Afghanistan Pre-History

Afghanistan, which literally means (Land of Afghans) is a mountainous land-locked country located in Central Asia. It has a history and culture that goes back over 5000 years. Afghanistan's recent history is characterized by invasions and regional games of hegemony.
Now the question is how Man emerged & started to live in this harsh geographical location? Well the Answer to this question is this.
      Early man in Afghanistan lived on river terraces and inhabited caves and rock shelters. Countless stone tools scattered about the countryside attest to this and each year archaeological excavations add substance to the picture of life in the Afghan area during the distant past.

Lower Paleolithic tools made more than 100,000 years ago were collected from terraces to the east of the perennial brackish lake called Dasht-i-Nawur west of Ghazni (L.Dupree, 1974). They consist mainly of quartzite tools of the following types: large flake cores, cleavers, side scrapers, choppers, adzes, hand axes and "proto-hand axes". These are the first Lower Paleolithic tools to be identified in Afghanistan.

Earlier, in 1966, a team of American archaeologists searching for evidence to support the theory that "Neanderthaloids possibly developed out of the East Asian strains of Java and Peking Man, and, during the lush Third Interglacial Period, spread along the foothills of the Eurasian mountains into Europe," excavated hundreds of stone tools of classic Middle Paleolithic types from a rock shelter called Darra-i-Kur near the village of Baba Darwesh not far from Kishm, in Badakhshan. (L. Dupree, director) these represent the first tools of this early period to be scientifically excavated in Afghanistan. They date ca. 50,000 years ago.

Continuing their search, the team moved west during the summer of 1969 and found additional evidence in the foothills near Gurziwan, southeast of Maimana. The tools from Ghar-i-Gusfand Mordeh (Cave of the Dead Sheep) may be even older than those from Darra-i-Kur. During the 1974 season Middle Paleolithic tool types closely resembling those found at Darra-i-Kur were also recovered from terraces north of Dasht-i-Nawur. They include Levallois flakes, side and round scrapers, points and possible burins.

What manner of man made these tools? Ordinarily, skeletons of Neanderthal Man are found in association with the type of tools found at Darra-i-Kur. Indeed, less than 150 miles to the north, at Teshik Tash in Uzbakistan, Soviet archaeologists found the skeleton of a Neanderthal child with such tools. At Darra-i-Kur, however, a massive temporal bone has been pronounced by experts to be essentially modern with certain Neanderthaloid characteristics. Additional evidence is needed and continued excavations are planned, but it may be that Darra-i-Kur will necessitate a reappraisal of the development of contemporary man. "North Afghanistan may well be the zone where modern Homo sapiens, or at least a variety of modern man, developed physically and began to revolutionize Stone Age technology," says Dupree.

As man ceased to be an animal chasing other animals, he began to manufacture a greater variety of more sophisticated stone tools. Upper Paleolithic sites in Afghanistan dating from about 34,000 to 12,000 years ago illustrate this. Kara Kamar, a rock in Badakhshan, the first Stone Age site to be scientifically excavated in Afghanistan, produced tools dating ca. 30,000 B.C. (C. Coon, 1954). Evidence of Upper Paleolithic man was subsequently expanded when other American archaeologists excavated over 20,000 stone tools from several rock shelters beside the Balkh River at Aq Kupruk in the hills some 120 kin; 75 mi. south of Balkh (Dupree, 1962, 1965). The tools in this assemblage are so beautifully worked that one eminent specialist in palaeolithic technology has dubbed the tool makers of Aq Kupruk "the Michelangelos of the Upper Paleolithic." They represent a cultural phase which endured for about 5000 years at Aq Kupruk, from ca. 20,000 to 15,000 years ago, during which someone, a man or a woman, carved the face of a man, or is it a woman?, on a small limestone pebble. This work of art is one of the earliest representations of man by man. Other representations made from bone and pottery found in Czechoslovakia are of comparable age or even older; a carved stone piece found in France is possibly comparable in age. The face from Aq Kupruk smugly retains the secret of why it was carved. Does it perhaps represent an early ritual object? It was found in a hearth. (On display, National Museum, Kabul).

