In 1978, on windswept plains of northern Afghanistan, archaeologists unearthed tombs of ancient nomads that had been sealed for two thousand years and discovered an extraordinary trove: some 22,000 individual pieces of gold buried with the remains of six Bactrian nomads. Within months of this discovery at Tillya Tepe, a Soviet invasion isolated Afghanistan, and the so-called Bactrian Hoard disappeared into legend once more.

Twenty-five years later, in 2003, Afghan president Hamid Karzai surprised the world with his announcement that the priceless artifacts had been located intact. They had been rescued, along with other masterpieces from the National Museum of Afghanistan, Kabul, and protected in the intervening years of turmoil by a group of selfless Afghan heroes who have come to be known as the “the key holders”—curators and guards of the museum. Gold items from the Bactrian cache and many other ancient Afghan works of art are explored in this book, published to accompany the exhibition of the treasures.