The Legacy of the Ancient Kings. Ctesiphon and the Persian Sources of Islamic Art
15.11.2016 to 02.04.2017 Pergamonmuseum
Berlin Germany
How did Islamic cultures and Islamic art arise? Where do their roots lie? Like the Islamic religion itself, Islamic art also built on its predecessors in the Middle East. Focussing on Ctesiphon, a vast landscape of ruins south of Baghdad, this exhibition is devoted to the Persian legacy inherited by Islam.
Dominated by the monumental vaulted hall of the royal palace, the Taq-e Kesra, the city today is an emblem of the grandeur and downfall of the mighty Sassanid empire, a great power in ancient Persia about which little is known today. For centuries it competed with Rome and Byzantium. In the 7th century CE, however, the conquests by the Arab armies fundamentally changed the political balance of power. Culturally, too, a transformation took place – "Islamic art" was born. But had everything really changed?
The exhibition shows that the existing culture did not simply disappear and that the new culture did not arise out of nothing. Starting with a panoramic view of the world around 600 CE, it introduces a multi-cultural cultural landscape and illustrates how old techniques, ideas and motifs lived on. Many things were adopted to serve as the basis for new innovations – while others disappeared into the darkness of history. The exhibition also invites the visitor to consider the purely practical problems of researching the past. How can cultural change be identified from archaeological objects? What difficulties do archaeologists encounter when trying to reconstruct the past and what new opportunities are there for us today? Belonging, as they do, to a cultural legacy shared between Iraq and Iran and a cultural heritage currently under threat, and bearing witness to the birth of Islamic culture, the objects on display raise concrete questions for the present day.
2,400 year old Ust-Taseyevsky idol 'underwent racial realignment early in Middle Ages', losing his European looks.
Ust-Taseyevsky stone idol. Picture: Yuri Grevtsov
But why this medieval plastic surgery? And the next puzzle: how come he had Caucasian features almost two millennia before the Russian conquest of Siberia?
An inscrutable face stares at us from the deep past. This idol - in fact a cluster of idols - has been gazing precisely east-southeast from a crest on a sandstone hill since several centuries before the birth of Christ, even if modern man only chanced upon him in 1975.
The main stone sculpture visible today shows a man with widely spaced almond-shaped eyes and ocher-coloured pupils.
He has a massive nose with flared nostrils, wide open mouth, a bushy moustache and a beard. And yet all is not quite as it seems, for this sculpture, the most northerly of this genre in Asia, underwent an historic version of plastic surgery perhaps 1,500 years ago to give him a less Caucasian and more Asian appearance, according to experts.
An inscrutable face stares at us from the deep past. Picture: Yuri Grevtsov
Archeologist Yuri Grevtsov said: 'Analysis of the sculpture's micro-relief showed that the original image went through some improvements. The first 'edition' was made by knocking, charring and the polishing the lines. Most likely it was all made by one person who seemed to have a very strong hand and a good taste.'
'Finds of ancient tools, weapons and bronze mirrors in grottos surrounding the sculpture suggest this and other more weathered and fallen idols were hewn out of the sandstone as a place of worship between the second and fourth century BC.
'But in the early Middle Ages a 'less experienced sculptor' got to work on the idol and 'sharply delineated and narrowed the sculpture's asymmetric eyes. The nose bridge was flattered with several strikes. The nose contour was altered to form 'two deep diagonally converging grooves.
'The moustache and the beard were partially 'shaved'.'
Ust-Taseyevsky ritual site, and the idol. Pictures: Yuri Grevtsov, Anna Kravtsova
So the original European look of the idol was changed to a more Asian countenance. Why would this happen?
'Judging by archeological finds found inside the grottos, this anthropomorphic idol was made during the Scythian time,' Yuri Grevtsov said. 'The first change came when the more European looking face was transformed to make it appear more Mongoloid was likely to have happened in the early Middle Ages with a shift of the population in the Angara River area,' he said.
In other words, incoming ethnic groups preferred the idol to be more akin to their own looks.
The third transformation must have happened with the arrival of Russian people and them introducing the locals to tobacco and pipes.
Another change in the idol came later: a conical hole 1.5 cm in diameter was drilled in the sculpture's mouth.
Ust-Taseyevsky stone idol. Picture: Anna Kravtsova
This transformation 'must have happened with the arrival of Russian people, introducing the locals to tobacco and pipes'.
