This sculpture likely depicts a supervisor of Greek athletics. It was unearthed in Afghanistan.

PHOTOS BY THIERRY OLLIVIER/MUSEE GUIMET: A detailed ivory statuette of a woman probably adorned a piece of furniture in the 1st or 2nd century.

by NEELY TUCKER; The Washington Post

You can go see Indiana Jones and the temple of whatever if you like, but it’s probably not going to be as good as the Bactrian Gold and the Secret of Tillya Tepe.

The former is at any multiplex. The latter is at only the National Gallery of Art.

It’s one of those ripping good yarns of yesteryear, the kind you used to see on cliffhanger serials before the main feature. This one is set in a dusty corner of Afghanistan. It’s about ancient art, looters, gravediggers, the Russians, the French, the Taliban, an invasion or three, civil war, the Silk Road, the Dragon Master and 22,607 pieces of gold and ivory and lapis and turquoise. There’s a surprising role played by pink Chinese toilet paper and six mysterious safes in a sealed underground vault at the presidential compound.

Read the rest here.