The collection represents the most complete groupings of practically all kind of bronze and brass items found in Khurasan and Mavara al-Nahr/Transoxiana from the 9th to the beginning of 13th centuries.
For a long period, the products of pre-Mongol artistic metal of Khurasan and Transoxiana were considered together and did not differ from each other. Archaeological excavations are especially important for studying metalwork, since they make it possible to localize more accurately objects held in dozens of museums and private collections worldwide and known as “Khurasanian”. An important discovery was made in 1987 of a large hoard of bronze objects at the archaeological site of Budrach, the ruins of the medieval city of Saghaniyan, the capital of the eponymous principality.
The site is located in Surkhandarya Province’s Denov District in Uzbekistan. It has been studied sporadically by the Uzbekistan Art Research Expedition of the Institute of Art Studies (Tashkent).
The Budrach hoard is dated to the middle of 11th century. Its discovery indicates that the city of Saghaniyan was a production center of bronze metalwork. Objects from the hoard make it possible to link a great number of pieces in museum holdings, including the Bumiller Collection, to the territory of Southern Uzbekistan.
You can learn more about the topic in the book-album "Collections of the Federal Republic of Germany" (volume XI) in the series "Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan in the World Collections".
The main sponsor of the project is the oilfield services company Eriell-Group.