Mes Aynak Archives - ARCH Library

After the Debacle: How Can the United States Best Protect its Interests in Afghanistan? (watch video starting at 33:55min)

Kathy Costello — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 13:30:28 +0000

The post After the Debacle: How Can the United States Best Protect its Interests in Afghanistan? (watch video starting at 33:55min) appeared first on ARCH Library.

Chinese Professor Advocates for the Protection of Mes Aynak

Kathy Costello — Mon, 01 Jul 2019 19:16:27 +0000

Author: Zhihang Du, ARCH volunteer

I learned about ARCH’s project in Mes Aynak when I started volunteering at ARCH this January. Mes Aynak is an ancient Silk Road city not far from Kabul, which sits atop a copper mine. There is an ongoing debate on whether to sacrifice the country’s cultural heritage for short term economic gains. ARCH is advocating for an approach that combines the newest mining technologies with an effort to save as much of this irreplaceable archeological site as possible. This question, as well as the political dynamics in the region, motivated me to write a paper for my “Ethics and Decision Making in International Development” class at Georgetown University.During my research, I found a very interesting article 文化遗产保护为何没有文化部门的声音? (Why Aren’t More Officials Speaking Out on behalf of Cultural Heritage Protection Abroad?) in which Chinese professor Dr Meitian Li argues for the protection and further archaeological excavation of Mes Aynak. In his article, he points out to his Chinese audience that international organizations such as ARCH are working hard to save Mes Aynak. Professor Li is an archaeologist at Renmin University, in his studies he focuses on Buddhist culture from the 7th to the 10th century.I reached out to him, and even though his article dates from 2015, he quickly got back to me. Soon after, I arranged a conversation between Prof. Li and the ARCH Team. Among other things, we talked about potential cooperation on further research on the site.This May, I went back to Beijing and met him in person. In his view, Mes Aynak is an extremely valuable treasure, containing comprehensive historical information related to the ancient Silk Road. It is a town, not just a single site. He told me, “Mes Aynak deserves more spotlight, even more than Bamiyan.”It is my personal wish that we will see a growing multilateral effort devoted to the promotion of Mes Aynak in the future.

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Report from Prague

sophia — Sun, 15 May 2016 18:17:32 +0000

May 15, 2016

For the first time ever, objects from the Mes Aynak archaeological site in Afghanistan were allowed to travel outside of the country for an exhibit in the Czech Republic.

Mes Aynak was a thriving Buddhist city located at one of the crossroads of the Silk Road. Copper was mined here probably from the Neolithic era onwards, and archaeologists expect to find intriguing information about the early history and technology of mining if they are able to excavate the site. In addition to multiple stupas and monasteries, there is a fort that was built to protect the city, its traders and its wealth. There is also believed to be a Zoroastrian shrine. Many stories remain untold, yet to be uncovered.

Not only goods were exchanged on the route but also customs, skills, tales, culture and art. For example, artifacts from the Bactrian and Kushan empires show Persian and Greek influences. Image 1 shows three lions and a baby lion. However, as was explained to me, Persian art works usually depict only two lions. This is evidence that this silver bowl from the Kushan period has Sassanian influences while carrying the fingerprint of its own specific art traditions. Furthermore, the curator told me that according to one of his Iranian friends, popular myth holds that the oldest son was not automatically the heir during Sassanian times. Rather, the title would pass to the one who killed a lion.

The exhibition in Prague, “Afghanistan – Rescued Treasures of Buddhism,” focuses on the pre-Islamic history of Afghanistan, its Buddhist history in particular. Afghanistan has a rich Buddhist history reaching to the Kushan period, which started approximately in the 1st century AD. “It was through the Kushans that the woolen textiles, gold, and silver of Rome flowed east; the cotton, spices, and semi-precious stones of India migrated north; the silk of China travelled west; and the rubies and lapis lazuli of Bactria and the Tarim Basin moved outwards. The Kushan Empire also played a vital role in the dissemination of Buddhism from India to Central Asia where it eventually found its way to China and then Japan.”

The exhibition is housed in four rooms, and each one – except the second room which is dedicated to a film and to children’s activities – has one of Buddhism’s colors: red, blue, and yellow. Green they left out, I was told, because it is symbolic of Islam. The show’s main curator, L’ubomír Novák, is an approachable, knowledgeable and very friendly man in his mid-thirties, whose diverse interests include Yaghnobi, Vikings, and medieval music. As he explained to me, he got involved in the show by chance. He heard about a project involving Afghanistan so he contacted the director of the museum to offer his assistance, because he is the only one at the Národní Museum (the National Museum) who speaks Persian. To his surprise, he soon found himself assigned to the running of the whole show.

Another, rather unlikely, co-organizer of the exhibition was the Czech military, and the Military History Institute Prague. It is startling to see in the display cases next to a three-winged arrowhead from the 1st to 2nd century CE, a modern item such as a soldier’s Kevlar helmet from 2007-2008 (see image 2) — representing the ISAF mission. Yet upon reflection one realizes that this is sadly appropriate: Afghanistan’s history is defined by wars (Alexander the Great, the Moguls, and the “Great Game” to mention a few). As Mr. Novák pointed out, the first historical reference to the territory of present-day Afghanistan is linked to Persian military campaigns and stems from Darius the Great. As he further explained to me, there is a saying that “all art stops in times of war”, but this does not hold true when it comes to Afghanistan.

