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The ancient city of Kapisa—modern Bagram, Afghanistan—has always straddled the East-West divide. The city was destroyed by Cyrus, rebuilt by Darius and fortified by Alexander the Great, earning it the distinction of “Alexandria of the Caucasus.” By the first century A.D., it was the summer capital of the Kushans, whose empire had its roots to the east, in China. Bagram’s archaeological record reflects the city’s role as an important trading post between the Roman, Persian, Chinese and Indian peoples. One of 22 such items discovered in the ruins of a monumental building in Bagram, this first-century glass, fish-shaped flask […]