These splendid volumes complement each other and shed a brilliant light on the archaeology of Afghanistan. While the former surveys current knowledge of the various periods, both in Afghanistan and the surrounding regions, the Gazetteer enables the reader to look up and locate more than 1,500 sites. The Gazetteer began as a card index, but has been expanded to cover as many sites and monuments as possible, combining existing knowledge with new excavations, sites, monuments, inscriptions and hoards of coins, as well as conferences and publications.
In the 1960s maps of Afghanistan were relatively blank. One of the achievements of the Gazetteer are the maps, created using satellite imagery, arranged by period and by region. Sites are marked on the maps, described in the text and each has a bibliography. The Gazetteer is a comprehensive work of reference and a magnificent working tool. The author must be warmly congratulated.
When The Archaeology of Afghanistan was published forty years ago, it was recognised as an authoritative study. The new edition is even more impressive, combining an overview of sites with synopses of current research, including the impact of new methodology and technology, together with a comprehensive bibliography. While the focus is on sites and monuments, the various overviews provide analyses across borders.
The ‘Analytical Table of Contents’ is a useful introduction to the authors and topics, while the geographical background of Chapter 1 discusses the many people who have travelled through or remained in this area of mountain, riverine valley and steppe. It covers such topics as climate, subsistence and available resources, including mineral resources such as iron, copper and precious stones. As Davis notes in Chapter 2 ‘The Palaeolithic’, the present boundaries of the country have no relevance, and little is known. There is some occupation in the Middle Palaeolithic, and more limited occupation in Epi-Palaeolithic, based on a few sites.
Perhaps the most important chapters are 3, ‘The development of the Oxus Civilization north of the Hindu Kush’, and 4, the newly identified ‘The development of a “Helmand Civilization” south of the Hindu Kush’. The collapse of the Iron Curtain in the 1990s facilitated contact with Soviet scholars, as well as making available their research. This revolutionised the understanding of Bronze Age settlement, then called the Bactria-Margiana Cultural Complex (BMAC).
In the 1970s the French undertook extensive surveys of Chalcolithic to Iron Age sites in eastern Bactria. Together with Sarianidi’s survey to the north of Balkh, this made possible an overview of Bronze Age settlement and revolutionised ideas of contacts across the region. It was evident that the prehistoric inhabitants underwent fundamental socio-cultural changes, including the development of an economy based on domesticated plants and animals and a stratified society. Henri-Paul Francfort suggested renaming BMAC the ‘Oxus Civilisation’, bringing together evidence from northern Afghanistan and neighbouring Central Asian countries.
Recording mounds and canals from Qunduz to Badakhshan, J-C Gardin discovered sites with Indus-like pottery. At Shortugaï three main phases, from c 2500–1500 bc, were identified: the first had links to Harappan settlements in the Indus region; links with Indian sites continued in the second but with contacts to BMAC sites; while the third, after a possible hiatus, showed a decline with links to northern, not Indian, sites. This suggests a colonisation by Indus societies, probably to access raw materials. Both raw and worked lapis lazuli were found, as well as etched carnelian beads.
The unprovenanced Fullol hoard from northern Afghanistan is further evidence of the wealth of the Oxus civilisation. It included gold and silver vessels with motifs suggesting extensive foreign contacts, a bearded bull similar to those from early Mesopotamia and Quetta ware, among much else. Large quantities of Oxus civilisation objects have been looted, including the so-called Bactrian princesses. Oxus material is widely distributed in Iran, from Tepe Hissar, Tepe Yahya, Shahdad and sites in Baluchistan, while a German survey identified an Oxus site near Herat.
One reason for the wealth of Bactria must have been the lapis lazuli found at Sar-i-Sang in Badakhshan. Lapis lazuli was traded as early as the sixth millennium bc and is a marker of long-distance trade, travelling either along a northern route (Shortugaï, Tepe Hissar in Iran) or a southern route down the Helmand valley (Mundigak, Shahr-i Sokhta in Seistan and Indian sites). Finds in the Royal Cemetery of Ur in southern Iraq (early third millennium) illustrate the volume of this long-distance trade, which probably included gold, found in the sands of the river Panj near Shortugaï, and tin. The Oxus civilisation, linking Afghanistan, Central Asia, Iran, India and Mesopotamia, will have played a major role in the socio-economics and politics of the late third and early second millennia.
