MGAP07 End of Season Report

Medieval Ghur Archaeological Project – End of Season Report

by David Thomas and Dr Alison Gascoigne

(with contributions from other team members)

Introduction

The main aims of the 2007 season were:

  • To organise four days of seminars at Kabul University. The seminars would focus on training staff and students from the University and representatives from the National Afghan Institute of Archaeology (NAIA) in modern archaeological survey techniques.
  • To conduct three weeks of survey work in Ghur province
  • To complete the analysis of the remaining ceramics from our 2003 and 2005 seasons at Jam
  • To finalise and publish educational booklets about Jam and the Ghurids for Afghan students and adults
  • To give presentations about our work, so as to raise awareness of the rich medieval Islamic heritage of Afghanistan

Several of these aims were successfully completed during our stay in Afghanistan from 2nd July until 5th August, 2007.[1] Major, unforeseeable obstacles, however, prevented us from undertaking the planned field season. Despite this, we were able to initiate other studies which resulted in the productive utilization of our time in Kabul.

Kabul University seminars[2]

Four days of seminars were held at Kabul University from 31st July to 4th August, as part of Afghanistan’s National Development Strategy for capacity building. We are the first team from foreign universities to have prepared and given such a series of seminars. Thirty-five members of staff, students and representatives of NAIA attended the seminars (Fig. 1), despite on-going exams.

The thirteen seminars covered a wide range of topics, reflecting the multi-disciplinary and skilled nature of our team:

  • Pre-season research techniques, site identification and documentation, survey equipment, data collation and analysis (DCT)
  • Photography (Travis Beard and Fardin Waezi – Aina Photography)
  • Occupational Health and Safety, and First Aid (IS)
  • Ceramics (ALG)
  • Illustration (PC)
  • Conservation (JH)
  • Art history (LM)

The seminars blended theory and practice, with an emphasis being placed on student participation during the practicals.

At the end of the seminar series, the attendees were presented with a certificate and a CD containing the Powerpoint presentations, Minaret of Jam Archaeological Project publications and additional reading. We also donated survey equipment, including Geographical Positioning Systems (GPS) and digital cameras, to the University and NAIA. A questionnaire provided useful feedback on how the seminars could be improved in the future. The overwhelming majority of the students found the seminars interesting and enjoyable; many expressed regret that we were not able to go to Ghur as planned, and to give some of them the opportunity to put the theory of survey techniques into practice.

Educational booklets[3]

Overseas archaeological projects have an obligation to make the results of their work accessible to people in the host nation, as well as to academic audiences around the world. This is particularly important in countries such as Afghanistan, which are re-building their academic infrastructure and knowledge base. We have been working towards this goal since the end of the 2005 season, and our prolonged stay in Kabul enabled us to finalize our bi-lingual educational booklets for Afghan students and adults (copies accompany this report).

The Students’ Booklet follows ‘a day in the life’ of two children, living in Firuzkuh (ancient Jam) during the Ghurid period, eight hundred years ago. Each section concludes with a series of questions and tasks in an attempt to focus the students’ attention. The Adults’ Booklet covers a range of topics including Jam’s geographical and historical setting, our fieldwork at the site in 2003 and 2005 and the issue of the looting of antiquities.

Copies of the booklets were donated to the Ministry of Information and Culture and NAIA in Kabul, while Afghanaid and Haji Naqshband Rajabi kindly distributed copies in Ghur province and Ghazni, respectively. If funding permits, we will translate the booklets into Pashto.

Bala Hissar (DCT, ALG and FJK)

Bala Hissar, the ‘High Fort’, is the archaeological heart of Kabul. The site has been occupied since at least the Kushan period, although it is better known as the residence of Babur (founder of the Mughal Empire) and the scene of Anglo-Afghan conflicts in the late 1800s. Concern about the damage being done to the site by construction work prompted the Ministry of Information and Culture (MoIC) and the Society for the Preservation of Afghanistan’s Cultural Heritage (SPACH) to lobby successfully for an immediate halt to the construction work.

