Number 1, January - Society for American Archaeology

ARTICLE
Destruction of Afghan Cultural Heritage
Of great concern is the looting of innumerable sites in
Afghanistan. Arguably no other country has been as heavily
and relentlessly plundered as has Afghanistan. Despite the
efforts by the Minister of Culture in Kabul, the smugglers are
very well organized, and every year hundreds of valuable
objects are taken to the Pakistani cities of Peshawar, Islamabad,
and Karachi. Thousand of objects are gone, including
those from S. Mostamandy’s excavations, which were stored at
the Sarajul E’mara in Jellalabad; from Z. Tarzi’s excavations,
stored at the Afghan Archaeology Institute (AAI) at Darul
Aman in Kabul; and objects from the Kabul National Museum
representing 70 years of excavations. Materials from Afghan,
French, German, American, English, Indian, Italian, and
Japanese excavations in the various Afghan provinces—a total
of about 10,000 masterpieces—have been taken to Pakistan
and from there to Europe, the U.S., and Asia, especially Japan.
Another 1,000 objects originating from illegal excavations,
including statues, statuettes in precious metals, manuscripts,
and especially murals stripped from the walls of the Bamiyan
grottos, have been sold to Western and Asian collectors.
The worst looting is from Mir Zaka near Gardez, from which
four tons of coins dating from the Achaemenid to the Kushan
periods—along with 500 kg of silverware and Toreutic items in
gold and silver—were recovered, representing the largest
numismatic treasure of all times. Although a large part of this
material is argued to have originated in Pakistan, and the 500
kg of silverware and Toreutic items were designated by Russian
archaeologists as having been found on the right bank of
the Oxus (Amu Daria), reliable pictures showing clearly an
Afghan origin were disregarded. This is why the Miho Museum
in Japan, which bought 60% of the Mir Zaka treasure,
does not exhibit any labels describing where these objects originated.
Afghans of today and the future deserve the right to know
the truth.
The Role of APAA
Figure 2: Bamiyan, Z. Tarzi excavations, Summer 2003. The unit in the foreground
delivered the first clay statues ever found in an open-air excavation in
Afghanistan.
APAA’s role is easy to define. Its President, Dr. Zemaryalai Tarzi, is Professor of Eastern Archaeology at
the Marc Bloch University of Strasbourg, France. Between 1972 and 1979, he was the Director General of
Archaeology and Preservation of Historical Monuments of Afghanistan and Director of the Archaeology
Institute. Today, he is Director for the French Archaeological Mission for field investigations in Bamiyan.
Through Dr. Tarzi, AAPA will assist the AAI, the National Museum of Kabul, and the Archaeology Program
at the Kabul University—most of the present directors of these organizations are former students
of Dr. Tarzi. APAA will be able to provide support to Afghan archaeology during its slow and difficult
comeback following 24 years of inactivity due to the civil wars. APAA Vice President Nadia Tarzi represents
Dr. Z. Tarzi in the U.S., where APAA organizes cultural and artistic lectures, conferences, and
school presentations through which the rich past of Afghanistan is promoted to educate American and
Afghan children as well as the general public. APAA is seeking support and assistance from other international
experts and is forming partnerships with other organizations contributing to Afghanistan.
36 The SAA Archaeological Record • January 2004