Bronze Age settlements along the Helmand and Arghandab rivers south of the Hindu Kush are called the ‘Helmand Civilisation’ and are distinct from both the Oxus and Indus civilisations. The principal sites are Mundigak and Shahr-i Sokhta. Seven levels, from the early fourth to the second millennia bc, were identified at Mundigak and demonstrated continuous development until the end of Period iv, followed by a period of abandonment, also seen at other sites such as Shahr-i Sokhta and in the Quetta valley. The Mundigak sequence remains the primary reference for south Afghanistan and the surrounding regions. There were extensive contacts with the Quetta valley during Periods i–ii, followed by a complete change in Period iv, the time of the ‘palaces’ and a ‘temple’. The facade of the ‘palace’ was decorated with semi-columns, painted white and topped with merlons. The tradition of engaged semi-columns was to become a standard feature of Central Asian buildings, still occurring at early Islamic Merv in Turkmenistan. Once again we are given an impression of long distance and long lived connections. Shahr-i Sokhta ii–iii is similar to Mundigak iii–iv and provided objects of wood, basketry, textiles, alabaster and semi-precious stones. Radiocarbon dates suggest that Periods ii and iii were occupied between c 2750 and 2200 bc.
Chapter 5 ‘The Iron Age, Achaemenid and Hellenistic Periods’ includes discussions on settlements, material culture, architecture, art, epigraphy and numismatics. There was a definite break between the Bronze and Iron Ages.
The Achaemenian period saw the formation of the first world empire. In the Bisitun inscription of Darius i (521–486 bc) the eastern satrapies consisted of the area of modern Herat, Bactria, the lower Helmand river and Seistan, the southern Hindu Kush and Gandhara. There was a developed road system, and Aramaic was the diplomatic language. Surveys in Bactria were the first to throw light on the period, especially in the Dashli oasis north of Balkh. Monumental buildings at Altin-10 consisted of a rectangular summer palace and a square building with rooms around a central courtyard. J-C Gardin discovered settlements with a sophisticated, canal-fed irrigation system, suggesting a high level of administrative control. There were fortified sites with high ramparts, notable among which is Kohna Qala, a huge circular site with inner and outer ramparts 900m across. Such circular towns were probably an indigenous Central Asian type, which became a feature of later Iranian town planning, as can be seen at Sasanian Firuzabad and Abbasid Baghdad. A monumental fire temple with a limestone fire altar, an inverted step pyramid with a fire bowl similar to that discovered at Nush-i Jan in Iran, was revealed at Chashma-i Shafa, south of Balkh. Kandahar, with its massive fortifications, was the centre of Persian power in the east. The finest Achaemenid objects and jewellery have only been recovered from unprovenanced hoards: the nineteenth-century ‘Oxus Treasure’ in the British Museum and another found in the 1990s and now in the Miho museum in Japan.
The invasion of Alexander the Great (356–23 bc) caused fundamental changes affecting the architecture, art and culture of western and Central Asia, both at the time and thereafter. Alexander conquered Iran, Margiana and Sogdia, Afghanistan, Swat and Punjab and aimed to build a new Hellenistic world. The most impressive Hellenistic site is Aï Khanum at the confluence of the River Kokcha and the Amu-darya or Oxus. There, in Central Asia, an unmistakably Greek town was discovered with palaces, a theatre, gymnasium, temples and a mausoleum. It probably dated from the late fourth century, but was savagely destroyed c 145 bc by groups of migrating nomads. Construction was mostly of mud brick with flat roofs, although stone working for thresholds and columns with pseudo-Corinthian capitals was typically Greek. Pedestals in the ‘temple with indented niches’ contained clay and stucco statues, the sculpture of which was Greek with Iranian and Bactrian traits.
After his death, Alexander’s generals quarreled, with the east falling to Seleucus i (c 358–281 bc). He controlled Mesopotamia, Iran, Parthia and Bactria, while south-east Afghanistan and the Indus region fell to Chandragupta, the Mauryan ruler (340–297 bc), who united India. Evidence of Seleucid occupation has been found at many sites. The circular town at Emshi Tepe, located north of Balkh, continued to be occupied in the Kushan period, while Begram, near Kabul, also had a Hellenistic level. Several sites across the Amu-darya were also important. Significant Hellenistic material has been found at the city-site of Termez, better known for Kushan occupation and its Buddhist monuments. Another Hellenistic site is Takht-i Sangin, the site of the famous ‘Temple of the Oxus’.
