Unexpected archaeological finds at a 1,500-year-old Buddhist site near Kabul underscore missed opportunities to invest in Afghanistan’s historic sites due to the country’s isolation and lack of funding.
Conservation work at a stupa in Shewaki, 20 km southeast of Kabul, has not only restored one of the largest such burial sites in the country, but has also revealed hundreds of artifacts and dozens of ancient monuments in the area. But lack of funding and resources halted further investigation.
After the Taliban took over the country in August 2021, the few heritage experts left in the country suddenly found themselves able to explore historical sites they had been unable to reach before due to lack of security. In Shewaki, many nearby monuments were discovered after the Taliban established a government.
“Previously, we couldn’t reach the sites near Shewaki for security reasons, but now we can go anywhere in Afghanistan without any problem,” says Azizuddin Wafa, a senior archaeologist at the Afghan Institute of Archeology who worked on the Shewaki project.
However, Wafa, who has worked on some of the most important sites in the country, including Mes Aynak and the Topdara stupa, says that while there is still a lot of work to be done at Shewaki and other sites across Afghanistan, he has little hope of continuing due to a lack of interest in collaborations from the international community.
“Afghanistan is not in a situation that allows funding for archaeological projects. We need outside support,” says Wafa. “If our international friends and colleagues work with us, as they have done before, it will have two positive impacts. Firstly, from a financial point of view, it will be a considerable help for the Afghans [through employment]and second, it will help piece together the history of Afghanistan and what it once had,” he adds.
A nearly $900,000 project, funded by the Swiss Aliph Foundation, was launched in 2020 and completed in November 2022 under the Taliban government by the Afghan Cultural Heritage Consulting Organization (ACHCO), a non-profit, apolitical organization and cultural, in collaboration with the Afghan Institute of Archaeology.
The Shewaki stupa © the author
Build a sense of belonging
“Given that most of today’s donors focus on humanitarian needs, cultural heritage is inevitably seen as marginal, despite the fact that conservation generates important jobs,” says Jolyon Leslie, an ACHCO adviser who has worked in close collaboration on the Shewaki project. Leslie says more than a quarter of the overall project expenditure in Shewaki was spent on labor, 90% of which came from local villagers. The villagers’ involvement in the project has also rekindled their sense of belonging to the site, which can help to protect it.
Significant finds near the site include around 13 smaller stupas, furnaces which may have been used to smelt copper, remains of figurative sculptures and a giant red clay Bodhisatva head.
Prior to the restoration and restabilization of the main stupa in the foothills of the Monaray Ghar mountains, a damaged dome and drum were its only visible parts. They are thought to have been built between the 3rd and 5th centuries.
Some of the earliest recorded damage to the stupa was caused by Johann Martin Honigberger, a German physician who, in 1832, dug a circularly constructed drum tunnel into the masonry core of the stupa. Honigberger looted items from the site, including gold and silver items, pearls, coral, semi-precious stones and a fragment of birch bark with Kharoshthi script.
Wafa says that in addition to a significant lack of funding and access to modern technology, her department has also lost many experts who have left the country for opportunities in Europe or elsewhere.
“Developed countries don’t need us or our expertise. The place that really needs expertise is Afghanistan, so I don’t believe our educated people should leave this country – they should stay and help build it,” he says.
