The Archaeology of Southwest Afghanistan

It is hard to over-estimate the importance of this contribution to the archaeology of the Near East and the Indo-Iranian borderlands. The Archaeology of Southwest Afghanistan is a uniquely important book that provides otherwise unavailable information about a crucial region in the Indo-Iranian borderlands from the 4th millennium BC though Timurid Islamic times (16th century CE). There can be no doubt that it will stand as the most important archaeological resource for this region for decades to come. -- Gil J. Stein, University of Chicago
The Helmand is the largest river between the Tigris and the Indus. Flowing from the heights of the Hindu Kush southwest across Afghanistan to terminate in the swamps of Sistan astride the Iranian border, it is also the southernmost of the inland-draining basins of Central Asia, the hearths of many ancient civilisations. Flanked by some of the world’s grimmest deserts, the Helmand has long been underestimated and under-researched as a vital cultural area from the Bronze Age through Islamic times. Trousdale and Allen’s Smithsonian Institution survey and excavations, although now several decades past, are one of the few attempts to unlock this hidden history, and this book is a crucial contribution to understanding the dynamics of human settlement, economy and commerce. -- Professor Norman Hammond, University of Cambridge
This groundbreaking work includes a wealth of new discoveries from the Bronze Age to late Islamic that will change much of what we know about the archaeology of the region, with repercussions in Iran, Central Asia and the Indus Valley. Discoveries include a previously unidentified Iron Age culture in the region, remains of a Hellenistic style temple with Greek and Aramaic inscriptions, Buddhist and Zoroastrian religious monuments, previously unrecorded early Islamic palaces and mosques, and more. Future work in the archaeology of the wider region will now need to be made with continual reference to the results laid out here, a work that will remain an essential source book for many years to come. -- Warwick Ball, author of The Archaeological Gazetteer of Afghanistan
Cet imposant travail présente une multitude de découvertes nouvelles, de l’âge du bronze à l’époque islamique tardive, qui changent une grande partie de nos connaissances de l’archéologie de la région, avec des échos en Iran, en Asie centrale et dans la vallée de l’Indus. … Nous pouvons complimenter les auteurs pour avoir courageusement replongé dans leurs archives après cinquante années, pour en faire ce bel ouvrage de référence, mais aussi les presses de l’université d’Édimbourg pour l’avoir si soigneusement publié. Nous attendons maintenant le second tome. [Translation: This impressive work presents a multitude of new discoveries, from the Bronze Age to the late Islamic era, which changed a large part of our knowledge about the region’s archaeology, with echoes in Iran, in Central Asia and in the valley of the Indus. … We can compliment the authors for having courageously re-immersed themselves in their archives after fifty years in order to make this beautiful work of reference, and also Edinburgh University Press for having published it with such care. We now await the second volume.] -- Henri-Paul Francfort, CNRS * Syria *