Traces of Ancient Uzbekistan

Landlocked at the center of Central Asia, hidden behind the Iron Curtain as part of the Soviet Union, then ruled by a former Communist Party boss for a quarter-century until 2016, Uzbekistan is largely unknown in the West today. A sweeping new exhibition in Berlin aims to change that. Following outreach by Uzbekistan’s current government in late 2018, negotiations that included a state visit to Tashkent by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and years of planning, “Archaeological Treasures of Uzbekistan: From Alexander the Great to the Kushan Empire” will open in two venues on Berlin’s Museum Island on May 6.

The show includes about 350 objects—many of which have never been shown publicly in Uzbekistan, let alone outside the country—covering a period of eight centuries, from the 4th century B.C. to the 4th century A.D. Manfred Nawroth, a senior curator at the State Museums in Berlin who organized the exhibition, explained that the time span made it possible to spotlight both an extraordinarily important era in the region’s history, when Alexander’s conquest led to a pronounced Greek influence in Central Asia, and the visually enchanting artifacts of the area’s early Buddhist culture.