In1979, just before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, a struggling archaeologist made a spectacular find. He found huge piles of gold in the graves of nomads in Northern Afghanistan.
The burials were over four thousand years old, dating from the second and third millennia B.C.
It would be a watershed moment for the archaeologist, Viktor Sarianidi, whose tireless efforts for three decades have helped us to know about a fifth river civilization of the Ancient world.
This incredible yet lesser-known civilization is called the Oxus Civilization. It was referred to as the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex(BMAC) in the former Soviet Union.