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Chronological History of Afghanistan Part I (50,000 BCE - 652) 50,000 BCE-20,000 BCE Archaeologists have identified evidence of stone age technology in Aq Kupruk, and Hazar Sum. Plant remains at the foothill of the Hindu Kush mountains indicate, that North Afghanistan was one of the earliest places to domestic plants and animals. 3000 BCE-2000 BCE Bronze might have been invented in ancient Afghanistan around this time. First true urban centers rise in two main sites in Afghanistan--Mundigak, and Deh Morasi Ghundai. Mundigak (near modern day Kandahar)--had an economic base of wheat, barley, sheep and goats. Also, evidence indicates that ...

Digging in the desert Owen Murray, Canwest News Service Published: Saturday, May 24, 2008 MERV, Turkmenistan -- Tish Prouse would be the first to admit that his interest in archaeology stems from a boyhood love of Indiana Jones. But the Edmonton native had no idea his interest would one day lead him to Turkmenistan, a Central Asian country of brutally hot summers, bitterly cold winters and a pockmarked landscape that invites comparisons with the moon. So why is he here? The answer is Merv, an ancient city along the Silk Road that was once a thriving metropolis, one of the...

HOTAN, China - There was no sign of dissent in the bazaar, where men wove through the crowd on motorcycles with freshly butchered sheep draped behind them. But a Muslim merchant pinched his lips together with his fingers to show he could not talk freely. "The Chinese are too bad, really bad," said Hama, who added that the Chinese had broken up a protest of about 200 people last month. He put his wrists together as if handcuffed. "I can't say more or I'll get arrested." As China grapples with protests in Tibet, it also faces unrest on its Central...

Tibet isn't China's only problem, resentment still simmers among Muslims in Xinjiang By WILLIAM FOREMAN,Associated Press Writer AP - Sunday, April 6 HOTAN, China - The chirpy Chinese coffee shop waitress smiled Saturday as she rattled off sites travelers should see in this jade-trading Silk Road town in Xinjiang _ a vast western region of China that like Tibet has a long history of unrest. ADVERTISEMENT But the woman frowned and her brow furrowed with worry when she mentioned Hotan's main tourist draw: a sprawling bazaar popular among the Muslim minority Uighurs (pronounced WEE-GURS). "Oh, don't go to the bazaar...

Group says Chinese police arrest 70 in Xinjiang Reuters - 1 hour 29 minutes ago BEIJING (Reuters) - Police have arrested 70 people from China's minority Uighur ethnic group in the Silk Road oasis city of Kashgar, fearing trouble when the Olympic torch passes through the city in June, an exile group said on Thursday. (Advertisement) Calls to police and government offices in Kashgar went unanswered, but others in the restive region of Xinjiang say security has been ratcheted up ahead of the Beijing Games in August. The report comes at a tense time for China as it confronts ethnic...

New Deals in the Developing World ECONOMIC ACTIVITY between Africa and Asia is booming like never before. Business between the two continents is not new: India's trade with Africa's eastern and southern regions dates back to at least the days of the Silk Road, and China has been involved on the continent since it started investing there, mostly in infrastructure, during the postcolonial era. But today, partly as a result of accelerating commerce between developing countries throughout the world, the scale and pace of trade and investment flows between Africa and India and China are exceptional. (Throughout, Africa is used...

Bricks with molded designs unearthed in Chongqingwww.chinaview.cn 2004-01-12 20:52:43 CHONGQING, Jan. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- Archaeologists in southwest China's Chongqing municipality have unearthed more than 20 pieces of brick reliefs from a tomb of the Eastern Han Dynasty (25 A.D.-220 A.D.). Lin Bizhong, a noted archaeologist with the Chongqing MunicipalArchaeological Team, said this was the first time that bricks withmolded designs had been unearthed in Chongqing. Previously, such tomb bricks had been excavated from Sichuan province, southwest China, and have been included as relics under state key protection. Lin acknowledged that the brick-and-stone-structured tomb, fromwhich brick reliefs were unearthed, had been...

Multiplication table from 1,800 years ago found in Hunan Archeologists claimed that they had found a multiplication table at the Gurendi cultural relics ofthe Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220) in Zhangjiajie, central China's Hunan Province. Archeologists claimed that they had found a multiplication table at the Gurendi cultural relics ofthe Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220) in Zhangjiajie, central China's Hunan Province. The table was discovered on a 22cm-long wooden strip which was broken when it was discovered and the handwriting on it is quite illegible. "We can see that the multiplication table begins at nine times nine equals 81, in a sequence...

Discoveries reveal a flourishing Dunhuang 1,000 years ago www.chinaview.cn 2004-03-21 15:20:33 LANZHOU, March 21 (Xinhuanet) -- Documents and other cultural objects unearthed from China's Mogao Grottoes, in northwest Gansu Province, provide evidence that Dunhuang was a flourishing international trade city over 1,000 years ago. Professor Zheng Binglin, also a research fellow with the Dunhuang Studies Institute of the Lanzhou University, made the conclusion based on his research on documents and other cultural objects of late Tang Dynasty (618-907) and Five Dynasties period (907-960). Dunhuang city, located in the western part of Gansu, is now a famous tourism city because it...

