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From time to time this magazine has railed at scholars who failed to make available to the public important artifacts and inscriptions. Indeed, that was the entire thrust of our effort to free the Dead Sea Scrolls from the scholars who then controlled them.
Collectors are usually different. Important collectors such as Shlomo Moussaieff of London and Israel, Martin Schøyen of Norway and David Jeselsohn of Switzerland have generously made available for publication items in their collections.
Only in the rare case does a collector withhold from the public an important part of his collection. The matter involved here is even stranger because the collector has commissioned two of the most prominent scholars in Israel to write a book about these important inscriptions. Stranger still, this collector is himself a scholar of some repute.
London collector and scholar Nasser David Khalili acquired this collection of inscriptions from several local antiquities dealers (especially the late Trianos Gagos) more than a decade ago. The inscriptions are in Aramaic and come from ancient Bactria (probably from modern Afghanistan). The collection consists of 30 commercial documents and letters written on leather and 18 inscribed wooden sticks that served as tallies to the documents. The inscriptions are dated and mostly document debts and receipt of goods. They date from the late fifth century B.C.E. but mainly from the mid-to-late fourth century B.C.E., the time of the Persian (Achaemenid) empire and extending into the seventh year of Alexander the Great’s rule after he captured the territory.
Several of the documents are addressed to one Bagavant, who is designated paḥta governor (like Nehemiah); they come from the governor’s superior, most probably the satrap of Bactria. The tone of the communications is one of command: “Do not act in a contrary manner!” There is none of the polite verbiage often found in ancient communications. In one case Bagavant is sharply reprimanded—for imposing improper taxes on camel-keepers in the satrap’s service.
The wooden tallies are short sticks that have been cut in two, forming a flat surface on which the names of the sender and recipient are recorded—duplicate accounts, one for each! The shipments include sheep, camels, chickens, grain, wine and spices, among other commodities.
Soon after he acquired the collection, Khalili engaged two leading Israeli experts, Joseph Naveh and Shaul Shaked, to write a scholarly book about these objects. Their book has been written and was completed in 2004. It has even been set in type. It is titled Ancient Aramaic Documents from Bactria. But Khalili won’t allow the book to be published and made available to other scholars and the public.
According to rumor, he won’t allow the book to be published until he can arrange a museum exhibit of the material. I thought it could be helpful if I tried to arrange for such an exhibit. I called Batya Borowski, whose late husband, Elie Borowski, had founded the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem, which specializes in artifacts and inscriptions from outside Israel. It was Elie’s own collection that formed the basis of the museum. Batya served as museum director for many years after Elie’s death. It turned out, however, that I was not the first to think of this idea. Batya had already been in contact with Khalili. She was quite eager to have the exhibit at her museum. But it was difficult to communicate with Khalili and even more difficult to make any arrangements with him for an exhibit.
Like many people with his level of enormous knowledge, enormous wealth and enormous connoisseurship, Khalili is idiosyncratic. He is extremely difficult to reach. He keeps a bevy of acolytes and sycophants around him that provides an impenetrable wall. He does not respond easily to efforts to reach him.
And like many senior scholars, Naveh and Shaked are old men with some of the conditions that go with that status. They are anxious to see their work published. The book was written years ago. But there is nothing they can do. And Khalili remains essentially incommunicado.—H.S.
From time to time this magazine has railed at scholars who failed to make available to the public important artifacts and inscriptions. Indeed, that was the entire thrust of our effort to free the Dead Sea Scrolls from the scholars who then controlled them.
