Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T11:14:35.310Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Prehistoric Ceramics of Northern Afghanistan: Neolithic through the Iron Age

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Charles C. Kolb
Charles C. Kolb*
Affiliation:
[email protected], National Endowment for the Humanities, Division of Preservation and Access, 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC, 20506, United States, 202/606-8250
Get access

Abstract

For nearly four millennia, Afghanistan has been at the crossroads of Eurasian commerce and remains ethnically and linguistically diverse, a mosaic of cultures and languages, especially in the north, where the Turkestan Plain is a conduit for the so-called Silk Route, a series of “roads” that connected far-flung towns and urban centers and facilitated the transfer of goods and services. The research reported herein involves the comparative analysis of archaeological ceramics from a series of archaeological sites excavated in northern Afghanistan in the mid-1960s by the late Louis Dupree and me. I served as the field director (1965-1966) and analyzed the ceramics excavated from all six archaeological sites. These were Aq Kupruk I, II, III, and IV located in Balkh Province (north-central Afghanistan) and Darra-i-Kur and Hazar Gusfand situated on the border between Badakshan and Tarkar Provinces (extreme northeastern Afghanistan). Ten of the 72 ceramic types from the Aq Kupruk area have been published [1, 2, 3] but none of the 53 wares from northeastern Afghanistan have been described. The majority of the Aq Kupruk materials are undecorated (plain ware) ceramics but there is a unique series of red-painted decorated ceramics (Red/Buff, numbered types 45 through 52) with early first millennium BCE designs but the pottery dates to the BCE-CE period. The results of ceramic typological, macroscopic, binocular and petrographic microscopy (thin-section analysis and point counting) are reported.

Keywords

ceramicarchaeologymicrostructure
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1047: Symposium Y – Materials Issues in Art and Archaeology VIII , 2007 , 1047-Y01-02
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Kolb, C. C, Current Anthropology 18, 536–538 (1977).Google Scholar
2. Kolb, C. C, East and West 33, 57–103 (1983).Google Scholar
3. Kolb, C. C, Ceramic Ecology, 1988: Current Research on Ceramic Materials, ed. Kolb, C C., (Br. Archaeo. Reports, S–513, Oxford, 1989), pp.175–259.Google Scholar
4. Dupree, L. et al. , Prehistoric Research in Afghanistan (1959-1966), ed. Dupree, L. (Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. 62:4, Philadelphia, 1972).Google Scholar
5. Dupree, L., Afghanistan, rev. ed. (Princeton, 1990).Google Scholar
6. Kolb, C. C, Encyclopedia of Modern Asia, Vol. 1, ed. Levinson, D. (Scribner's, 2002), pp. 19–23.Google Scholar
7 Abdullah, S. H and Chmyriov, V. M, Geology and Mineral Resources of Afghanistan, 2 vols. (Ministry of Mines and Industries, Kabul, 1980).Google Scholar
8.Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Afghanistan Geological Survey (Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Ministry of Mines and Industry, Kabul, 2007). http://www.bgs.ac.uk/afghanminerals/Index.htm [hosted by the Br. Geol. Survey].)Google Scholar
9. Shroder, J. F Jr, “Geography,” Encyc. Iranica, Vol. 1, ed. Yarshater, E. (Routledge, 1983), pp. 486–491.Google Scholar
10. Smirnova, Y., Terrain Analysis of Afghanistan (East View Cartographic, Minneapolis, 2003).Google Scholar
11. Wolfart, R. and Wirrekindt, H., Geologie von Afghanistan (Gebrüder Borntraeger, Berlin and Stuttgart, 1980).Google Scholar
12. Lattman, L., “Provisional Comments on the Geology of Cave and Terrace Sites in Northern Afghanistan,” (Dept. of Geosciences, The Pennsylvania State Univ., 1969).Google Scholar
13. Kolb, C. C, “Painted Pottery from Baluchistan: An Ethnoarchaeological Study,” (Am. Anth. Assn., 1987).Google Scholar
14. Kolb, C. C, “The Ceramic Ecology of Pottery from Aq Kupruk Afghanistan: The Petrographic Evidence for External Relationships,” (Arch. Inst. Am., 1993).Google Scholar
15. Kolb, C. C, “Beyond the Bamiyan Buddhas: The Fate of Ceramic Collections in the Kabul Museum,” (Am. Anth. Assn., 2001).Google Scholar
16. Kolb, C. C, “The Kabul Museum Collections Revisited,” (Am. Anth. Assn., 2005).Google Scholar
17. Dupree, N. H, “Prehistoric Afghanistan: Status of Sites, Artefacts and Challenges of Preservation,” Art and Archaeology of Afghanistan: Its Fall and Survival: A Multi- Disciplinary Approach, ed. Kreiken-Peters, J. van, Juliette, (Brill, 2006), pp. 79–93.Google Scholar
18. Carver, R. E, Procedures in Sedimentary Petrology (Wiley, 1971).Google Scholar
19. Chayes, F., Petrographic Modal Analysis (Wiley, 1956).Google Scholar
20. Frangipane, M. and Schmid, R., Schweizerische Mineralogische und Petrographische Mitteilungen 54, 19–31 (1974).Google Scholar
21. Negandank, J. F. W., Neue Jahrbücher fuer Mineralogie, Abhandlungen 116, 308–320 (1972); 117, 183–195 (1972).Google Scholar
22. Catling, H.W. and Millett, A., Archaeometry 9, 92–97 (1966).Google Scholar
23. Galehouse, J. S, Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 39, 812–885 (1969).Google Scholar
24. Plas, L. van der, and Tobi, A.C., American Journal of Science 263, 87–90 (1965).Google Scholar
25. Puschnigg, G., Ceramics of the Merv Oasis: Recycling the City (Univ. College London, Inst. Arch. Pub., Left Coast Press, dist. by Univ. of Arizona Press, 2006).Google Scholar
26. Joyner, L., “Petrographic Analysis of Parthian and Sasanian Ceramics from Merv, Turkmenistan,” (Br. Mus. Dept. of Sci. Res., DSR Project 7081, 1999).Google Scholar
27. Shepard, A. O, Ceramics for the Archaeologist, Pub. 609 (Carnegie Inst. of Washington, 1968).Google Scholar
28. Rice, P. M, Pottery Analysis: A Sourcebook (Chicago, 1987).Google Scholar
29. Matson, F. R, “Ceramic Aspects,” The National Geographic Society/Smithsonian Institution Reconnaissance Expedition to Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey, August- September 1968” (Dept, of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State Univ., 1968).Google Scholar
30. Stein, M. A, An Archaeological Tour to Gedrosia (Mem. of the Archaeo. Survey of India, 43, Indian Archaeological Survey, New Delhi, 1931).Google Scholar
31. Cardi, B. de, Archaeological Surveys in Baluchistan: 1948 and 1957 (Occ. Pub. 8, Institute of Archaeology, University of London, London, 1983).Google Scholar
32. Rye, O. S and Evans, C., Traditional Pottery Techniques of Pakistan (Smithsonian Contrib. to Anthro 21, Smithsonian Inst, Press, Washington, 1976).Google Scholar
33. Lawler, A., “Middle Asia Takes Center Stage,” Science 317(5838), 586–590 (3 August 2007).Google Scholar