The show is a success of cultural diplomacy and a win-win proposition. In exchange for being permitted to display the artifacts in the Czech Republic, Czech conservators agreed to assist with consolidating the objects. Attached to one showcase (image 3) was a QR code through which the visitor could check the status of conservation of a wall painting, constantly updated to reflect progress. This feature allowed for step-by-step observations of how the mural looked in its worst state and how it is being restored. The Czech side fulfilled its obligations and the archeological findings are currently being wrapped and packed up to be shipped back to Afghanistan.

As an organization that has been involved in campaigning for the Mes Aynak since 2012, we at ARCH were very excited to experience the display of these treasures and are inspired to continue in our efforts to save Mes Aynak as a real place and a real city for people in the future to visit – not just in the form of a few statues and artifacts ripped from their place and deposited in a museum.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Crying Wolf

ARCH — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 16:09:22 +0000

Al Jazeera recently broadcast the film Saving Mes Aynak, in which documentary film-maker Brent Huffman warns about the danger faced by a major archaeological site in Afghanistan.

Mes Aynak is a buried Buddhist era city about 30 miles from Kabul in Logar Province. It grew from a Bronze Age settlement into a sprawling city for the same reason that today puts it in peril: it sits atop a rich copper deposit, which people have been mining for at least 5000 years. Mes Aynak can be thought of as an Asian Pompeii. It is valuable for the historic information it represents, and could one day – if Afghanistan stabilises – be an important tourist destination.

As the film states, a Chinese mining company has been negotiating to open a mine here. Done improperly or recklessly, mining could indeed destroy this buried Buddhist city.

Open pit mining and strong detonations would even destroy the buildings, statues and artifacts that so far still remain safely underground, and this would indeed be a tragedy. Yet this looming danger has so far attracted little notice. Hardly anyone has even heard of Mes Aynak. By contrast, when the Taliban announced its intention to destroy the “heathen idols” – the ancient Buddhas of Bamiyan – there was a huge international outcry and many organizations and countries tried to dissuade them, though ultimately in vain. Drawing attention to Mes Aynak is in principle a valuable and important contribution.

Unfortunately, Huffman’s film profoundly misrepresents the situation, offers no solution and is likely to do more harm than good. Huffman claims that mining is scheduled to start at the end of this year, and that this will spell the end of the buried city. The way to prevent this is to support his indiegogo campaign and fund distribution of his film, which will create an international uproar and cause the Afghan government to halt the mining. This storyline is almost entirely false.

In fact, there isn’t even a mining contract yet. The current minister has stated that he plans to take his time and scrutinize the terms carefully. Once a contract is signed, it will take at least four and more likely six years to launch the mining. There is absolutely no way that anything can start this year, or next year, or even the year after, and Huffman has to know this. Opening a mine requires extensive engineering studies of the location, size, quality etc. of the copper deposit. It requires a mandatory environmental impact study and a mitigation proposal that satisfies national law and international standards. After that, the massive infrastructure associated with a large mining effort, including roads, must be built and machinery transported in. All of this takes years. Mr. Huffman attended the Expert Conference that my organization co-hosted with SAIS/Johns Hopkins University specifically on Mes Aynak, during which the exact mechanics of setting up a mine were discussed. The conference convened a group of neutral subject matter experts with no connection to Mes Aynak and with a mandate to find ways to protect the heritage site. Mr. Huffman is crying wolf, and this is irresponsible.

Second fact: to forbid mining at Mes Aynak is not going to happen. This is not analogous to Bamiyan, where heritage was wantonly destroyed for ideological reasons by a regime indifferent and impervious to world opinion. Mes Aynak is an economic project by a country desperate for revenue and with few other short-term assets. The challenge is to help the Afghan government oversee the process carefully and demand the application of the best available technologies. For example, a reasonable demand is that the explosives used should be sophisticated ones developed for mountainous regions where there is a danger of avalanches – these will also be gentler on the buried antiquities. The Expert Conference developed a list of specific solutions beyond the unrealistic zero sum picture painted by Huffman. He was there and is aware of that, but has chosen polemics instead.

My organization cares deeply about Mes Aynak. We nominated it to the World Monument Fund’s influential Watch List. We have been on site repeatedly. Partnering with SAIS we convened 17 leading independent experts on mining technology, history, groundwater safety, economic development and archaeology, including archaeologists from Mes Aynak. This technical meeting resulted in a plan that allows large sections of Mes Aynak to be preserved. One key recommendation was to establish a supervisory group reporting directly to President Ghani and consisting of all the stakeholders along with civil society groups and neutral experts to keep everyone honest. We successfully petitioned the World Bank’s Inspection Panel to send out an investigatory team to scrutinize the environmental and heritage risks.

These are tough times for cultural heritage. Between the dramatic destruction of ancient monuments by ISIL, the neglect resulting from economic downturn, the encroachments of an increasingly aggressive mining industry, and the looting for a very lucrative black market, defenders of cultural heritage have their work cut out for them. We need to be vigilant, organized and creative; we need to build alliances, develop strategies, utilize cutting edge technology on behalf of ancient artifacts, and find creative compromises. We have to be both pragmatic and determined. What we must not be: hyperbolic and inaccurate. Brent Huffman’s film Saving Mes Aynak and the statements he is making in corollary interviews, unfortunately cross that line.

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