North of Balkh, Russian archaeologists found an extremely rich concentration of high quality Mesolithic implements on the sand dunes south of the Amu Darya (classical Oxus River) dating Ca. 10,000 B.C. (A. Vinegradov, 1969-present). Here the basic industry is microlithic with geometrics. From dunes north of Khulm, a French archaeologist collected flints including micro burins characteristic of the Epipalaeolithic, Ca. 7-6500 B.C. (Ph. Gouin, 1968).

The great revolution which launched man onto the path of civilization-and eventually into the Atomic Age-took place during the Neolithic period when he learned to plant crops and domesticate animals and thus began to control his food supply.


This revolution took place at Aq Kupruk about 9000 years ago which indicates that northern Afghanistan may indeed have been one of the early centers for the domestication of plants and animals. The evidence also supports another Dupree theory that the revolutionary ideas of agriculture and herding germinated within a zone bordered by the 34th and 40th parallels of north latitude, at an altitude of about 750 m; 2461 ft. extending from Central Afghani-stan through Anatolia to mainland Greece. Most Middle East Neolithic sites are found within this zone and Aq Kupruk is now added to the list.

A much later Neolithic at Darra-i-Kur, dating about 4000 years ago, ties in with sites in South Siberia and Kashmir, rather than with the much earlier Middle East sites to which Aq Kupruk relates. The Dupree Line, following the 76th longitude through Afghanistan, divides the mixed farming-herding Neolithic of the Middle East from the highland semi-nomadic Neolithic of South Siberia and Northeast Afghanistan, and emphasizes again the pre-historic significance of northern Afghanistan.

Another extremely interesting phenomenon was encountered in the Darra-i-Kur Neolithic. Three intentional burials of domesticated goats, one in association with fragments from two or three children's skulls, were uncovered. Here must be evidence of ritual; of a concern for the mysteries of death and what follows. It was not a unique find for Darra-i-Kur. The Neanderthal child of Teshik Tash in the Soviet Union only 150 miles to the north was encircled by seven pairs of goat horns. Nor is it a phenomenon related solely to the prehistoric. Countless shrines and graves in Afghanistan today are adorned with goat horns, symbols of strength, virility and grace. As man gained proficiency in agriculture, he moved down from mountain caves onto the plains where planting was easier and water more plentiful. Villages emerged; cities followed.

Early peasant farming villages came into existence in Afghanistan ca. 5000 B.c., or 7000 years ago. Deh Morasi Ghundai, the first prehistoric site to be excavated in Afghanistan, lies 27km; 17 mi. southwest of Kandahar (Dupree, 1951). Another Bronze Age village mound site with multi-roomed mud-brick buildings dating from the same period sits nearby at Said Qala (I. Shaffer, 1970). Second millennium B.C. Bronze Age pottery, copper and bronze horse trappings and stone seals were found in the lowermost levels in the nearby cave called Shamshir Ghar (Dupree, 1950). In the Seistan, southwest of these Kandahar sites, two teams of American archaeologists discovered sites relating to the 2nd millennium B.C. (G. Dales, University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, 1969, 1971; W. Trousdale, Smithsonian Institution, 1971-76).

Stylistically the finds from Deh Morasi and Said Qala tie in with those of pre-Indus Valley sites and with those of com-parable age on the Iranian Plateau and in Central Asia, indicating cultural contacts during this very early age. Striking correlations also indicate the parallel development of Deh Morasi with Mun-digak, 51 kin; 32 mi. to the north of Deh Morasi, which was excavated by French archaeologists under the direction of Jean-Marie Casal, from 1951-1958. Mundigak is a huge mound 9 m; 30 ft. high; an urban center compared to the seminomadic villages of Deh Morasi and Said Qala.

As the great cities of the Indus Valley, such as Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, grew, specialization necessitated the development of a complex economic base to supply them. The villages supplied the towns and the towns supplied the cities. The excavations at Deh Morasi, Said Qala and Mundigak provide much needed information regarding early economic supply networks and the beginnings of an urban civilization in the Afghan area.
While archaeologists in Afghanistan were uncovering the ancient civilizations at Mundigak and Deh Morasi, nearly three thousand kilometers to the west to the west, at Ur in southern Iraq, another team of archaeologists made a startling discovery while studying the jewelry. More than twenty thousand beads and other objects made of lapis lazuli retrieved from the Royal Tombs all had the same exact mineral composition; hence all originated from the same mine. Indeed, after extensive cross-checking, it was found that virtually every piece of lapis lazuli used in the ancient Near East — many tons of material — all came from the same mountain range, the Sar-i Sang, deep in the Hindu Kush of Afghanistan.

