A nomad chief and five women were buried with 20,000 gold objects in Afghanistan; keyholders hid the hoard for 14 years, and in 2021 it went out of sight again

In 1978 a Soviet-Afghan team led by Viktor Sarianidi excavated six burial mounds at Tillya Tepe, the "Golden Hill," in northern Afghanistan. They held five women and one man, described as a nomadic royal and five of his wives. The graves held about 20,600 ornaments, coins and other objects of gold, silver and ivory. The man was buried with an Indian gold coin, a gold belt and decorated daggers. The Soviet invasion followed. The hoard was sealed in a bank vault in Kabul. Its keys were given to a small number of keyholders whose names were kept secret. The hoard was thought lost through the civil war and Taliban rule. Taliban officials beat vault staff to make them reveal the code, and the staff refused. On 29 August 2003, with President Hamid Karzai present, the vault was opened. "Fortunately the gold exists," Karzai said. From December 2006 the hoard toured museums in Europe, North America, Australia and Asia until 2020. It was shown at the presidential palace in February 2021. The Taliban took Kabul that August. In September 2021 a Taliban culture official said moving it abroad would be "a treason against Afghanistan." Its location has not been publicly confirmed^†.