Located on the strategic crossroads of Iran, India, China and Central Asia, Afghanistan boasts a diverse cultural and religious history.[1] The soil is rich with archaeological treasures and art that have for decades come under threat of destruction and damage.
Archaeology of Afghanistan, mainly conducted by British and French antiquarians, has had a heavy focus on the treasure filled Buddhist monasteries that lined the silk road from the 1st c. BCE – 6th c. AD. Particularly the ancient civilizations in the region during the Hellenistic period and the Kushan Empire.[2] The world's oldest-known oil paintings, dating to the 7th c. AD, were found in caves in Afghanistan's Bamiyan Valley.[3] The valley is also home to the famous Buddhas of Bamiyan.
A detail of the buddhist paintings at Bamiyan, the oldest known oil paintings in the world.
Many of these valuable artefacts are either stored in the National Museum of Afghanistan or continue to be uncovered in the field. Unfortunately they face serious threat of destruction and damage as a result of illegal trade, looting and the Taliban. The extremist religious group came to power in 1996, and ordered the destruction of many precious artefacts.[4] The group's recent seizure of control once again in 2021 has put many cultural heritage experts on alert.
^Droogan, Julian; Choat, Malcolm (15 September 2021). "The Taliban's rule threatens what's left of Afghanistan's dazzlingly diverse cultural history". The Conversation. Retrieved 15 September 2021.
^Stark, Miriam T. (2005). Archaeology of Asia. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 335. ISBN 978-1405102131.
^"World's oldest oil paintings in Afghanistan". Reuters. 22 April 2008. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
crossroads of Iran, India, China and Central Asia, Afghanistan boasts a diverse cultural and religious history. The soil is rich with archaeological treasures...
BCE. Archaeological exploration began in Afghanistan in earnest after World War II and proceeded until the late 1970s during the Soviet–Afghan War. Archaeologists...
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate ofAfghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred...
The French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan (French: La Délégation archéologique française en Afghanistan (DAFA)) was created in France in 1922...
Hatch Dupree, An Historical Guide to Afghanistan, 1977, Kabul, Afghanistan Allchin (1978). The ArchaeologyofAfghanistan from earliest times to the Timurid...
Mundigak (Pashto: منډیګک) is an archaeological site in Kandahar province in Afghanistan. During the Bronze Age, it was a center of the Helmand culture. It is...
The history ofAfghanistan, preceding the establishment of the Emirate ofAfghanistan in 1823 is shared with that of neighbouring Iran, central Asia and...
Consonantal System of Old Chinese: Part II", Asia Major n.s. 9 (1963) 206–65 Allchin, Allchin Raymond (3 June 2019). ArchaeologyofAfghanistan: From Earliest...
good source of information about cultural heritage and archaeology." 10♥ "Religious monuments, such as the Bamian Buddhas in Afghanistan, are often targets...
Afghanistan is uniquely situated as a throughway of cultures throughout its history due to it geographic placement in South Asia. Afghanistan's location...
Mound") is an archaeological site in the northern Afghanistan province of Jowzjan near Sheberghan, excavated in 1978 by a Soviet-Afghan team led by the...
Valley ofAfghanistan. Located 130 kilometres (81 mi) to the northwest of Kabul, at an elevation of 2,500 metres (8,200 ft), carbon dating of the structural...
Communities of various religious and ethnic backgrounds have lived in the land of what is now Afghanistan. Before the Islamic conquest, the south of the Hindu...
Women's rights in Afghanistan have oscillated back and forth depending on the time period as well as the regime in power. After King Amanullah Khan's...
archaeological site of Jam was successfully nominated as Afghanistan's first World Heritage site in 2002. It was also inscribed in UNESCO's list of World...
Aghacha; Subtelny 2007, pp. 43–44 Roemer 2004, pp. 508–511. The ArchaeologyofAfghanistan from Earliest Times to the Timurid Period by Frank Raymond Allchin...
The Muslim conquests ofAfghanistan began during the Muslim conquest of Persia as the Arab Muslims migrated eastwards to Khorasan, Sistan and Transoxiana...
Mongol Invasion". In Allchin, Raymond; Hammond, Norman (eds.). ArchaeologyofAfghanistan: From Earliest Times to the Timurid Period: New Edition. Edinburgh...
Hinduism in Afghanistan is practiced by a tiny minority ofAfghans, about 30-40 individuals as of 2021, who live mostly in the cities of Kabul and Jalalabad...
contains the bulk ofarchaeological material recovered in Afghanistan. It has not been published, but individual hoards and archaeological sites have been...
development of a 'Helmand Civilisation' south of the Hindu Kush", in Raymond Allchin, Warwick Ball, and Norman Hammond (eds.), The ArchaeologyofAfghanistan, From...
are important from the point of view of science, conservation or natural beauty, are defined as natural heritage. Afghanistan accepted the convention on...
formed one of the most influential British partnerships in the post-Independence study of South Asian archaeology. Producing a large body of scholarship...
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