Evidence that trade was not limited regionally, but extended as far afield as Ur (in modern Iraq), was recovered accidently in 1966 from the valley of Sai Hazara in northern Afghanistan. The Khosh Tapa (Happy Mound) Hoard consists of several gold and silver goblets, now broken into 19 fragments weighing a total of almost eight pounds, stunningly ornamented with raised geometrical designs and vigorous figures of bulls, boars and snakes. These animal motifs bear tantalizing similarities stylistically with dominant Mesopotamian, Iranian, Indus Valley and Central Asian styles. Khosh Tapa lies in Baghlan Province, north of the Khawak Pass, on a once popular route linking the Middle East with Central Asia and Central Asia with the southern provinces in India. One of the more popular luxury items carried along this route was lapis lazuli from the mines of Badakhshan which are still being worked today. The two main periods of intensive lapis trade date from ca. 2300 B.c. and 1350 B.c.; the probable date of the hoard is ca. 2300 B.c. (on display, National Museum, Kabul).

To carry so much lapis from Afghanistan all the way to Mesopotamia, as well as to Egypt (where the blue stone was considered the height of fashion), Must have required sophisticated logistics and a series of trading posts and oasis settlements along an established route on which other precious goods (Such as gold, copper, precious stones, woods, exotic animals) could also be shipped.

As archaeological evidence reveals, civilization during the fourth and third millennium BC left no vacuum in the vastness that linked Mesopotamia with India and China. By 4000 BC, incipient forms of urban life with distinct cultures flourished at regular intervals, like stepping stones across the Central Asian landmass. Thus the lapis lazuli that arrived from the Sar-i Sang mines in Afghanistan to the great cities at Ur about 2400 BC travelled along routes or exchange that had already been active for thousands of years.

Unlike Bronze Age civilizations in Mesopotamia, Egypt or the Indus Valley, Central Asian civilizations had no dominant rivers to focus people, resources, and communications along a corridor from mountain to ocean. Nevertheless a vast and diversified tapestry of peoples and independent polities did arise in these isolated lands, a discontinuous urbanization where
scarcity and climatic extremes were the norm.

Three small mounds near Daulatabad in Faryab Province excavated by Soviet archaeologists produced fine, well-fired Bronze Age clay vases and footed vessels dating ca. 2000 B.c. (V. Sarianidi, 1969). A series of Bronze Age mounds given the general designation of (D)ashli greatly expanded the picture of Bronze Age life ca. 1500 B.c. north-west of Balkh. Dl is a large plastered mud-brick fort-qala surrounded by farming settlements.
Here utilitarian pottery, fine ceramics and imported wares from Iran were found together with jewelry and stone and bronze compartmented seals. Weaponry included sling balls as well as bronze and copper weapons. In an intrusive burial during the end of this period goat skeletons were found surrounded by many delicate ceramic vessels of high quality.

D3 was a much larger complex in two sections. A circular temple building 150 m; 492 ft. in diameter had an inner wall and an outer wall with nine projecting towers. Across from this temple there was a monumental palace with stepped pilasters on its outer façade surrounded by massive walls and a moat 10 m; 33 ft. wide and 3 m; 10 ft. deep. Not far away several extensive Bronze Age graveyards are being systematically looted by illegal diggers. Bronze seals, pins, mirrors, weaponry, unguent jars and various styles of jewelry grace the sidewalks of Kabul; graceful paper-thin pottery of elegant shapes bespeaking great sophistication lie abandoned by the ravished pits.

Another three-period farming settlement (ca. 1300-500 n.c.) was excavated at Till Tepe near Shibarghan (V. Sarianidi, 1969, 1971). Fortifications are conspicuous and numerous clay missiles and bronze projectile points were found.

