We’re in the lands beside the River Oxus. It is the Bronze Age. The
Kushan Period in the early centuries AD. The land of the Silk Road
trade network.
There is a mound nearby under which there lies a settlement under
which there lies a burial site. We shoot forward with a speed that
can only be achieved by the written word… and we now find ourselves
in the late 1980’s. A Russian archeologist is excavating the
settlement. His name is Victor Sarianidi. He comes upon six burials.
The team works feverishly. They shovel and dig and excavate their
tuchises off. The reason for the rush?.. Get to the grave- crammed
gold treasures and recover and remove before it’s too late… before
the grave robbers and treasure seekers and ruthless plunderers get
their mitts on the stuff. The loot is not theirs. It’s ours. Ours…
you hear?
The six humans–men and woman–were buried in deep shafts and covered
with wooden roofs. And inside these simple holes in the ground there
resided enormous items of gold. 20,000 items in all… most of it
gold. Who woulda thunk it?
Headdresses and pendants and rings and earrings and weapons of gold
and ivory. And… of course… a golden chariot. This last one is a
stunner. Four golden horses drawing two golden men standing in a
golden chariot.
Where were they off to? Who knows. Dressed in what appears to be
their finest… perhaps they were off to a ball. Or the local pool
hall perhaps… to have a go at it with the local wenches. Perhaps
they were going to get some canolis at the local patisserie.
Conjecture ain’t no easy thang. I leave it for you to tell me where
they were going in this stunner of a vehicle of theirs.
So… you wanna see?
For those of you who are new to this thing called Tidbits…may I
direct you to my home page at www.tyler-adam.com where you will
scroll down the left side menu till you get to the area that says
Current Tidbits… and you will see represented on our pages an image
of a golden chariot dating back to the Kushan rulers and found within
one of six burials in the late 1980’s
And there ya have it.
That’s it for this week folks.
Catch you all next week.
Benjamin Mark