The Russian conquest of Siberia reached this region - in modern day Krasnoyarsk - in the 17th century.
Senior researcher Grevtsov said the stone idol is the only one of its kind in the taiga so far north: the closest analogues would be 500 kilometres to the south in Khakassia.
Why, though, would the original face have distinctly European features - seen by some as Slavic - when modern-day native Siberian groups have a more Asian appearance?
The answer may be that the Scythian peoples - a large group of Iranian Eurasian nomads who held sway in many Siberian regions at this time - did indeed have this more European visage.
Reconstructions of faces from permafrost burials, for example in the Altai Mountains, shows this to be the case.
Comparing Ust-Taseyevsky stone idol to other stone statues in Asia. Picture: Yuri Grevtsov
'The rich archeological material found at the site can be divided into five main groups,' Grevtsov said. 'Weaponry - stone, bone and metal arrowheads, knives and axes; bronze mirrors; harnesses and their decorations; fragments of bear and elk skulls with traces of rituals, for example when their lower jaws were cut off; and ritual elements like a shaman crown made of deer antlers,' he said.
'All the finds bear traces of fire. Given the type, the concentration and the locations of the finds we conclude that they were used for ritual purposes.
'The grottos were sacrificial places where all offerings were buried.'
The so-called Ust-Taseyevsky Idol (or Taseyevsky) is on the left bank of the Taseyeva River, some 4 km from its confluence with the Angara, and 10 km from the village of Pervomaisk, some 300 km north from regional capital Krasnoyarsk.
In all there are four sculptures, along with a 'carving table' and a spot where sacrifices of bears and elks were made. It lies 480 metres from the river bank, and 104 metres above the water level, a crest on a 300 metre hill.
The local calcareous sandstone led to rocks weathering into a quaint and somewhat anthropomorphic shapes, said the archeologist.
Ust-Taseyevsky stone idol. Picture: Anna Kravtsova
'Some of the rocks collapsed, forming natural constructions with grottos and corridors, and making for a scenic site. In the centre of a 22 metre long sandstone ridge there is a four metre high rock, which looks a bit a like a human profile.'
It was to the left of this that archeologists found two grottos 'both full of archeological finds'.
To the right is the idol with the human face and in front, covered with moss, there was a roughly-made petroglyph depicting another human face.
'To the right of the human face statue there is another large rock with no traces of human influence, yet looking quite like a woman's head covered with a hood.'
The area is so rich in iron ore that springs are visible with rusty-coloured water.
Scheme of the site and its location marked on the world map. Pictures: Yuri Grevtsov, The Siberian Times
Explorer Maksim Fomenko who visited the site this year with a Yenisei TV film crew said: 'A compass dances frivolously with its needle going as much as 20 degrees off course. Locals also say that the hills act like a magnet to lightning bolts during storms. I wonder if this was the same in earlier times and if people that lived here saw it as a good sign to choose the site for their rituals.'
Grevtsov spoke about the moment in the early 1990s when he realised the site contained more than the idol.
'I got between the rocks to measure them. At some point to get the height I had to lie down on my back,' he said. 'I felt as if my coat had caught a tree branch and wouldn't let me move freely, (and) I reached out behind my back and felt the handle of a bronze knife.
'It wasn't immediately under the big idol, but to the left of it. The soil was so soft and loose that I started to dig deeper with my hands, and within minutes found an arrowhead and a bear's fang.
'My colleagues joined me and during the first few days we found a bronze axe, pendants, badges shapes like griffons and ram's heads.
'I couldn't sleep for two nights, so strong was the feeling of excitement.
'There was a path leading up the hill. One of the rocks that looks like a table was used to carve carcasses of bears and elks. Judging by the bones we found, they cut off bear paws and heads, then separated jaws from the rest of the skull and performed some procedure in between the rocks.
'Then they had a meal and burned the skulls and paws inside a different pit.'
'I couldn't sleep for two nights, so strong was the feeling of excitement', archeologist Yuri Grevtsov
In fact, the idol that is so visible and striking today was not the main figure in the complex. The central character worshipped by the people of the past is in the middle of the composition, above all other stones. It has one eye, a nose and something looking like a beard.
