June 2011, Daily News

Saving Afghanistan's Archaeological Treasures

By Dan McLerran   Tue, Aug 02, 2011

Not long ago, the site was the backdrop for an Al Queda training camp. That camp is now gone, but the site still lies within an area considered to be a major transit route for insurgents infiltrating from nearby Pakistan. Today, archaeologists are racing against time to save a treasure of immeasurable significance to the cultural interests of war-ravaged Afghanistan and, by extension, the world. Not everything can be salvaged, but what archaeologists and other specialists are thus far recovering promises to represent a cultural heritage that will do enormous credit to a country that, until now, has not been prominently depicted on the archaeological map of the world.

Mes Aynak (translated "little copper well"), lies approximately 25 miles southeast of Kabul in Logar Province. It is located within a geographically barren region, but anciently it was a cultural crossroads of Buddhism along the ancient Silk Road that connected Asia and the Mediterranean Sea. Today it is the scene of a concerted 3-year effort under the auspices of Afghanistan's National Institute of Archaeology and the Délégation Archaéologique Francaise to excavate and recover the remains of a complex of Buddhist monastery ruins and stuppas before the site is turned over to the China Metallurgical Group Corp, a mining company backed by the government of China. The company will be mining the area for its rich copper deposits. It is sure to afford the country of Afghanistan an economic boost, but at the expense of a cultural loss that cannot be measured in monetary terms.

It is now thought to be the largest archaeological excavation in the world. Archaeologists, specialists and laborers combined number about 1,000, and the operations are being guarded by a force of 1,600 soldiers. The excavation team has thus far recovered part of a monastic compound, including storerooms, monks' cells and a vaulted chapel; hallways and rooms with frescoed and painted walls that surround stone and clay statues of reclining and standing Buddhas; remains of stuppas; and one ancient wooden Buddha, a rare find, given the material.  Although relatively little has been excavated and recovered thus far, with the help of this small army of excavators archaeologists hope to document much of the site and remove as many of the stuppas and statues as possible so that they can be stored and at least a portion of them exhibited for the Afghan people and the visiting world public and scholars. They plan to house the exhibited artifacts in the National Museum in Kabul or a future local museum built near the site. The rest of the site, including a large 262-by-131-foot Buddhist temple with red and black wall paintings, may have to remain without relocation.  The temple, like other structures at the site, is made of mudbrick and schist and is therefore nearly impossible to remove and relocate intact.        

Already, many of the most important finds recovered to date have been displayed at an exhibition in the National Museum. Entitled "Along the Silk Road: Recent Excavations from Mes Aynak", it features 70 items, including the 5th century C.E. wooden Buddha, Buddha heads of clay and plaster, gold and silver coins and a Bodhisattva statue dated to the 3rd century C.E. 

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One of the most precious artifacts in the newly opened "Along the Silk Road - Recent Excavations from Mes Aynak" exhibit at the Afghanistan National Museum in Kabul, Afghanistan on Tuesday, March 15, 2011. (S.K. Vemmer/Department of State)  -- Courtesy U.S. Embassy, Kabul, Afghanistan. Flickr

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As significant as the Mes Aynak site is, however, it is not the only treasure in Afghanistan that has drawn the recent attention of world media. The world was shocked in 2001 when the Taliban had dynamited the two 6th century monumental statues of the Buddhas of Bamiyan, located in the Bamyan valley of central Afghanistan and, like Mes Aynak, also located historically along the ancient Silk Road trading route. Standing imposingly at between 544 and 599 feet and 591 and 644 feet high respectively, they were carved out of sandstone cliffs, with details created in a mud-straw mix and coated with stucco. For their time, like Mes Aynak, they represented the classic style of Gandharan Buddhist art as propagated by the Kushan Empire.  Today, there is little left of the statues but some of the rubble of destruction and a colossal empty space in the cavity of the cliff where they once stood.  Some time after their destruction, however, 50 caves were discovered, 12 of which featured wall paintings dated to the 5th and 9th centuries.  It is believed that they were created by artists journeying along the Silk Road.  Also in the Bamiyan area, refugees escaping from Taliban persecution stumbled across a massive collection of 10,000 Buddhist manuscript fragments.  These are now part of the Schoyen collection, which is located in Oslo, Norway, and London, England. More recently, archaeologists searching in the area of the dynamited Bamiyan statues discovered another Buddha, this one comparatively intact at 62 feet in height and in a reclining posture typically indicative of Buddha's passage into nirvana. 

Government elements and institutions of Japan, Switzerland and Afghanistan have committed to rebuilding the Bamiyan statues through the process of anastylosis, in much the same way that other ancient structures throughout the world have been restored and conserved.  

What lies in Afghanistan's future for its archaeological and cultural treasures? If recent history is any measure, it will be an uphill battle to discover, save and restore what is left.  Conflict, massive looting, neglect and mismanagement have taken their toll. Several countries, including the U.S., may be committing time and resources to help Afghanistan realize and protect its ancient monuments, settlements and artifacts. In a time of uncertainty, there are no guarantees, but one thing is clear: Sites like Mes Aynak have a dual value for this country.  They promise both a better economic future and a means to showcase the deep and rich heritage for a country that has been largely forgotten or ignored by the general public on the global scene of ancient history.  A recent visit to Mes Aynak by U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Eikenberry summed this up well:

"It is vital for the Afghan people to benefit from the mineral resources at Mes Aynak, but it is equally important to preserve these remarkable artifacts of Afghanistan's Silk Road history, not just for the Afghan people but for humanity." 

U.S. Ambassador (center) visiting Mes Aynak. Courtesy U.S. Embassy, Kabul, Afghanistan. Creative Commons, Flickr.

Cover Photo, Top Left: The taller Buddha of Bamiyan before (left picture) and after destruction (right). Wikimedia Commons

Photo, Second from Top, Right: Archaeologist working at site of Mes Aynak. Courtesy Shah Marai, Gety Images.

Photo, Fourth from Top, Left: Smaller Bamiyan Buddha as viewed from base in 1977 before destruction. Wikimedia Commons

By Dan McLerran

As Founder and Editor of Popular Archaeology Magazine, Dan is a freelance writer and journalist specializing in archaeology.  He studied anthropology and archaeology in undergraduate and graduate school and has been an active participant on archaeological excavations in the U.S. and abroad.  He is the creator and administrator of Archaeological Digs, a popular weblog about archaeological excavation and field school opportunities.