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Unanswered Questions of Afghan Archaeology

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Unanswered Questions of Afghan Archaeology R ECLAIMING A FGHANISTAN’ S P AST 1 2 Unanswered Questions of the heartland of this civilization, which sprawled across the vast 3 Asian steppes and has echoes as far away as Susa in western Iran 4 Afghan Archaeology and in the northwest of China. 5 The Soviet invasion in 1978 put an abrupt brake on many promis- • In eastern Afghanistan near Harwa, looters have uncovered rich 6 ing lines of inquiry in Afghanistan. Here are a few of the areas re- sites dating from the Buddhist kingdoms in the early centuries A.D. 7 searchers hope to revisit with their new access: Border guards recently intercepted a host of Buddhist objects from 8 • At the time of the Soviet invasion, Viktor Sarianidi of Moscow’s the 2nd to 5th centuries A.D., and their source was traced to a remote 9 Institute of Archaeology, among others, had just found intriguing ev- part of Logar Province southeast of Kabul. Earlier this fall, archaeolo- 10 idence of substantial settlements in the coun- gist Giovanni Verardi of the University of Rome visited the site, which 11 try’s north, near the Amu Darya River— he says is full of imposing and well-preserved two-story buildings, 12 the ancient Oxus—during the 3rd mil- towers, and sacred precincts. Although looters—who some officials 13 lennium B.C. Further digging in say were working with the blessing of the Taliban—have dug pas- 14 Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan re- sageways through the mound, causing extensive damage,Verardi says 15 vealed similar patterns. When that much remains to be excavated. “It is an enormous site, covering 16 those republics became inde- an entire valley of around 30 square kilometers,” says Jim Williams of pendent in the early 1990s, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization more researchers rushed in to (UNESCO), who recently visited the area. examine the new culture, Two soldiers have been dispatched by the provincial governor to which was awkwardly dubbed guard the vast site, but Verardi notes that they likely will have little ef- the Bactrian-Margiana Archae- fect. The local area is under control of what he calls a “powerful per- 17 ological Complex. (Bactria is in sonage,” a euphemism here for an opium smuggler with a private 18 modern Afghanistan, Margiana army. Legal digs here would face other hurdles, such as the extreme 19 in today’s Turkmenistan.) isolation of the site, adds Verardi. John Francis of the National Geo- 20 With a distinctive architec- graphic Society in Washington, D.C., says that his organization has 21 ture of high walls and turrets, intri- asked Verardi to submit a research proposal for site excavation. 22 cate metal work, cylinder • Other sites that have come to light through looting, according to 23 Lost and found. Police recovered seals, and ceramics, this com- Williams, include one north of Kabul near Kapisa, once the center of a 24 this Buddhist head looted from a plex “had everything that powerful kingdom led by Kanishka. Kanishka is credited with trans- on March 12, 2012 25 vast site near Harwa. Mesopotamia had except lit- forming Buddhism, which was dying in India, into a dynamic religion 26 eracy,” says Harvard Universi- centered on the figure of the Buddha himself, who previously had 27 ty archaeologist C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky. During its heyday from been represented by symbols such as a wheel. The revitalized Bud- 28 about 2200 B.C. until 1700 B.C., “this really was at the level of civ- dhism spread rapidly north and east on the Silk Road to China and 29 ilization,” he adds. Japan. How this took place, and in what political context, is still not 30 Some Russian researchers believe that the settlements were the well understood. By the 5th century A.D., these Buddhist Afghan king- 31 source of one or maybe two waves of Aryan invasions of India, al- doms were destroyed by Hindu incursions from the east and by Arab 32 though many scholars are skeptical of this theory. Further excava- armies carrying their new creed of Islam. Scholars are excited about 33 tions in Afghanistan could provide critical data and even pinpoint the prospect of new data on this era. –A.L. www.sciencemag.org 34 35 36 tions. Once a thriving Buddhist center, it later Archaeological sites outside the large 37 became the capital of the 11th century Ghaz- cities have also been badly pillaged, says 38 navid kingdom—which first took Islam to A. Wasey Feroozi, director of the Institute of 39 India—and then a ruin after Genghis Khan Archaeology, which is now housed in a 40 passed through. Ghazni officials said that the Kabul villa. “Our highest priority is to stop Downloaded from 41 museum here was badly looted, and one offi- illegal excavations in Afghanistan,” he says. 42 cial unwrapped a checkered kaffiyah kept in “Many important sites—even in Kabul 43 his desk drawer to show the jumbled pieces Province—in the last decade have been ille- 44 of an ancient terra-cotta Buddha. But a few gally excavated by [military] commanders 45 artifacts escaped the destruction. Giovanni with the cooperation of some foreigners.” 46 Verardi, an archaeologist at the University of For example, a rich Buddhist site outside 47 Rome, gained access to the locked museum Ghazni called Tepe Sardar was shorn of its 48 building for several weeks in September and exposed buddhas and monastery remains by 49 discovered numerous boxes with intact Bud- the Taliban, and the hill was turned into a 50 dhist sculpture in the chaotic mess. military post with machine-gun emplace- 51 Other museums—such as Balkh in the ments. Guards remain, although the Ghazni 52 north and Jalalabad in the east—were also governor maintains that the current soldiers 53 looted, Afghan and Western sources say. are there to protect the site from looters. 54 But some material, as in Ghazni, will Such protection is rare. Ai Khanum—a 55 doubtless reemerge. Some cultural heritage principal city of the Bactrian empire, which 56 officials “are very afraid of telling people arose after Alexander—has been almost 57 of the real situation,” explains Verardi. completely annihilated by looters. “Even the 58 “They are suspicious and fear the mullahs” shards were destroyed” when looters stole 59 who might object to exhibition of human the shelves they were stored on, says Bertille Hard place. The ministry’s Mohammad Qadeer 60 and animal forms. Lyonnet, a CNRS archaeologist in Paris who Qadrdan says foreign support is slow in coming. CHAPUIS PATRICK/GAMMA;CREDITS: A. BOTTOM) TO (TOP LAWLER 1198 8 NOVEMBER 2002 VOL 298 SCIENCE www.sciencemag.org.
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