There is disagreement about what it shows: some see the face of a man, others an animal, perhaps even a bird, most likely a raven. It is surmised that the idol that is prominent today was a 'helper' and probably not the recipient of ancient offerings.
Next to the helper there is a round-shaped rock which researchers refer to as the 'helper's wife'.
The carving table is to the left of the helper and his wife.
Behind the main sculpture there is a 'guard' - the biggest rock of all on the site - whose role was seen to be to overlook the ritual site.
Stone and bronze finds discovered at the Ust-Taseyevsky ritual site. Picture: Yuri Grevtsov
After each of the rituals, the offerings were hidden in niches between the rocks and piled on top of the remnants of the previous offerings.
The 'guard' stone stood by the richest of the niches that had the most intriguing finds.
Interestingly, the hierarchy of how the idols were set on the site is similar to the ways of the Khanty and Mansi peoples, whose geographical location is some 2,000 kilometres to the north east.
Their idols were made of wood but the order they were arranged was similar - the main idol was in the middle, a helper and his wife were to the left, a guard was to the right.
The ancient Silk Road was not only a trade route, but also a corridor for ideas to flow. Today in Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the major religion is Islam. Prior to the arrival of Islam, it was Buddhism. One of the greatest legacies from that time is the murals in the Grottoes of Qiuci, another name for the ancient kingdom of Kucha. As a part of our special series Xinjiang: Exploring China’s New Frontier, reporter Han Bin takes us to see the murals and what’s being done to restore them.
XINJIANG: Protecting ancient art
XINJIANG: Protecting ancient art
The ancient Silk Road was not only a trade route, but also a corridor for ideas to flow. Today in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the major religion is Islam. Prior to the arrival of Islam, it was Buddhism. One of the greatest legacies from that time is the murals in the Grottoes of Qiuci, another name for the ancient kingdom of Kucha. As a part of our special series Xinjiang: Exploring China’s New Frontier, reporter Han Bin takes us to see the murals and what's being done to restore them.
The paintings reveal a lost oasis on the Silk Road. For the past 18 years, Ye Mei has been investigating the secrets of the murals – created when Buddhism flourished in Xinjiang.
Ye Mei, director for the Institute of Qiuci Grottoes Protection has always been curious how murals drawn over 2,000 years ago have survived to this day – and how to protect them into the future.
She told us the grottoes house the cultural achievements of the region’s ancient ethnic groups. They show that ancient civilization was built on the integration of the dominant Buddhist culture with several other religious cultures.
The murals are rich and diverse in content. But time and the elements have taken their toll.
The murals are rich and diverse in content. But time and the elements have taken their toll, and the actual number of grottoes and murals is still a mystery.
“Qiuci was a very inclusive and prosperous society. It was a key hub of the ancient Silk Road, a key melting pot for different cultures<‘ Ye Mei said. “These characteristics are fully reflected in the paintings. Like this figure: he’s a high-ranking nobleman, with short hair, a half-length robe, and a small sword.”
For a long time, Qiuci was the most populous oasis in the Tarim Basin. The Qiuci Grottoes are the most famous Buddhist art site in Xinjiang. The influence of the different civilizations from the West and the East were profound. The glory enjoyed over one thousand years ago still lingers today.
Every day, Ye Mei and her team are hard at work, high up in the mountains. Most of the caves are closed to the public.
The team keeps detailed records and identifies the cause of the damage to determine the best course of action. She says the speed of restoration cannot catch up with the speed of deterioration.
“Restoration is a daunting task, which needs extreme dedication, patience, and carefulness. It’s not a project to finish rashly,” Ye Mei said. “We strictly follow the concept of modern relic protection. We try to minimize human intervention, achieve material compatibility, and maintain historical authenticity. The techniques and material used in mural restoration are still in a long process of research. What we are using is obtained through years of testing and analysis.”
“Restoration is a daunting task, which needs extreme dedication, patience, and carefulness. It’s not a project to finish rashly,” Ye Mei said.
For Yei Mei, no detail is too small.
“The murals are a precious cultural heritage left by our ancestors. They are also a valuable world heritage that needs our great protection,” she said. “I will be their life-long companion. A little shake might remove a piece of history from the wall; my hands can also help stabilize them in the original form. This is my greatest joy. ”
Ye Mei wants to restore Qiuci as closely as possible to its former glory so that the legacy of the lost oasis can one day be viewed by all.