Nomadic invasions in the second century ended Greco-Bactrian rule. This period was unknown archaeologically until 1978 when Viktor Sarianidi, working at the early Iron Age site of Tillya-tepe, found six undisturbed burials with some 20,000 gold objects, jewellery, weapons, etc. The art is a mixture of Indian, Central Asian, Iranian, Hellenistic and Bactrian styles, with Chinese mirrors found on the chests of the females, and has been dated to the late first century ad.
Chapter 6 ‘From the Kushans to the Shahis’ discusses how, when the Kushans conquered Bactria, Greek was replaced by Bactrian written in a Greek script. Kushan coinages are numerous and varied, and their coins may be found from western China to Samarkand and the Iranian border. Kushan dynastic sanctuaries have been found at Surkh Kotal and Rabatak. That at Surkh Kotal is set in the middle of a fortress and was founded by Kanishka i (c ad 127–49). Four terraces lead to an enclosure with the temple, which was decorated with stepped merlons, pseudo-Classical pilasters, a Gandharan stone frieze, a series of painted and unpainted clay figures and three stone statues representing Kushan kings. In 1993 a new Bactrian inscription was found at Rabatak, about 15km north-west of Surkh Kotal, recording that Kanishka i ordered the construction of the sanctuary.
Balkh has always been known to be a key urban site, but is difficult to study because of its overburden. Investigations by Soviet and French archaeologists have documented Kushan fortifications in the Balkh oasis on a gigantic scale, together with a military camp, built c 61 bc. Outside Balkh a Buddhist stupa and monastery, Nava Vihara, formed the main religious centre in Bactria until the Islamic period. Buddhism spread westwards into Central Asia, reaching as far as Merv. The area around Kabul was another major pre-Islamic religious and urban centre. Tepe Narenj was a large Buddhist monastery complex overlooking the old city of Kabul, while Mes Aynak consists of a substantial monastic settlement. Some 400 Buddhist statues have been recovered.
When the Parthians disrupted East–West trade, the Kushans set up a southern route via the Indus valley, the success of which can be seen in treasures found at Begram, ancient Kapisa, the summer residence of the Kushans. Two rooms in the ‘palace’ were filled with ‘treasures’, including plaster models, bronze and glass of Western origin, Indian ivories and Chinese lacquers, dated from the first to the early second centuries ad.
In the third century the Kushans came into conflict with the Sasanians. The Kushano-Sasanian period began during the reign of Ardashir i (ad 224–41). The extent of their control has only recently been established, thanks to new discoveries including documents from Bactria, a painting at Ghulbiyan and a rock relief at Rag-i Bibi, 5km south of Surkh Kotal. The rock relief is significant, since Sasanian rock reliefs were an official dynastic art, mostly sited in western Iran and dating principally to the third century. The Rag-i Bibi relief shows a Sasanian king, probably Shapur i (ad 241–72), with captive Kushans, hunting a rhinoceros. It establishes the importance of the east of the empire and necessitates a re-orientation of the western bias of Sasanian studies. The Sasanians were challenged by the arrival of Hunnic tribes in the late fourth century, and later by the Western Turks.
Afghanistan is rich in Buddhist stupas, particularly in the Kabul valley. The largest stupa was at Tepe Sardar near Ghazni. It was surrounded by votive stupas and chapels, decorated with clay figures, which can be compared to fragments from Surkh Kotal and also Khalchayan in Transoxiana and show the influence of Hellenistic traditions. These precede Gandharan art and are differentiated from it by an absence of Indian elements. Afghan excavations at Tepe Shotor (Hadda) revealed both purely Gandharan stucco sculptures and unbaked clay sculptures in the same sanctuary. The most famous monuments of Buddhist Afghanistan are cave monasteries and the two statues at Bamiyan, blown up by the Taliban in 2000. Both the Buddhas and the caves were finished and coated with stucco and plaster. The cave paintings combine Sasanian, Gandharan and Indian elements.
