Citation:
Abstract:
This volume reports the findings of a legacy archaeology project, the largest ever undertaken in southwest Afghanistan. For the decade of the 1970s, the joint US-Afghan Helmand Sistan Project conducted extensive survey and excavation in the lower Helmand Valley and adjacent areas, documenting 200 archaeological sites in the region from the Bronze Age to the present. Four decades of warfare since that time have made further work in this region almost impossible. The Helmand River valley was one of the main routes between Mesopotamia, Iran, India, and Central Asia. Mythical and historical figures from Alexander of Macedon to Zoroaster and from Rustam to Tamerlane passed through and left their marks.
This book provides the first archaeology-based cultural history of the region, fleshing out and often challenging what we know from historical documents. Among key findings of the project were the tracing of extensive canal systems through the desert, the discovery of a previously unknown early Iron Age occupation and of the westernmost Buddhist shrine from the early expansion of the religion, and archaeological evidence of the otherwise unstudied local Islamic dynasty, the Saffarids, who controlled much of the Middle East and Central Asia from Sistan in 9th and 10th centuries CE. While Volume 1 provides a description of each site studies, a second volume in development addresses the environmental and geological context, reports on the material culture finds including inscriptions, coins, and ceramics, and summarizes the importance of these finds for the study of the Afghan past.
The volume is authored by William B. Trousdale and Mitchell Allen.
Please visit the publisher's website for purchasing and other information.
The project is located online at http://www.sistanarchaeology.org