A women’s gold ring from the 12th or 13th century, discovered in Tavan Tolgoi in eastern Mongolia. (provided by Chung-Ang University professor Lee Kwang-ho)
Newly published research indicates that Genghis Khan‘s family may not be Mongoloid, as is generally believed, but Caucasoid
Based on a DNA analysis of bones that likely belonged to the Mongolian royal family, South Korean researchers have concluded that Genghis Khan and Westerners might share a common ancestor.
“After analyzing the DNA from five bodies discovered in Mongolia in 2004, we concluded that they were members of Genghis Khan’s imperial family from the Mongolian era in the 12th and 13th centuries. We also concluded that these individuals’ patrilineal origins could be the same as the ancestors of Westerners,” said Lee Kwang-ho, the leader of the research team, on Oct. 10. Lee is a professor in the departments of life science and science of cultural heritage at Chung-Ang University.
The Korean researchers prepared the paper in collaboration with a team led by Dashtseveg Tumen, a professor of anthropology at the National University of Mongolia. The paper was published in the Sep. 14 issue of “Plos One,” an open access journal.
The bodies (three male, two female) were unearthed in 2004 in Tavan Tolgoi in eastern Mongolia, which is 650 km from Mongolia’s capital of Ulaanbaatar. One of the female bodies was nicknamed the “Mongol queen” because the shape of the tomb, its layout and the burial goods found there suggested that she might have been part of the imperial family. After analyzing the bodies using the carbon dating method, the researchers found that they very likely belonged to the family of Genghis Khan (that is, the imperial family) around the time that he was alive.
An analysis of mitochondrial DNA also showed that the three males and one of the females had the same genotype, indicating they had the same matrilineal origins. This suggests that they may have been four siblings or a mother and three sons. The bodies’ mitochondrial genotype was the haplogroup D4 (showing that they had the same maternal lineage), which is typically observed in Northeast Asian populations today.
A Y-SNP (single-nucleotide polymorphism on the Y chromosome) analysis of the three males found that they all had the Y-haplogroup R1b-M343, which has the broadest distribution in the UK and other parts of Europe.
“This shows that the patrilineal origins of Genghis Khan’s family may not be Mongoloid, as is generally believed, but Caucasoid,” Lee said. In other words, this genotype analysis raises the possibility that Genghis Khan’s paternal ancestors were the same as Westerners’.
The genotype that was detected in an STR (short tandem repeat on the Y-chromosome) analysis of the three males is the same as that found in Russian Kalmyks, Han Chinese, Uzbeks and Tajiks today. These regions were ruled by Genghis Khan, his sons and his grandsons.
By Lee Keun-young, senior staff writer
Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]
India says it too has a direct stake in the old road's legacy.
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Idea behind exhibit was to show concurrent prosperity in Gupta period, Tang Dynasty.
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The rare collection has 56 sculptures from 9 museums in India
As China goes ahead with an ambitious plan to revive the legacy of the ancient Silk Road, India is conveying a message to Beijing that it also has a direct stake in the old road's legacy.
That message was underlined on Tuesday in a rare exhibition of 5th century Gupta period sculptures that opened its doors at the Forbidden City's Palace Museum in Beijing.
India's Ambassador to China Vijay Gokhale said at the opening that "while China's Silk Road was creating opportunities for merchandise trade across Asia including with the Gupta Empire", "simultaneously, the Dharmaratna Marg or Spiritual Road forged by earlier generations of Indian scholar-monks, became the channel for the flow of cultural and intellectual ideas between India, and China and Central Asia."
The idea behind the exhibit was to show the concurrent prosperity in the Gupta period and the Tang Dynasty, when there was an outpouring of creative works in literature, music, the arts and sciences in India and China. The two civilisations were also linked through the journeys of monks Fa Xian (or Fa Hien) and Xuan Zang (Hiuen Tsang) to Nalanda.
The exhibit, titled "Across the Silk Road: Gupta sculpture and their Chinese counterparts between 400 and 700 AD", aims to showcase that history.
"For a long period until the mid-20th century contacts India and China had withered away," Gokhale said. "Through the collective efforts of our leaderships, and with the support of the two peoples, Indians and Chinese are beginning to re-connect. We should value this. Building a better understanding about our historical exchanges will enhance our current efforts to build the 21st century as the Asian Century. This wonderful exhibition with its artistic treasures from a Golden Age in our civilizations will make a valuable contribution to this process."
