Challenge Issue Given the radical changes taking place in the world today, a
scientific understanding of the past has never been more important. But investigat-
ing ancient remains challenges us to solve the complex question of who owns the
past. For example, pictured here is the Bamiyan Valley, located along a section of the
ancient Silk Road, which was a network of trade routes that stretched from eastern
Asia to the Mediterranean. Before the Islamic invasion of the 9th century, this place
of great natural beauty, located within the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan,
was a Buddhist homeland. There were several Buddhist monasteries, thousands of
painted caves, and two colossal statues of Buddha, carved into the cliffs at the val-
ley’s edge and dating back some 1,500 years. In March 2001, the Taliban destroyed
these two Buddhas on the grounds that they were idolatrous and an insult to Islam.
Today, the niches that once held these grand sculptures are hauntingly empty.
A huge international outcry has led to cooperative efforts to rebuild and preserve this
archaeological site, and already the results have been impressive. In 2008 a team of
Japanese, European, and U.S. researchers demonstrated that the Bamiyan cave wall
images are the oldest oil paintings in the world. To whom do such ancient remains
belong—to the local government, to the global community, to researchers or scientific
institutions, to people living in the region, to those who happen to have possession
at the moment? The archaeological perspective holds that for the collective benefit
of local peoples and the global community alike, these questions must be answered
with an eye to long-term preservation, cooperation, and peace.
© John Warburton-Lee Photography/Alamy