We made two visits to the site, at the Ministry’s invitation, and accompanied by representatives of NAIA, the Department of Historic Monuments and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. The aim of the visits was to assess the damage caused by the contractors and to gather what archaeological information we could from the trenches. We were the first team of archaeologists to be permitted onto the site since the work was halted.

For the purposes of this initial assessment, we numbered the trenches Tr 1-8 (see Fig. 2, based on measured sketch plans and the GoogleEarth image provided by Dr Jonathan Lee).

Trench / Length / Width / Depth / Comment
1 / 39 m / 23 m / 1.4 m / Possibly overlies a 16th century mosque, but little stratigraphy in section
2 / 55 m / 43 m / 2.3 m / Medieval / pre-Islamic sherds
3 / 52 m / 12 m / 0.8 m / Major foundations of a 20th (?) century building in section; wall-lines continue for 10 m to the west before turning north for 9.5 m
4 / 52 m / 12 m / 0.9 m / Similar to Trench 3 – part of the same building?
5 / n/r / n/r / n/r / Vegetation growing in the trench
6 / 48 m / 13 m / 1.5 m / n/r
7 / 38 m / 7 m / n/r / n/r
8 / 35 m / 27 m / 2.2 m / 1 small wall in section, little other architecture; some pre-Islamic ceramics

Table 1: summary details of the trenches dug at Bala Hissar[4]

Trench 1

This, the most southerly trench, is of particular concern since, judging from the GoogleEarth image, it partly overlies the probable location of a sixteenth century Mughal mosque – the Mosque of the Amirs of Afghanistan. Fortunately, the archaeological damage here appears to be minimal, despite the size of the trench – the exposed sections in the east and south show little by way of archaeological remains and the trench appears to be dug into silty fill / wash.

Trench 2

Trench 2 is considerably larger than Trench 1 and is less neatly finished. The remnants of a wall appears in the south section and the northern, unfinished part of the trench contains a jumble of baked bricks, bone, ceramics and other debris of uncertain date. The indisputable presence of medieval and Kushan ceramics is of great concern. These ceramics may not have been in situ when they were dug up, but their frequency and distribution is suggestive of significant archaeological deposits close to the surface in this area, dating back over 1500 years.

Trench 3

Trench 3 contains the highest incidence of archaeological remains in section. At least twenty stone and baked brick wall stubs were noted (Fig. 3); Wall 4, for example, is 1.4 m wide and 0.7 m high. White (lime?) surfaces are associated with several of these walls, indicating the presence of a large, relatively recent, regular building, possibly a barracks. The south end of the trench has been covered with fine gravel – levelling in preparation for construction. More detailed inspection would be required to ascertain whether the gravel is sterile, or whether it contains cultural material from elsewhere.

Trench 4

Trench 4 is similar to Trench 3 in its size, north-south orientation and contents – the excavations have exposed fifteen wall stubs and associated surfaces in section; gravel levelling covers much of the southern part of the trench. Towards the north of the trench, a cement pipe and cut electric cables were noted 0.8 m below the tarmacked surface. This obviously points to a relatively recent date for the deposits in this part of the trench.

Trench 5

Trench 5, to the east of Trench 4, is larger and less neatly finished than Trenches 3 and 4. Vegetation growing in the base of the trench indicates that it has been open for quite a while. A distinct surface can be seen in one section.

Trenches 6-7

The limited time available meant that we were unable to look in the other trenches to the east of Trench 5 in detail.

Trench 8

Trench 8 is located to the west of Trench 2 and also has pre-Islamic ceramics. It is unfinished and at the time of inspection resembled a ploughed field. Large quantities of ceramics, bone and stone were visible in the disturbed soil. A small mortared wall, standing seven courses (0.9 m) high was noted in the south-east corner of the trench. Other features included a possible stone-lined drain – the architecture exposed in the trench sections looks relatively modern.