RARE EXHIBIT
The rare collection has 56 sculptures from 9 museums in India: the National Museum, New Delhi, Government Museum Mathura, State Museum Lucknow, Allahabad Museum, Bharat Kala Bhavan, Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, Museum and Picture Gallery, Vadodara, Gujarat, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, Mumbai and Government Museum Kota, Rajasthan.
A 5th century Ganesha from Gujarat on display in Beijing.
The priceless artefacts were transported by air in two batches, each wrapped carefully in customised crates filled with special styrofoam.
The oldest display is a late 3rd century/early 4th century Bodhisattva from Gandhara, which is set to generate particular interest in China.
Shan Jixiang, director of the Palace Museum, said it would give the Chinese public a rare opportunity to see Indian cultural artefacts from a period that has special significance to China's history.
Gupta period art influenced not only Tang Dynasty styles but Central Asia as well. Buddhism is still the most widely practiced faith in China, with an estimated 300 to 400 million Buddhists although precise figures are unavailable in the still officially Communist nation.
Shan described the sculptures of that era as "twin lotuses from the same stalk". The two displays bear striking similarities yet with revealing differences: 5th century Buddhas from India and China show features that subtly reflect their origins.
The exhibition will continue in Beijing until December 28 at the Forbidden City's Palace Museum, before travelling to Fujian, Zhejiang and Sichuan provinces. SILK ROAD POLITICS
The exhibit appears to be a rare instance of India signalling its willingness to associate itself with China's Silk Road revival, albeit only in a cultural project.
India has so far responded cautiously to President Xi Jinping's ambitious "One Belt and One Road" plan which aims reviving the Silk Road's legacy. China is building a Silk Road economic belt to South and Central Asia and a Maritime Silk Road to Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean Region.
India has rejected China's requests to endorse the plan, saying that it wanted more information about specifics and that a "national initiative" of China's didn't require international endorsements.
While India's major point of concern is that China has included a corridor plan through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir as a signature initiative of the "Belt and Road", another worry is that the plan is Chinese-led rather than a multilateral initiative.
Beijing has since sought to reframe the plan as a more consultative enterprise, for instance, renaming it as the "Belt and Road" in English, rather than the more limited "One Belt, One Road". That, however, still remains the name in Mandarin Chinese.
About 30 pieces of Scythian gold have been found in a kurhan (burial mound) in Bilsk, Kotelevsky District, Poltava Oblast.
Scholars and archaeologists started exploring the ancient city of Gelonus 110 years ago. According to the Greek historian Herodotus (484–425 BC), Gelonus was the capital of the Scythian tribe Budini. In his account of Scythia, Herodotus writes that the Gelonii were formerly Greeks, having settled away from the coastal towns among the Budini, where they “use a tongue partly Scythian and partly Greek”:
“The Budini for their part, being a large and numerous nation, are all mightily blue-eyed and ruddy. And a city among them has been built, a wooden city, and the name of the city is Gelonus. Of its wall then in size each side is of thirty stades and high and all wooden. And their homes are wooden and their shrines. For indeed there is in the very place Greek gods’ shrines adorned in the Greek way with statues, altars and wooden shrines and for triennial Dionysus festivals in honour of Dionysus…
Above the Sauromatae (Sarmatians), possessing the second region, dwell the Budini, whose territory is thickly wooded with trees of every kind. The Budini are a large and powerful nation: they have all deep blue eyes, and bright red hair. The Budini, however, do not speak the same language as the Geloni, nor is their mode of life the same. They are the aboriginal people of the country, and are nomads. Their country is thickly planted with trees of all manner of kinds. In the very woodiest part is a broad deep lake, surrounded by marshy ground with reeds growing on it. Here otters are caught, and beavers, with another sort of animal which has a square face…”
Many expeditions have been organized in the area, but no precious objects were discovered during the digs… until today.
Burial place. Archaeologists cannot say who was buried here as the tomb was robbed in the Scythian period and after. However, they believe two people rested here, and one of them was probably a woman because flowers are depicted on the stone (characteristic of female burials).
