Archaeology in a war-zone

Following on my previous posting on the lovely stucco mihrab at Zuzan, two people kindly reminded me to properly credit Blair and Adle for the work they have done on the site.

I had intended to draw further on this work – perhaps to write about the three phases of construction of the mosque-madrasa; or about how the (partially) extant building represents the first exterior use of two-colour faience (Blair p76, from Godard)

But then I read one of Adle’s reports (covering 1988-99) in more detail (click here: it’s in French), and thought you might be more interested in his report of the difficulties of working in an unstable border area – when war is very close; and where both the local drug traffickers and the forces working to stop them have very specific effects on the built environment.

Of course, trouble in Zuzan is nothing new. The third and most splendid phase of the building was halted by the assassination of the patron in 1218, with the Mongols invading in 1220, only two years later. And it was seen as more than a simple coincidence by some locals that the month and day carved on the principal eyvan (Jan 16^th), were exactly the same as the date that the last Shah was exiled from Iran – a mere 759 years later.

But it’s since then that the archaeological efforts to at least record the building have really been affected by the war-zone location.

First there were distractions, as the team had to attend to nearby archaeological emergencies – trying to save the (wrongly reputed) tomb of Gawhar Shad; and the buddhas of Bamiyan.

Then there were the more direct effects of war: after the invasion of Mazar-e Sharif in August 1998, two hundred thousand soldiers were quartered nearby. The old village of Zuzan was razed to ensure it couldn’t provide cover for the drug traffickers. Security became a major issue: with hostage-taking and executions increasingly common. Perhaps this was why, when I first visited the area, there were shocked responses from my friends in Tehran – exactly why was I visiting ‘kidnap alley’!?

Despite all these challenges, Adle’s team have been constructing a 3-D digital reconstruction of the mosque-madrasa (click and scroll down for a taste of this); as well as completing a 3-D colour archaeological aerial map of the local area.

Maybe next time you think you’ve had a  ‘hard day at work’, you might give the archaeologists in Zuzan a thought!