Despite constant changes, there is considerable continuity, characterised by the Buddhist religion. There was a massive increase in late Buddhist art and architecture between the seventh and ninth centuries, continuing into the Islamic period. Superb examples of unbaked clay images have been found at Fondukistan, and from late period Tepe Sardar. For the history of religion, the most interesting find was a Hindu goddess from Tepe Sardar, the first instance of a Hindu deity in an otherwise purely Buddhist context. The marble sculptures of Hindu subjects found at Khair Khana and in north Pakistan are generally dated to the Shahi dynasties between the seventh and tenth centuries. Hindu marbles, found at Tepe Skandar, north of Kabul, document a widespread Indianisation.
Chapters 7 and 8 ‘From the Rise of Islam to the Mongol Invasion’ and ‘From the Mongols to the Mughals’ cover the arrival of Islam to the end of the Timurid period. With a constant change of dynasty during these centuries, together with the areas controlled by them and a plethora of monuments, these chapters are dense. The texts are divided into historical sections and a survey of the monuments: there is a lack of integration between the two, as well as some repetition. Klaus Fischer, who died in 1991, was a pioneer in assembling the Muslim history of architecture of Afghanistan, but his text lacks the immediacy of the rest of the volume.
Afghanistan entered the Islamic period in the eighth century. A series of Iranian dynasties were ended by the Turkish Qarakhanids. The Ghaznavids (ad 977–1186) led the Muslim expansion into India. Mahmud and Mas’ud brought back quantities of plunder and became patrons of the arts, architecture and science. The most impressive ruins recalling Iranian, Central Asian and Indian styles were constructed at Lashkari Bazar on the Helmand. The South Palace extends for half a kilometer and is built around a typically Iranian four iwan courtyard. Only a minaret, decorated with cut brickwork, survives of the palace of Mas’ud iii (1099–1114) at Ghazni. The Ghaznavids lost control of their western territories to another Turkish dynasty, the Seljuks, who went on to conquer Iran and Baghdad in ad 1055.
Persian speakers from west central Afghanistan, the Ghurids, sacked Ghazni in ad 1151 and ruled from Herat to Lahore. Their capital was in Firuzkuh, the surviving monument of which is the magnificent minaret of Jam. Another Ghurid monument is the Friday Mosque at Herat. The combination of introducing colour into cut brick work was employed across the area by the Seljuks and particularly by the Timurids.
The Mongols reached Afghanistan in ad 1221, and Chingiz Khan’s armies sacked Ghazni. The Mongols are credited with massive slaughter of the inhabitants and the destruction of the irrigation networks throughout the lands they conquered. They are said to have slaughtered 1,600,000 at Herat alone. These figures are frankly incredible, while ongoing archaeological research suggests evidence for revival. Herat was restored around ad 1236 by Chingiz Khan’s third son, Ogedei (ad 1229–41).
Timur (1336–1405) conquered Herat, Kabul, Ghazni and Kandahar and sacked Delhi. He was succeeded by his son, Shah Rukh (1404–47), who moved the capital to Herat. Despite much destruction, Herat still possesses monuments illustrating the imperial style of the Timurids. Shah Rukh’s wife, Gauhar Shad, commissioned the foremost architect of the day to build a madrasa, a mosque and a mausoleum, completed in ad 1432. The polychrome interior contains four recesses, roofed by arches, from which spring concealed squinches and pendentives. Above, an octagon and stalactite niches support a ceiling dome, above which is a constructional dome and an outer ribbed dome of Persian blue, similar to those at Balkh and Samarkand. Timurid architecture made extensive use of the double dome, achieving a harmony between the ceiling of the room below and the curve of the outer dome. Perfection was achieved with the use of polychrome tile decorations on a background of unglazed bricks. The minor arts, sculpture, painting in manuscripts, bookbinding and calligraphy flourished.
While the Gazetteer confines itself to sites within the borders of Afghanistan, Archaeology ranges freely across adjacent regions to provide an overview of changing alliances with the adjacent civilisations. It was not only dynasties that changed with alarming frequency, but also the religions promoted by them. Both Buddhism and Islam had a major impact on the art, culture and architecture of this mountainous country. These excellent volumes will be treasured as an impressive and invaluable record of the present state of knowledge of this war-torn country.
