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| Investigating Gholghola ruins: Dr. Tarzi's team of archeologists is planning to begin small test excavations near the citadel
ruins to learn more about the Islamic Gorid Empire. Mark Sapenfield - staff   Bamiyan, another Afghan treasure |
In Afghanistan, 900-foot Sleeping Buddha eludes archaeologists
But researchers are finding and preserving other ancient riches.
from the August 7, 2007 edition
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To the north, archaeologists are excavating the city of Balkh, supposed birthplace of the prophet Zoroaster and location of Alexander's marriage to Roxana in 327 BC.
But archaeology in Afghanistan makes for some peculiar working conditions. There are still mines on Shar-e Gholghola from 20 years of war. The same is true of the Red City, a three-tiered, 3rd century BC palace complex hewn from red stone and clinging to a cliff 1,500 feet above the floor of the Bamiyan Valley.
Sayed Nasir Modaber of Bamiyan's Department of Monuments says demining projects should begin this month.
Also conspiring against them is open warfare in much of the country and – perhaps worse – a decades-old network of smuggling that is systematically looting the relics of Afghanistan's past, sometimes to finance warlords and insurgents.
"If we add up the values of numerous objects looted and illegally sold these past two decades, it amounts to several billion dollars worth of art objects belonging and constituting Afghanistan's wealth and national heritage," said Abdul Wasey Feroozi of Afghanistan's Institute of Archaeology at a 2004 seminar.
More unusual, still, is the practice of refilling every site with dirt after an excavation is finished.
Indeed, when Rakotozonia stood beneath the two ancient towers of what could be the Kingdom City, there was no hint that he stood on last year's work.
He helped excavate this patch of ground last year, finding what appeared to be a warehouse for the Buddhist kingdom that ruled this valley from the 3rd to the 10th centuries AD. Now, it's as flat as a courtyard.
It is better than the alternative, though. Mir Zaka has become synonymous with the perils facing Afghan archaeology. During the civil war of the early 1990s, the treasure of the 5th century BC Greek fort was sold to finance warlords.
Mohammad Rasuli, director of the Institute of Archaeology in Kabul, remembers visiting the site, disguised as a businessman, and seeing bags of historical coins so heavy that two men needed to lift them. Ornaments, statuary, and stamps were packed away in containers and protected not only by men with machine guns, but also with antiaircraft guns.
In all, he estimates, some 4.5 tons of archaeological artifacts were lost, some of them even popping up in local markets. But even from such calamity, Mr. Rasuli draws optimism: "Afghanistan has hope that we have lots of Mir Zakas."
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