Saw a neat lecture on Afghan archaeology last night, had all sorts of neat tidbits and some pics. Turns out that there are ruins of several Buddhist monasteries in Bamiyan, right near where those big Buddhas used to be. The lecturer, Dr. Tarzai (three Ph.D.s from the University of Strasbourg; he gave his lecture in French, and his adult daughter translated), has been working in the area for some time. There was some discussion about the Greek influence in the region, which I found that very interesting. E.g., there are �Buddhist� statues that are clearly Herakles or Alexander, but holding some Buddhist implement. Some of the pilasters had Corinthian leaves, etc. Some heads clearly resembled that sort of standardized Roman consul head form, which Tarzai also noted, although I didn�t get a chance to ask whether that was due to later cultural influence from Rome or something both cultures got from the Greeks. He observed that Kandahar and Jalalabad (sister city to San Diego, if you�re curious), among other cities, were named Alexandria for a time, and apparently a local alternate name for Kandahar retains some obvious root of �Alexander.� There was also a great deal of influence from the East, e.g., India.

It's absolutely fascinating to see how the artwork incorporates elements from so many cultures. It�s also incredibly tragic, though, because so many of the sites have been destroyed or looted. For instance, Hadda was an open-air museum/excavation of sorts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadda has some details and pics, including some demonstrating very strong Hellenistic influences)�during the Soviet era, the communists lost control of the site for *two* days and, during that time, the site was stripped of most of its valuable statuary, gems, etc. Even large features like giant stupas have been obliterated and recycled for building material. I gather similar things have happened at most other sites. To add insult to injury, although Tarzai has cataloged and published his finds, many identifiable antiquities he's cataloged were subsequently looted and have ended up in museums and collections everywhere from NY (the Met has at least one piece for which Tarzai claims to have proof that it legally belongs to the Kabul Museum), Japan, Saigon, France, Pakistan (sounds like most of the antiquities flow through there, unsurprisingly).

The saddest bit, I thought, was that the museum in Kabul was destroyed, and so they had to excavate the remains of the museum itself then reassemble the broken bits of pottery and statuary they were able to salvage. I gather, the best stuff already gone. Imagine the horrors of seeing all that work lost.

I guess the last season at Bamiyan was pretty much a loss because, after arriving, they discovered the entire site had been mined. Heavily mined � we saw a picture of the site with all the cleared mine flags, and there must have been dozens or hundreds in a fairly small area. It took a while before the UN could hire companies to remove the mines; the odd thing is, apparently no one knows how the mines got there, because the site is reasonably secure, and there weren�t any mines in 2004-2005.

Starts to make Indiana Jones seem staid and dull, no? One good sign, however, is that it sounds like the archaeological community is very supportive of archaeological efforts in Afghanistan, and the Japanese, French, etc. have all been leading expeditions there as well. Here's to hope for the future.

Finally managed to get a shot of the highlight of the baby cat's day, a hummingbird. Mally comes running when she hears the whirr of hummingbird wings. Occasionally, I'll her crouched in front of the patio door, waiting hopefully for a hummingbird to come. Sometimes I see her there at midnight, eagerly awaiting the next flyby (one never knows, after all).