Cauldron. Mound of Solokha. 5th century BC / State Hermitage Museum. Saint-Petersburg
In 1993 a resident of Mukhammadi village in the Payariq district in the Samarqand Region of Uzbekistan, Anvar Shagdarov, unearthed an old kazan (cauldron) whilst digging a canal. This cauldron then faithfully served his family for three decades. Fortunately, this region is known not only for the Registan Square, the Gur-e-Amir Mausoleum, or silk carpets but also for its Samarqand Pilaf, which is cooked over an open fire and only in a kazan. It would have likely continued to serve his family, passing down from generation to generation, if not for the interest of representatives from the Agency for Cultural Heritage of Uzbekistan last year.