"Heavenly wonder of ancient China goes on show A Chinese star chart possibly dating from the 7th century AD mapped the heavens with an accuracy unsurpassed until the Renaissance, according to research. The Dunhuang chart, which goes on show at the British Library this month, is the oldest manuscript star map in the world and one of the most valuable treasures in astronomy. The fine paper scroll, measuring 210 by 25 centimetres, (82 by 10 inches) displays no less than 1,345 stars grouped in 257 non-constellation patterns. Such detail was not matched until Galileo and other European astronomers began searching...

Caves hold clue to the riddle of the three hares (Filed: 03/07/2004) A research team led by a British archaeologist is to travel to China in search of the origins and meaning of a mysterious ancient symbol identified in sacred sites across Britain, Europe, and the Middle and Far East. Striking depictions of three hares joined at the ears have been found in roof bosses of medieval parish churches in Devon, 13th century Mongol metal work from Iran and cave temples from the Chinese Sui dynasty of 589-618. Academics are intrigued at the motif's apparent prominence in Christian, Islamic and...

China's miracle in the desert is drying up By Jim Yardley The New York Times SATURDAY, MAY 28, 2005 DUNHUANG, China At the bottom of the mountainous dunes once traversed by traders and pilgrims on the ancient Silk Road, Wang Qixiang stood with a camera draped around his neck. He was a modern pilgrim of sorts, a tourist. He and his wife had traveled by train more than 3,200 kilometers, or 2,000 miles, from eastern China to the forbidding emptiness of the Gobi Desert to glimpse a famous pool of water known as Crescent Lake. They came because the lake...

New Evidence Suggests Longer Paper Making History in China A 2,000-year-old piece of paper inscribed with legible handwriting has been found in Gansu Province, suggesting that China's paper-making and handwriting history are older than previously thought. The 10 square centimeter piece of paper, made from linen fibers, was found during restoration of an ancient garrison near the Yumen Pass at Dunhuang in northwest China. The garrison was in use during the Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-25 A.D.), a report in the Beijing-based Guangming Daily said. "The paper was made in 8 B.C., more than 100 years before the birth of...

Chinese archaeologists discover 2,000-year-old leather shoes Beijing, Sept. 9 (PTI): Six leather shoes, made some 2,000 years ago, have been discovered at a relic site in Dunhuang in northwest China's Gansu Province, taking the Chinese shoe-making industry older by some 1,000 years.The leather shoes, from the Han Dynasty (205 BC-220 AD), are the oldest leather shoes found in China, indicating that the history of China's leather shoe-making is some 1,000 years longer than previously believed, an archaeologist from Gansu Province, He Shuangquan said. The newly found, well-preserved shoes were made for children, aged three to six years old, said He,...

Mysterious building discovered in emperor's tomb Last Updated(Beijing Time):2007-07-01 10:33 Chinese archaeologists said that after five years of research they have confirmed that there is a 30-meter-high building buried in the tomb of Qinshihuang, Chinese first emperor more than 2,000 years ago. The building, buried in the 51-meter-high, pyramid-like earth above the tomb's main body underground, has four surrounding stair-like walls and each wall with nine steps of platforms, said Duan Qingbo, a researcher with Shaanxi Institute of Archaeology. The whole building were buried under the earth, which made it difficult for researchers to get a complete picture of it,...

An ancient oasis in destitute Gansu province along the historic Silk Road, Dunhuang is in danger of being swallowed by the sands of the adjacent Kumtag desert, which are creeping closer at a rate of up to 13 feet a year... The problem stems from centuries of unsustainable grazing and farming practices and overuse of already slim and strained water resources. The government has attempted to blunt the spread through reforestation, incentives and other means... Once a welcome oasis for Silk Road travelers thanks to an ancient store of groundwater, Dunhuang is drying up. [page 2] The water table in...

MOSCOW: An ancient Vishnu idol has been found during excavation in an old village in Russia's Volga region, raising questions about the prevalent view on the origin of ancient Russia. The idol found in Staraya (old) Maina village dates back to VII-X century AD. Staraya Maina village in Ulyanovsk region was a highly populated city 1700 years ago, much older than Kiev, so far believed to be the mother of all Russian cities. "We may consider it incredible, but we have ground to assert that Middle-Volga region was the original land of Ancient Rus. This is a hypothesis, but a...

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s highway authority removed an old gate at the Khyber gateway without consulting Afghanistan. A traditional gateway to India on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border has become the subject of a row between Islamabad and Kabul that New Delhi is accused of fanning. Pakistan's National Highway Authority (NHA) has removed an old gate at the gateway, at Torkhan at Khyber Pass 16 km from Peshawar, without consulting Afghanistan. It wants to put up another whose design Kabul does not approve. In the process, the Dawn newspaper says, Khyber Pass has been without a gate for one month. It does not indicate...

Flashman’s Revenge: Central Asia after September 11 by Eugene B. Rumer Strategic Forum No. 195 December 2002 Key Points The September 11 terrorist attacks have altered the geopolitical dynamics in Central Asia. The United States has emerged as the preeminent power in the region, causing other countries with interests in Central Asia to adjust to radically changed circumstances. The war on terrorism and increasing instability in South and Southwest Asia call for a long-term U.S. military presence in Central Asia. Such a presence could also complement ongoing U.S. diplomatic relationships in the region. In the long run, U.S. influence in...