Deh Morasi and Mundigak also provide tantalizing evidence regarding early religious developments. Casal suggests a religious use for a large white-washed, pillared building, its doorway out-lined with red, dating from the 3rd Millennium B.C. at Mundigak. At Deh Morasi there is evidence of a possible altar. Built of fire-burned bricks, the shrine complex contained several objects sug-gesting religious ritual: goat horns, goat scapula, a goblet, a copper seal, hollow copper tubing, a small alabaster cup, and a pottery figurine of classic Zhob Valley style. These pottery figurines are generally considered to represent the mother-goddess, being at once voluptuous in form, to symbolize her power over life and fertility, and, terrifyingly ugly, to symbolize equal power over death and the horrors of the dark, mysterious unknown.

Deh Morasi was abandoned about 1500 B.C., perhaps because of the westward shift of the river. Mundigak continued to survive and to suffer two invasions before it was abandoned about 500 years later after an existence of 2000 years. The caves of Aq Kupruk and Darra-i-Kur, however, contain evidence of continuous occupation. Indeed, retaining walls and hearths belonging to modern nomadic groups occupy the attention of the excavators as each prehistoric cave site is opened. Some men never took to a sedentary life, and still don't. Nomads have always been a part of the Afghan scene.

      Aryan invasion theory Which most of the indian scholars or scientist may deny or most of the world reject it did actually happen in another way which I`ll continue in another post.

A friend or Enemy?

Being in the country of hypocrites I should strictly abide to the rules & regulation but zipping lips won’t really end our miseries. An ostrich hides his head or a pigeon closes her eyes thinking they are safe but it does not really work that way.

     War in sub-continent is not a new thing. It dates back to the Bronze Age. Every century has war years & this entire geographic location is in fact the main battlefield of the world. Coming to this new age, War has taken a new form with help of advance technologies & weapons. It all depends on how the country, region or division controls its situations & what solutions they find on how to attack the neighboring location or how to plot a defense strategy against it. The global war on terror is fought against the same group of people who used to be their favorite Mujahedeen’s. When Afghans were fighting the soviet occupation, America, Pakistan & it`s allies supported, funded & helped them with artillery & soldiers. Mr. Ronald Reagan dedicated the space shuttle mission to the Afghans saying HEY! They are defending their home, they fighting for their religion, honor & freedom. Let us give stand for them & give them a helping hand, Let us help them while under-table it was all about America`s bitter meal with Soviet Union.

And when finally the soviets were defeated America & its allies including some Saudi mujahedeen’s went back to their own drawing board & started creating new projects while Afghanistan was like an orphan land. Criminals from every ethnic group in Afghanistan pounced on the little treasure that was left, sending the country into a civil war that ravaged the nation from inside & ripped its honor from outside. Little honor that was left was protected by the Taliban when they rebelled against a commander in Kandahar province whose soldiers raped innocent village woman.Taliban were less in number but with faith & pashtunwalai in heart they conquered their fears & suppression to fight against this evil injustice done to the Pashtun people. Pakistan with its 1950 Pak-Afghan rivalry in mind & well-aware of the fact that it violated the Durand line treaty in the 50`s & in the 80`s sought an opportunity to control & subjugate Afghans creating a puppet government inside Afghanistan by sending its army high ranked officers, majors, colonels & soldiers within the Taliban creating an entirely new division of Taliban inside the Kabul government. As Pakistan was a good friend of Saudi royal families so it allowed the Saudi fighters & Mr. Bin laden to enter Afghanistan again from Peshawar & Quetta. ((They were accepted as guests in Afghan lands & always will be because Mailma (a guest) is like a face of GOD in pashtun culture so they must be fed & protected.

          This act was to make the Afghan nation forget Durand line treaty & on a higher note this step was to secure its western border from Indian influence of plotting schemes against Pakistan nation. So the atrocities continued across the Afghan nation while Punjab nation slept peacefully in the hours. A moment of worry hit Pakistan when in 2000 a delegation of Taliban met Pakistani high-ranked officers in Islamabad where they clearly asked for the removal of Durand line so it can be a free trade zone & they believed that there should be no boundaries between Pashtun people or Islamic nations. This was like a scene from a horror movie we don’t want to watch for the Pakistan government. Here things slightly got out of hands when America planned the WTC plane crash incident & launched a war on terror & attacked Afghanistan to get rid of Al-Qaeda & the so called evil regime of Taliban. A main point in the starting of this war was the assassination of Ahmed Shah Masood, commander of Northern alliance because he surely would had stood against American occupation the way he stood against Soviet invasion joining hands with Pashtun & other ethnic divisions of Afghanistan to fight infidels.

