第五讲 前伊斯兰时代的阿富汗考古：挑战、成就与展望 [Fifth Lecture – The Archaeology of Pre-Islamic Afghanistan: Challenges, Achievements and Perspectives]

From the end of the 1970s onward, conflicts raging across Afghanistan made the practice of field archaeology extremely difficult and intermittent, when not impossible. Nevertheless, the Archaeology Institute of Afghanistan, with the support of international agencies (among which the Italian Archaeological Mission in Afghanistan of ISMEO), could carry out some new excavations of Buddhist sites. Moreover, research never stopped. Thanks to the old documentation and the newly acquired data, our knowledge continued to progress. The article illustrates the state of the art and offers an overview of the most recent activities and achievements, which confirm the confirm Afghanistan's central role in the creation and development of iconographic and architectural models, as well as techniques related to artistic production in stucco and clay.