The Archaeology of Southwest Afghanistan
Surveys and Excavation
William B. Trousdale, Mitchell Allen
- Presents the first and only synthesis of the archaeological history of southwest Afghanistan over the past 5,000 years
- Represents extensive fieldwork involving a large team of scholars from the USA and Afghanistan in disciplines as diverse as archaeology, geology, linguistics, anthropology and art history
- Fills in the gaps in our knowledge base of more intensively studied ancient cultures of Central Asia, Iran, Mesopotamia, and India
- Shows contemporaneous occupation of Zoroastrian, Greek, and Buddhist shrines in a small geographical area
This is the legacy report of an extensive joint US/Afghan archaeological project in the southwest quadrant of Afghanistan: the Smithsonian Institution/ Afghanistan Institute of Archaeology Helmand-Sistan Archaeological Project, 1971-1976. While the fieldwork was conducted in the 1970s, political events in Afghanistan over the past half century make this the first major archaeological synthesis of the region and the only one for decades to come. The Helmand River is one of the main routes between the Middle East, South, and Central Asia over the past 5,000 years and project findings reflect that cross-cultural mixing of cultures. The research identified key monuments from Bronze Age, Persian, Greek, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, and Islamic cultures, and explored the role of intensive irrigation agriculture in one of the world’s driest regions. Volume 1 describes the 200 archaeological sites surveyed or excavated by the survey and their material culture.
Preface—William B. Trousdale
Introduction: The Helmand Sistan Project
PART I: BACKGROUND
PART II: SURVEY SITES
PART III: EXCAVATIONS
Appendix 1: Listing of sites identified by Helmand Sistan Project
Appendix 2: Previously publications of the Helmand Sistan Project
Appendix 3: The Sehyak Well Inscription—Rachel Mairs, Lauren Morris, and Michael Zellmann-Rohrer
It is hard to over-estimate the importance of this contribution to the archaeology of the Near East and the Indo-Iranian borderlands. The Archaeology of Southwest Afghanistan is a uniquely important book that provides otherwise unavailable information about a crucial region in the Indo-Iranian borderlands from the 4th millennium BC though Timurid Islamic times (16th century CE). There can be no doubt that it will stand as the most important archaeological resource for this region for decades to come.
The Helmand is the largest river between the Tigris and the Indus. Flowing from the heights of the Hindu Kush southwest across Afghanistan to terminate in the swamps of Sistan astride the Iranian border, it is also the southernmost of the inland-draining basins of Central Asia, the hearths of many ancient civilisations. Flanked by some of the world’s grimmest deserts, the Helmand has long been underestimated and under-researched as a vital cultural area from the Bronze Age through Islamic times. Trousdale and Allen’s Smithsonian Institution survey and excavations, although now several decades past, are one of the few attempts to unlock this hidden history, and this book is a crucial contribution to understanding the dynamics of human settlement, economy and commerce.
This groundbreaking work includes a wealth of new discoveries from the Bronze Age to late Islamic that will change much of what we know about the archaeology of the region, with repercussions in Iran, Central Asia and the Indus Valley. Discoveries include a previously unidentified Iron Age culture in the region, remains of a Hellenistic style temple with Greek and Aramaic inscriptions, Buddhist and Zoroastrian religious monuments, previously unrecorded early Islamic palaces and mosques, and more. Future work in the archaeology of the wider region will now need to be made with continual reference to the results laid out here, a work that will remain an essential source book for many years to come.
Cet imposant travail présente une multitude de découvertes nouvelles, de l’âge du bronze à l’époque islamique tardive, qui changent une grande partie de nos connaissances de l’archéologie de la région, avec des échos en Iran, en Asie centrale et dans la vallée de l’Indus. … Nous pouvons complimenter les auteurs pour avoir courageusement replongé dans leurs archives après cinquante années, pour en faire ce bel ouvrage de référence, mais aussi les presses de l’université d’Édimbourg pour l’avoir si soigneusement publié. Nous attendons maintenant le second tome.
[Translation: This impressive work presents a multitude of new discoveries, from the Bronze Age to the late Islamic era, which changed a large part of our knowledge about the region’s archaeology, with echoes in Iran, in Central Asia and in the valley of the Indus. … We can compliment the authors for having courageously re-immersed themselves in their archives after fifty years in order to make this beautiful work of reference, and also Edinburgh University Press for having published it with such care. We now await the second volume.]