The spoil heaps

We also inspected the large spoil heaps to the north of Trenches 2-5 and found dense scatters of sherds and bone (including human crania) among the spoil – these finds probably indicate that a significant amount of occupational debris, albeit of a comparatively recent date, and possible burials have been disturbed in the area. The sherds were predominantly from the last century or so, with many incised blue / turquoise glazed bowls in the Istalif style, as well as fairly recent bright yellow glazed wares. Again, however, a handful of earlier slip-underpainted glazed sherds of earlier (seventeenth to eighteenth century) date were also noted.

Ceramics from Bala Hissar (ALG and LM)

Ceramic sherds often indicate the presence of archaeological deposits, even in the absence of more structural archaeological remains – this is the case for the trenches at Bala Hissar.

Pottery was collected on two occasions: during our first visit, a few pieces were picked up from Trench 2 and the large northern spoil heap, with a more general collection being made across the whole area by members of NAIA. During our subsequent visit, all diagnostic sherds (of any date and all wares) were picked up from inside each numbered trench (Fig. 4). This collection provides the means to compare the trenches in terms of quantity of ceramics, and to pin-point those areas that have a greater level of archaeological activity. It should be noted, however, that in Trenches 1, 3 and 4, where the trench bottoms have been compacted and/or overlain with gravel, far fewer sherds were visible.

The sherds were analysed, catalogued and drawn by Alison Gascoigne, Leslee Michelsen and Pieter Collet (see Appendix 1 for summary information). The small size of the sample, in combination with the fairly wide date range of the collection, prevented the creation of a rigorous fabric series. Attempts were, however, made to define broad groups, and detailed fabric descriptions were recorded for much of the assemblage. The use of visually similar clays for sherds of widely different date, in addition to the presence of extremely diverse fabrics within a single ware (such as the Istalifi glazed ceramics), indicates the complexity of this issue. Further work, preferably on stratified material, is required to document fully the fabrics in use through time in Bala Hissar. Despite this caveat, the most common wares were defined and described, and ninety-six sherds were drawn. The resultant catalogue, while much richer for the late medieval to modern period (circa the sixteenth century onwards), also includes earlier Islamic, and pre-Islamic, forms.

It is clear from the distribution of wares across the trenches that the most significant archaeological contexts lie at the western end of the area into which the trenches were cut.[5] Trenches 2 and 8 contained a lot of pottery; along with Trench 1, they yielded pre-Islamic sherds, including some of late Kushan date and at least one probably somewhat earlier.[6] Both the western end, and the central Trenches (4 and 5), contain some late medieval ceramic material, in line with the known use of the site in Mughal times. Common wares include blue-and-white underpainted glazed ware (with both quartz- and clay-based fabrics, in addition to imported Chinese examples); black-and-turquoise underpainted ware; monochrome yellow and green glazed wares; and moulded ware. The eastern trenches are much more sterile, with the most common ceramic type being white tile pieces of very recent date. The most commonly noted sherds on the large spoil heaps at the east end were from incised, turquoise-glazed ‘Istalifi’ bowls, the manufacture of which continues today.[7]

Conclusion and suggested course of action

The areas bulldozed by the contractors are much more extensive than we anticipated. The amount of archaeological remains visible in the sections is variable, and in most cases relatively modern. That said, the location of Trench 1 over the putative Mughal mosque and the discovery of medieval and pre-Islamic sherds in Trenches 2 and 8 is of considerable concern. The architectural remains in Trenches 3-5 are part of Afghanistan’s recent cultural heritage – despite being relatively modern, they should be investigated properly rather than destroyed without consideration.