This war on terror or War of terror (I should add) was all staged ages back. America just wants an excuse to be in this region. With another Author Idea called Operation enduring turmoil we can easily understand the benefits of this region as it’s the gateway to east & west. Now coming back to the role of Pakistan, After America threaten Pakistan of sending it back to stone-age (which they don’t know that the 2 provinces Balochistan & Pashtunkhwa life standard still matches stone-age) Pakistan deserted the Taliban & became America`s most important ally in the war on terror. The new millennium was like a déjà-vu of the past millenniums. War, in the start of every century that has passed Afghan region became the battlefield once again in the chapters of time. In the 10 year of the war on terror Afghans still are suffering by the hands of the countries that once masked themselves as well-wishers of the afghan nation. Now every country is taking its benefits from this land. China, Israel, Iran, Pakistan, India, Russia, England & America. I am not adding much of the euro countries because we all know they do what their master tell them to do & the funniest thing now we read is Taliban attacking Muslims. This does not really make any sense. Taliban were supposed to kill infidels only & here they killing their own Muslim brothers. This is the point where the real game comes into play. With my limited set of ideas or knowledge I`ll try to expose the inner reality of the current situation. 

          The majority of Suicide bombing in Afghanistan & Pakistan are done by intelligence agencies of these countries as the result of a proxy war between them. There are various types of Taliban currently in action. Indian funded militants that are in Swat, upper regions of Pakistan & In Balochistan to create civil unrest & destabilize Pakistan. American & British funded militants so they can have their own reason to be in the regions, showing the world that they still fighting Taliban & al-Qaeda. China & Russia playing its own part of the game by funding some groups to put America & its allies on complete halt from advancing into their most favorite & shortest zone of trade (the Arabian Sea ports). Iran being the silent observer & a player, is just funding some of the extremist fighters to keep Sunni influence or Baloch separation movement suppressed. Pakistan the most important piece, the rook of this great game has played on much greater stage. It made its own militants & Taliban so it can try to control Afghanistan as it used to while on the other hand it will keep on asking for AID & funds with its own created extremist movements Pakistan is also trying to hold American & Indian militants at bay. 

          The real Taliban who fought the Soviet Union or those who gave Afghan country a government that eradicated drug trade, criminals or violence dispersed across the region fighting the enemies of its Pashtun or Afghan nation. For now they are like the lost page of history, waiting to be discovered again with a strong belief that they will come in new form, rise to power & defeat the enemies of Afghanistan aw Pashtunistan someday.

My Poem about Pashtuns

Pashto Quotations

Currently I have written some quotations. I will be updating this post with my new quotations from time to time.
Here are some, hope it does not offend someone & awaiting positive comments.


- 1). A Pashtun will walk a thousand miles to keep a promise but will never walk a hundred feet to make that promise (anubis khan)








- 2). If I follow my faith, I`ll be in heaven but If I follow my Pashtun code of honor, the heaven will be inside me. (Anubis khan)


- 3). they told me to convert & move with the world, I stared at them, They all changed with their looks & identity.. I smiled & replied " at least I wont give up my identity for the price of socializing & adopting alien ways. My pride & honor is embedded in my culture, for you they may look primitive, but for me i...ts more civilized" ( I picked up my AK-47 & I walked away with a pashtun pride in heart )

- 4). I am Pashtun not paki, I am Afghan not sub-continental, I am Aryan not Dravidian, I am Khan not Arab, I am a Warrior not Slave, I am Predator not Scavenger, I am Muslim but Pashtunwal.

Introduction

Everyone of us writes to express his inner self. To access the world & bring new ideas to his mind so he can write what he wants to write. This blog is all about my feelings of being an afghan. Why & how I live my life through my Afghan (pashtun) customs. Being a humble human being is a hard task but being a true pashtun is even more difficult task because a pashtun has to live within the bounderies of his code of honor or code of life which is known as pashtunwalai. I`ll discuss pashtunwalai in coming posts but for now I just have to write my reason for my posts & blogging. With internet available almost in every home around the globe, little do the world knows about us pashtuns so I tried to pick up the challange to overcome some extreme bounderies of wordly laws to promote my cultural wisdom. I hope my posts be entertaining for all my readers.
Thank you

Anubis khan.