Archaeology of Southwest Afghanistan
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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.
William B. Trousdale is Curator Emeritus at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. His books include The Long Sword and Scabbard Slide in Asia (Smithsonian 1975), City in the Desert (coauthored, Harvard UP, 1978), War in Afghanistan 1879-80 (Wayne State UP 1985) and The Gordon Creeds in Afghanistan (British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia 1984). His book Kandahar in the Nineteenth Century is in press at Brill for 2021 publication Mitchell Allen is a Research Associate at the Smithsonian Institution and University of California, Berkeley. He is author of the book Essentials of Publishing Qualitative Research (Routledge, 2015).