The team also found a Greek bronze arrowhead, pottery, and a tooth that was sent for DNA testing. The findings date back to the 7th century BC, meaning that the objects have been buried for 2700 years.
Stanislav Zadnikov, senior fellow at the Museum of Archaeology of the Karazin Kharkiv National University.
“I’ve never found so much gold. Once I found a plaque measuring 1 cm by 1 cm, but here we’ve found several dozen!”
Approximate extent of Scythia within the area of the Eastern Iranian languages (in orange) in the 1st century BC.
For archaeologists Afghanistan, rich in ancient treasures and once a key stop on the legendary silk road, is an "open-air museum", albeit one ravaged by war and plagued by looters.
After 30 years of conflicts, Afghanistan's cultural heritage is in dire straits, but one group of archaeologists is trying to put the country's historical sites back on the map - literally.
An international team is working to map the country's numerous sites and monuments with satellite imaging into a huge database—a giant geographic information system (GIS).
"The authorities have long feared encouraging looting by locating such sites... In fact, most have already been looted, " says Julio Bendezu-Sarmiento, a French-Peruvian archaeologist who heads the French Archaeological Delegation to Afghanistan (DAFA).
The project is going ahead now because "it is often the looters who are best informed about where the archaeological sites are," he adds, so a database will not affect this.
Afghanistan's location and the variety and abundance of its bountiful mines of gold, copper and precious stones make it an archaeological holy grail. The Afghan lapis-lazuli, a brilliant blue semi-precious gemstone, was used as decoration by the Egyptian pharaohs and the great kings of Assyria and Babylon, Bendezu-Sarmiento notes.
In DAFA's offices a large satellite image of the country, with its bust bowls, deep valleys and steep mountains, is shown on a widesceen display. Heritage sites are indicated by yellow, blue and red dots depending on whether they have been excavated, identified or only recently discovered.
The work consists of linking this mapping to each site in the database.
In 1982, under pressure from Soviet Russia which had invaded Afghanistan, DAFA—who had been there since 1922—had to leave the country where they'd identified 1,286 heritage sites.
"Today, we've identified five times that," Bendezu-Sarmiento says.
On the map, there are numerous marks as the archaeologists try to connect information from the first excavations in the 1930s.
"The country is huge, with an enormous wealth of sites," says Elena Leoni, an Italian archaeologist specialising in Central Asia and GIS.
Leoni gives the example of the historical town of Balkh in northern Afghanistan, known to the ancient Greeks as Bactra, where an incredible amount of gold was discovered.
Julio Bendezu-Sarmiento (L), head of the French Archaeological Delegation to Afghanistan (DAFA), with a small sculpture in Kabul
Often compared to the famed treasures discovered in the burial chamber of Egyptian king Tutankhamun, "L'Or de Balkh" is shown all over the world as part of a touring exhibition.
Thomas Lorain, the organisation's scientific secretary adds: "When one digs, one always stumbles across something."
Copper vs. Buddhas
Mohamed Nader Rassouli, a consultant at DAFA who is esteemed by his colleagues as a living "library of Afghan archaeology" and studied the subject in Russia in the 1960s, has seen his country's vast cultural heritage tragically squandered.
"Houses have been built over the sites around Kabul that DAFA excavated in 1937," he laments.
"And in the provinces, sites have been destroyed by looters and antiquities traffickers as well as people simply working in the fields," he adds.
For the Afghan authorities, the archaeological map will also serve as a tool for ministries to launch major development projects, explains Haroon Hakimi, spokesman for the ministry of culture.
"People say Afghanistan is an open-air museum," he says. "It is vital to identify these sites, then you know where they are when you want to build roads, operate mines or drill for oil."
This is especially important as the government is in the process of distributing mining concessions and according to sources plans to sign at least 25 contracts this year.
"Interest in mineral resources is not a modern thing and it was the desire to exploit and manage these resources that undoubtedly led to the creation of these great cities," Bendezu-Sarmiento says.
Mes Aynack, a huge historical site with thousands of Buddhas located south of Kabul, was discovered by a Chinese mining company because of the huge amounts of copper lying beneath the ruins.
The Metallurgic Corporation of China agreed to suspend its work there, but Afghan archaeologist Rassouli says many other sites remain at risk.
"Once this map is complete, it will be publicly available for people so that they can participate in its protection. Everyone must do their bit," Rassouli said.
