Mes Aynak, a major site for the history of Buddhism and economics in Afghanistan

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The war situation in which Afghanistan has been immersed since 1975 has not led to the disappearance of all cultural institutions. Until 2001, the date of the American intervention, their activity was slowed down or reduced to nothing, but some of the staff remained in place and their salaries were paid more or less regularly. As a result, the Afghan Institute of Archaeology was able to resume its activities, under very difficult conditions, from 2003, thanks also to the financial support of several foreign organizations, including the French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan.

A first series of excavations was carried out in Cabul itself and in the immediate vicinity, in search of the remains of Buddhist monuments. This led to the discovery of a large monastery to the south of the city, the Tepe Narenj monastery. Zafar Païman, who directed the excavation, reported on it in a lecture given at the Collège de France on February 17, 2009. In 2013, he will publish the final report of his ten excavation campaigns (2004-2012) on this site in the publications of the Collège de France's Institute of Indian Studies.

Since 2009, all the forces of the Afghan Institute of Archaeology have been engaged in the rescue excavation of a huge site, Mes Aynak, located 30 km east of Caboul on a copper deposit considered to be one of the largest in the world. The concession for the future mine has been awarded to a Chinese company, which is due to start operations in 2013, involving the destruction of archaeological sites. The contract between the Chinese company and the Afghan government stipulated that the latter would finance the excavation. The sum was actually paid (the contract is secret, but there is talk of $25 million) and, after a few twists and turns, the World Bank was given responsibility for supervising the funds. The excavation is taking place under complex political, administrative and financial conditions. Afghan archaeologists (housed in rough conditions next to comfortable buildings reserved for foreigners) and workers often had to wait several months for their salaries to be paid. The French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan has ensured the on-site conservation of a few paintings, but the other discoveries, including colossal clay statues, are still awaiting minimal consolidation, as the products required for this have not been purchased for lack of funds. The lack of measures taken to enable scientific publication has been noted, but cannot really be explained: no excavation journals, no architectural surveys, no precise location of coins and shards, etc. In these difficult conditions, Afghan archaeologists did their best to unearth an impressive array of monuments and documents. Mr. Fussman and Mr. Ollivier, on a fact-finding mission to the site in 2011 and 2012 at the invitation of the French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan, were able to visit it in detail under the guidance of Mr. Khair Muhammad Khairzada, Director at the Afghan Institute of Archaeology in 2011 and director of the excavation until summer 2012. It was agreed that Mr. Khairzada would present the latest results of the excavation at its compulsory conclusion in November 2012. At the invitation of Professors Jean Kellens and Gérard Fussman (now Honorary Professor), Mr. Khair Muhammad Khairzada therefore gave a lecture on Thursday November 29, 2012 on "Mes Aynak, a major site for the history of Buddhism and economics in Afghanistan". The lecture was given in Dari (Afghan Persian), with French translation, to a full and very attentive audience. The name Mes Aynak is beginning to make a name for itself among archaeologists, and many scholars in Paris are interested in this type of site, the excavation of which provides important clues to the survival of Buddhism and its art in Afghanistan and Central Asia, and to the economic history of these regions.

After a brief introduction to the site, discovered in 1964 by French geologist Albert de Lapparent, Mr. Khairzada showed two panoramic views of the site, enabling us to pinpoint the exact location of the monuments excavated and the places where we suspect the existence of equally interesting remains. The site consists of a north-south mountain, with an abundance of stones marked with copper oxide and slag, and settlements to the east of this, between two dry rivers, on formerly wooded loess slopes. We now know that the bulk of the copper deposit lies beneath these loess deposits. Ancient techniques only allowed copper to be extracted from the mountains. The ore was mined in tunnels and smelted on site. Enormous slag deposits, up to 15 metres high, testify to the intensity of mining, which lasted, as far as we can tell today, from the ^1st to the ^7th century AD. During these eight centuries, Mes Aynak was one of the most important mining complexes in northern India and Central Asia. The mine was protected by a wall running along the ridge, against which were built some miners' dwellings and smelting workshops (there is slag all the way to the top of the mountain). An important figure must also have lived here: in autumn 2012, a silver dish bearing the effigy of the Sassanid ruler Shapur II was discovered in one of these poor dwellings.

Most of the miners and administrative staff lived at the foot of the mountain, where the village of Baba Wali stood until 2009. Most of the dwellings have now been cleared. There are no barracks or "palaces", but the excavation has yielded some interesting documents: a jeweller's treasure, stone statues of Buddha and the remains of manuscripts in Indian script (brāhmī) from the ^4th-6th centuries CE.

The village was overlooked by a fortress or police station, called Tepe Shah, with an exceptional view over the mine and village, but also to the east, where attacks could come from. The whole site seems to have been protected or guarded by a line of forts, as yet unexcavated, but clearly discernible on the surrounding ridges.

All the clues gathered by the excavators show that the only religion practised was Buddhism, an Indian religion present in the region since the ^1st century AD. The donors and worshippers depicted in the paintings, however, are not dressed in Indian costume: they are wearing the pants and cross-body tunic characteristic of Central Asian populations, and they bear no resemblance to miners. Five Buddhist cult sites have been excavated to date. They appear to have been abandoned intact, the last monk closing the door behind him as he left. The existence of a modern village on one of them (Gol Hamid) and clandestine excavations in recent years appear to be responsible for most of the damage. On the whole, however, the sculptures and paintings were particularly well preserved when they came to light. It is to be hoped that they will one day find their way into the Caboul museum. Time is running out. Relocating earthen plaster wall paintings and colossal earthen statues is a delicate matter, requiring prior conservation measures on site and time which, for the moment, archaeologists don't seem to have been given.

Two of the Buddhist edifices (Baghcha Ghundi, to the north-east, and Kamr Ghari, on the southern crest of the mine) feature an original layout. They are a succession of rooms, at least some of which were covered by domes on trunks, housing stupas and (at Kamr Ghari only) earthen statues. No trace of monks' lodgings: these were simply places of worship. Coins have also been found here, including, at Kamr Ghari, a treasure trove of 850 bronze coins apparently attributable to the last Kushan rulers, but which continued to circulate after the demise of the Kushan empire.

The other three Buddhist edifices are monasteries with a classical layout: a residential part around a courtyard or large covered hall, a cultic part with niches and stupas accessible to lay worshippers. Judging by the architecture (domed rooms on trunks, poorly understood Gandharian architectural decoration), the style of the paintings and sculptures and the finds of coins and pottery, these monasteries were in operation from the ^4th to the ^7th century CE, but their excavation is not yet complete and further work could uncover earlier elements. The relative chronology of these three monasteries has also not been established: we don't know whether they operated together. The Gol Hamid monastery, located a little to the west of the mine site, was decorated with beautiful paintings (Buddhas and donors) and high-quality clay sculptures. The Kafiriyat Tepa monastery, also decorated with paintings, featured niches housing colossal earthen statues (some over 4 metres high) of Buddha, all very well preserved, and, in its last state, stupas with very special decoration. These finds provide a link between the Gandharian-type sculptures from the early centuries of our era found in Hadda and the Cabul region, and the paintings and sculptures of Bamiyan (after 600), and make it possible to write a new history of art in Afghanistan.

All this made Mr. Khairzada and the audience, who asked a lot of questions, regret the scheduled halt to the excavations. There is still a small hope that mining will begin only at the end of 2013, but this depends entirely on negotiations between the Afghan government and the Chinese mining company.

Prof. Gérard Fussman