The question of what to do about the trenches is obviously dependent upon the wishes and resources of the relevant Afghan authorities. We do not believe that significant damage will result if the trenches are left open in the short-term. The large exposed areas provide the opportunity for important excavations in the future, should they be deemed appropriate – the site could form the focus of a major training project for Afghan archaeologists.

The ultimate responsibility for funding further work (whether documentation, back-filling and/or excavation) lies with the contractors and their funders. Construction work, particularly at a known archaeological / historical site, should not be undertaken without a proper impact assessment and watching brief. It appears that neither of these safeguards was in place, and thus the contractors must bear the full costs of rectifying this situation.

The Kabul National Museum[8]

Kandahar Ceramics (DCT, ALG, LM and FJK)

The Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and more recent conflicts resulted in the destruction and loss of a large amount of pre-1979 survey and excavation material, in addition to the well-documented looting of archaeological sites. Occasionally, a ‘good news story’ comes to light, however, and the recovery of ceramics from the 1975-1978 British Institute excavations at Kandahar is a case in point. These finds were re-discovered in the basement of the old British Embassy. They were carefully repackaged in 65 mail-sacks and 30 large plastic crates and returned to the Kabul National Museum in 2004. They have since lain untouched in the Museum basement (Fig. 5).

Over the course of two weeks, MGAP team members and Museum staff compiled an inventory of the artefacts. We listed 2,415 bags of ceramics, transcribing the relevant details on the labels. The fact that we were able to collate so much data is testimony to the Kandahar Project’s double-labelling of bags – a significant number of the external labels were no longer legible. We also re-bagged much of the pottery to preserve the stratigraphic integrity of the collection.

The inventory was entered into an Excel spreadsheet and standardized – the records can thus be sorted according to box, context number, etc. Two printed copies of the inventory, sorted by current location and trench, were deposited in the Museum, and one with the SPACH. We will also make the data available on our website.

The conservation records from the excavations were found among the ceramics. We photographed each page and our conservator, Jane Hamill, typed up the records so the Museum would have a digital record of the treatments carried out on each object. We were pleasantly surprised that many of the conservation techniques applied by the Kandahar team thirty years ago are still in favour today.

We hope that documenting the ceramics will facilitate further study of the remains from this important site, which is unlikely to be excavated again for the foreseeable future.

Islamic Gravestones (PC, JH and DCT; tracings by PC, HGNR, FJK, DCT, ALG, LM)

A group of nine Islamic gravestones are on display in the Museum gardens, close to the west gate (Fig. 6). The gravestones come from a variety of poorly provenanced sources; to the best of our knowledge, they have not been studied or published previously. Most appear to be Timurid in date, although the two more worn examples (Gr 1 and Gr 8) may be earlier.

GrNo. / Length / Width / Height / Provenance / Comment
1 / 103 cm / 42 cm / 38 cm / Police station Auzay 3 and 7 / Seized by police, 3-4 years ago; very worn –pre-Timurid?
2 / 150 cm / 35 cm / 39 cm / Saraya Abdul Rahman Khan, Kabul / Found in 2003-04
3 / 176 cm / 54 cm / 43 cm / Saraya Abdul Rahman Khan, Kabul / Found in 2003-04
4 / 168 cm / 42 cm / tbc / Police station Auzay 3 and 7 / Seized by police, 3-4 years ago
5 / 225 cm / 74 cm / 58 cm / nr Pul-e Artan / Found ca 25 years ago; undecorated panels
6 / tbc / tbc / tbc / nr Pul-e Artan / Found ca 25 years ago; undecorated panels
7 / 174 cm / 54 cm / 54 cm / nr Pul-e Artan / Found ca 25 years ago; unfinished panel
8 / 119 cm / tbc / > 55 cm / Mir Bacha Kot, nr road to Charikar / Very worn – pre-Timurid?
9 / 150 cm / 28 cm / >32 cm / Police station Auzay 3 and 7 / Seized by police, 3-4 years ago

Table 1: details of gravestones in the Kabul National Museum garden[9]