaneous, it is propounded that comparative materials for the bone and ivory, plus the dating of the other two categories of finds --Roman and Chinese -- contribute to a hypothesis that the objects instead should be dated contemporaneously.       

Finally, Chapter 6 summarizes previous arguments as to the nature of the settlement at Begram in general, and as to the ivory and bone objects in particular, and places these arguments in their historical and theoretical setting.  In addition, these initial interpretations -- royal city, royal palace, royal hoard -- are reconsidered and an attempt is made to view Begram and its ivory and bone objects in a different light, based on more recent research into the finds.  Chapter 6 proposes contemporary dates for all the objects, examines a new theory concerning the date of, and the purpose for, concealment of the objects, and further expounds on the concept of the itinerant artisan and on the movement of artistic forms, styles and techniques along the ancient Central Asian components of the Silk Roads.

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