Since 1994 great efforts have been
made to retrieve objects looted from the Kabul Museum before
they disappeared into the world trade in illicit antiquities.
Some items with the Kabul Museum accession numbers still on
them were retrieved by SPACH from the antiquities markets in
Peshawar, but most of the objects vanished without a trace and
most probably forever. Such purchases are not in normal circumstances
recommended, but these objects had a provenance, had been documented,
inventoried and scientifically studied progressively during
the course of the twentieth century. In short they had been
published and were well known to archaeologists and historians
from all over the world. It was a case of using desperate measures
during the height of the civil war to try to stem the flow of
artifacts directly stolen from the Kabul Museum and to preserve
them as documented objects of the cultural heritage of Afghanistan.
However, a new and quite different phenomenon has sprung up
in regard to retrieving and preserving artifacts looted in Afghanistan.
In the last several years literally thousands of artifacts have
been returned to the Ministry of Information and Culture, including
weaponry, sculptures, coins, ceramics, etc. Some have come from
expatriate Afghans purchasing them in shops or auction houses
abroad and others have come from people who present themselves
at the doorstep of the Ministry offices or the Kabul Museum
with burlap sacks of artifacts.
|
Objects with KBM numbers were bought by the Ministry of Information
and Culture in March 2004. Photo: A. Rodriguez
|
Certifiable pieces from the Kabul Museum do still
occasionally emerge, some as recently as several weeks ago,
presented by an Afghan who had apparently stored them in his
house for several years. As these artifacts were traceable to
the Kabul Museum collection before the looting began, Ministry
officials made a decision to purchase the articles and return
them to the Museum. However, the vast majority of the pieces
that have been handed over to the Ministry in the past few years,
and that are actually of some historical or iconographic value,
are not from the Kabul Museum's collection. Most of these pieces
were previously unknown and therefore have never been documented.
While the return of artifacts in principle is something to be
celebrated, returns of this nature are quite worrying for several
reasons. Firstly, the artifacts have no known provenance and
are therefore likely to have come from fresh looting in various
archaeological sites in Afghanistan. People present rather vague
stories of how and where they obtained such pieces making the
determination of provenance difficult. Even when pieces can
be traced to a particular site they have quite simply been ripped
from their archaeological context and much of the valuable information
that may have come from their context within the site - date,
function, relationship with buildings and other artifacts- is
lost forever. Secondly, people typically present artifacts to
the Ministry in the hope that they will receive some reward
or compensation. If compensation is given, whether in terms
of money or of public recognition, this simply encourages people
to seek to obtain similar artifacts from the same sources in
the future. This source will be sites either looted recently
or at some indeterminable time in the past. Whether or not the
artifacts are coming from newly discovered but scientifically
unexcavated sites, or sites previously but not fully excavated
in the past, then the outcome is much the same, their principle
historical and archaeological value has been irrevocably destroyed.
SPACH also regularly receives visitors to the Kabul office who
come seeking financial recompense in receipt for handing over
artifacts. People often see themselves as patriots because they
would rather see the artifacts remain in Afghanistan at a good
price than see them smuggled into Pakistan and sold into foreign
hands. Despite being illegal in Afghanistan, such activities
are both dangerous and fraught with ethical dilemmas in any
case. For one, it would mean having to "buy in" to
an illegal market that goes hand-in-hand with the smuggling
of illicit weapons and drugs. Firstly, buying objects from such
people would only encourage and indeed sanction the activities
surrounding their acquisition in the first place. These activities
typically include a pick and shovel under cover of darkness
in a small village in the Provinces of Afghanistan, but reports
have also come of bulldozers in broad daylight ploughing archaeological
sites under the auspices of the region's controlling warlord.
However, most regrettably, other instances have occurred at
Tepe Maranjan, in a suburb of the city of Kabul itself.
Despite the more preventable interventions at archaeological
sites such as that which occurred at Tepe Maranjan, the problem
is generally too vast and the security conditions too unstable
in Afghanistan at present, for the Afghan Government to control
every archeological and historical site in the country in order
to curb looting at the source. International military forces
stationed in Afghanistan are of little help in this regard also.
Coalition and ISAF forces cannot ensure security for themselves
or civilians outside the boundaries of Kabul city, let alone
significant archaeological and historical sites. However, some
initial steps are being taken in the form of new laws regulating
cultural heritage in Afghanistan and a modest increase in security.
There is some encouraging news of 100 soldiers soon to be re-assigned
from the Ministry of Interior to the Ministry of Information
and Culture, and whose specific task it will be to guard sites
of archaeological and historical significance. These guards
will require screening and training to ensure that they become
part of the solution and not a new cause for concern. These
are small but necessary steps towards addressing the issue and
at least the guards may be able to curb looting at a targeted
number of significant sites.
However, it appears to be the case for the time being at least,
that the best tool we have at our disposal, and one with greater
long-term benefits for cultural heritage in Afghanistan, is
educating people on the social worth of preserving cultural
heritage. Increased knowledge of Afghan history and the role
of archaeology in uncovering and increasing that knowledge will
assist in bringing to light the moral implications of looting
and smuggling artifacts, and hopefully encourage sanctions against
such activities in regional communities. When cultural heritage
and history are given due weight in education programs in schools
across the country, we might see a change in attitude that brings
community weight to bear on protecting cultural heritage throughout
Afghanistan.
We can only hope that enough is done within reasonable time,
before the stratigraphy in every archaeological site in Afghanistan
is pock-marked beyond recognition.
|
