Saturday October 29, 2016
Kabul (BNA) Afghanistan is a rich country with ancient relics as large number of this works were recently discovered which explain the long history of this territory.
Chief of Archeology Department Abdul Qadir Timori said, over thousand movable and immovable works have been discovered since 2009 in Ainak copper mine area. On Sep24.2016, we had excavations in that area in south of Ainak mountain Logar and unearthed about 1005 silver coins, 7 gold Jewelries one silver bracelet which was the biggest gains. Timori went on to say that according to our studies, the unearthed objects belong to Sasanids and Koshanids eras of 4th and 5th centuries which were discovered in a pot. They would be registered and then would be handed over to national museum. It is planned that a museum would be built in Mohammad Agha district, Logar province in which all unearthed works will be protected. All excavations in Ainak copper mine area are taking place by professional employees of Archeology Department as 8 experts from the US are members of this team plus 4 experts from Italy who have arrived there as per the invitation of the MoIC through UNESCO for excavations. Excavations have been going on since eight years in that ancient site by Archeology department. Excavations take place in a certain period.
During cold weather, snow and rain we stop excavations to prevent the destruction of the ancient sites. Due to our excavations, extraction of copper was stopped. We try to conclude our excavations there as quick as possible so to resume mine extraction. Timori added, beside ongoing excavations in Logar Ainak copper mine, excavations were going on in Qala Cheheldokhtaran village in Bamyan by French experts that was concluded last week. Excavation in Nogonbad mosque and Tapa Naranj areas were also concluded and a number of works were discovered. Talking on their problems, Timori said, we had vast plans of excavation of ancient sites we fail to achieve our goals. Our organization is very limited while excavations are going on in 34 provinces while we have merely 24 professional employees and can’t survey and excavate in all of them simultaneously. I would like to draw attention of the relevant senior authorities. Despite of all available problems, we managed to survey ten provinces including Badakhshan, Nangarhar, Kunar, Laghman, Kabul, Nimroz, Bamyan, Paktya, Parwan and Kandahar. Up on change of weather we will resume our activities there.
Karima Malikzada
