ARCHAEOLOGY NEWS -

 

ANCIENT BUDDHIST CITY IN AFGHANISTAN TO BE RAZED BY MINING COMPANY

 

MES AYNAK is an Afghan village with a buried treasure: a magnificent Buddhist city dating from the early centuries AD.

Discovered by a geologist in 1963, the buried city is regarded as the most important archaeological find in a generation. However, the fact that it is sitting on a vast copper deposit has sealed its fate and it's about to be destroyed.

 

A full excavation of the city has been impeded by political upheavals. First the Marxist takeover, then the Soviet invasion, next the Taliban government and Al-Qaida revolt (using the city tunnels as a hideout), and finally by the war with American forces.

 

By the time French archaeologists returned in 2004 they realized that looters had plundered the site of many valuable Buddha images and damaged the remaining frescoes. Looting continued under the new Afghan government.

 

In the last few years there have been other discoveries in the same valley. They range from fortified monasteries, a Zoroastrian fire temple, and several other Buddhist buildings, ancient coins, to more than 1,000 statues and a variety of other archaeological treasures.

 

Then in 2008 Chinese businessmen arrived, and bought a 30-year lease on the entire site with the objective of mining copper.

 

French archaeologists are now scrambling to save what they can before the site is razed.

The media have compared the destruction of the major Buddhist site at Mes Aynak to the dynamiting of the Bamiyan Buddhas by the Taliban in the summer of 2001.

 

The route to the site is hazardous due to recurrent attacks by the Taliban. Despite massive investment in the fortified camp at Mes Aynak, and enormous security, there have been several Taliban attacks on the Chinese mining camp and most of the 150 Chinese staff in residence recently fled back home.

 

In the meantime, excavations continue. Mining was due to begin in January, but Taliban attacks have delayed the start of the mining project. How long archaeologists have now remains unclear.

 

MES AYNAK's historical background:   It seems to have remained a wealthy centre until a period of slow decline began in the eighth century, with the arrival of Muslim invaders; the settlement was finally abandoned 200 years later.  Archaeologists have found a layer of ash and charcoal and smashed statues, which seems to have coincided with the slow rise of the Islamic Ghurid dynasty in the area.

 

Before that Buddhism was spreading over the Hindu Kush and the region was the meeting place for the ideas and peoples of the civilizations surrounding Central Asia. Its mountains and valleys were a major intellectual crossroads where the Hellenistic, Persian, Central Asian, Tibetan, Indian and Chinese worlds met and fused. At this period, Afghanistan was the epicentre of classical globalisation: midway on the trade route from Rome to China, traders came to Afghanistan from all over the world,

Read article in depth here: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/06/01/mes-aynak-afghanistans-buddhist-buried-treasure-faces-destruction/