Concerns for Afghanistan’s rich artistic heritage

Inheritance

At the crossroads of the Silk Roads, between China, India, Iran, Central Asia, and the former Russian Empire, the geography of Afghanistan draws a chaos of mountains irrigated by waterways, preserving in its bowels the memory of humanity. Decades of armed conflicts have overshadowed the immense richness of Afghan heritage, unique testimony to the intermingling of civilizations and beliefs for 5,000 years, the first vestiges coming from Ur, in Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq), where was invented writing.
Will the Taliban, now in power, choose to preserve this heritage, after the disaster of the Buddhas of Bamiyan which they destroyed with dynamite in 2001? The first measures taken by the Taliban may lead one to believe: the new masters of the country have already closed the national museum in Kabul in order to protect it from looting.

Over 5000 years of history, 5000 archaeological sites have been identified, some excavated, in particular by the Franco-Afghan teams of the French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan (DAFA) created in 1922 by France, at the request of King Amanullah and which will celebrate its centenary in 2022, at the National Museum of Asian Arts Guimet in Paris. A young curator, passionate about Asia, Joseph Hackin, was then appointed head of the DAFA. And from 1924 to 1940, he multiplied the excavation campaigns with his wife Ria who photographed the treasures unearthed at the foot of the vertiginous peaks of the Hindu Kush. Like the famous treasure of Begram, hundreds of glassware and ivory objects from Egypt and Syria. This Alexandria is located one hundred kilometers northeast of Kabul, the present capital. One of the dozens of towns founded by Alexander the Great, in the 4th century BC, on the way to the Indus.
Another marvel whose ruins have been partially cleared, the ancient Bactre, destroyed by Genghis Khan, the “Mother of Cities” where Alexander met the beautiful Roxane whom he married on the spot. An oasis of 16,000 km2, and its citadel protected by an 11 km rampart, doubled over 8 km by a wall 25 meters high and 100 meters wide in raw clay bricks, reinforced by 18 circular towers, including the silhouette today still impresses. With its hundreds of pieces of columns, capitals and decorative elements, it is one of the most important ensembles in Afghanistan threatened by looting, the extension of urban areas and global warming. It is also the birthplace of the great Sufi poet, Rumi. And the city of Zarathustra, creator of Zoroastrianism, a monotheistic religion centered on the struggle between good and evil, where the oldest fire altar in the Zoroastrian world is kept. The fire symbolizing the promise of the victory of light over darkness.
In the Greek city Aï Khanoum, which has impressive remains (theater, arsenal, temples and administrative buildings protected by a powerful rampart) were found manuscripts of the Neoplatonic school (3rd century BC) and the ruins of a Nestorian monastery, Eastern Christians, or the traces of a Jewish community. In the old citadel of Kabul, an Armenian Orthodox church was built in the 16th century by the community of goldsmiths and pawnbrokers.
In Herat (15th-16th c.), from the Timurid period, whose citadel was restored by the Italian architect Andrea Bruno, we find the blue colors of the glazed tiles of Samarkand, the city of Timur, in Uzbekistan, to the north . To the east is the minaret of Jam (12th c.) 65 m high, which leans dangerously. At its feet, a big threatening torrent weakens its foundations. Especially since the frail building is covered with suras chiseled in terracotta lace. Further south, it is the ancient capital Lashkari Bazar (10th c.), at the height of the Afghan emirates, rich in the palaces of the great sultans Gharevide and Ghoride, which the DAFA plans to restore. For the time being, the site remains difficult to access, squatted by the mafias established in this large opium production zone.
As in the past, some States covet Afghanistan for its mineral wealth – lapis lazuli (the Egyptians loved it), gold, emerald, rare earths, copper… As evidenced, My Aynak – literally: Copper and Water Source – the second largest copper mine on the planet, exploited by Buddhist monks in the first centuries of our era. Perched at an altitude of 2300 meters, south of Kabul, it was bought in 2007 by China for eight billion dollars. The imposing remains of a monastery which cover the entire site, hide statues of Buddhas in meditation, gilded with leaf, in good condition. For now, the Chinese are not operating the mine. A road should be built from a border post with China, while a railway line is promised to the Afghans. On July 27, in agreement with the community of Mes Aynak, the archaeological material was evacuated from the Buddhist site in order to be protected and restored. A constructive consensus that could serve as an example. Since the Bamiyan tragedy, the question of heritage has been an important matter for Afghans.