Tales of the Field
Archaeology, like many endeavors, is all about stories. And for field research in a place so far away from the western origins of most of the research team, looking at a time so long ago, the stories are legion. While this is not research data from our project, these stories are among the things that we remember the most.
The Mosque Inscription
The existence of a mosque at the northern part of the Circular Enclosure surrounding the Citadel of Shahr-i Gholghola has been known since the visit of French archaeologists in 1936. We spent much of the…
The Dog Bite
During the 1975 season, a boy approximately 14 years of age (few know except generally how old they are since no written records are kept) limped into our camp at Khwaja Ali Sehyaka on one…
The Lost Collection
In 1971, we were shown an extensive collection of antiquities, purportedly from Khwaja Kanur, by a local American engineering contractor and artifact collector. He had clearly hired people to loot over 4000 artifacts from the…
Finding Mr. Amiri
Contained in the boxes of materials for Helmand Sistan Project publications was a complete but unpublished manuscript written by our Afghan Institute of Archaeology partner, Ghulam Rahman Amiri, who accompanied us into the field each…
King of the Desert
The 1974 season started off badly, as the truck we hired to carry our food, water, tools, and fuel to the field was not up for the trip. It ground to a halt halfway, unable…
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving! Turkey, cranberries, potatoes. Who cares if they came out of cans, it was a night for celebration. But would Mitch make it back from his field site in time? A tale of being lost, then…
Timurtown
The last inhabitants of Sar-o-Tar lived there in the 15th century, the Timurid period. A string of fancy estates, probably rural homes for wealthy inhabitants of Herat, were scattered along the canals leading from the…
The Ambassador Visits!
We planned to work at Shahr-i Gholghola, deep in the sand dunes of Sar-o-Tar, in 1974. While in Kabul preparing to go to the field, we were told that the American Ambassador would be coming…
Tragedy in the Bathhouse
The monumental citadel of Shahr-i Gholghola was forever producing surprises. The 11th century bathhouse was carefully excavated in 1973. But at the far western end, atop a large pile of ash from the last fires…
Deadly Malaria
One of our professional staff fell ill with Blackwater Fever, a particularly virulent form of malaria, upon arriving at the field site. As soon as we were able to unload a vehicle, Khan Zaman drove…
Sistan’s Rose Garden
Sarah Ward was the host of the BBC music program Listeners Choice. Each year we sent a song request from our field camp on a homemade post card of the Sistan desert to her studio…