Aq Kupruk is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

Balkh Province Balkh (Dari: , ''Balx'') is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the north of the country. It is divided into 15 districts and has a population of about 1,509,183, which is multi-ethnic and mostly a Persian-speaking society. The c ...

in northern

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

Archaeological sites

Aq Kupruk is also an archaeological site consists of four sites, numbered I, II, III and IV. * Aq Kupruk I, or Ghar-i Asb, is a rock shelter of the Kushan-

Sasanian The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...

period, containing some fragmentary Buddhist frescos and some simple architecture. * Aq Kupruk II, or Ghār-i Mār, is another rock shelter, probably the most productive of the three sites, producing material rom all periods except the Kushan-Sasanian. About 10% of the occupation area was excavated. * Aq Kupruk III, is an open-air site on the river terrace consisting of two periods, both in the

Epipalaeolithic In archaeology, the Epipalaeolithic or Epipaleolithic (sometimes Epi-paleolithic etc.) is a period occurring between the Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic during the Stone Age. Mesolithic also falls between these two periods, and the two are some ...

. * Aq Kupruk IV, was excavated briefly by McBurney nearer to the village, producing a "Middle

Mousterian The Mousterian (or Mode III) is an archaeological industry of stone tools, associated primarily with the Neanderthals in Europe, and to the earliest anatomically modern humans in North Africa and West Asia. The Mousterian largely defines the l ...

" type of industry differing to that found by Dupree. Finds included an extensive and sophisticated stone tool industry, very early stone sculpture, domesticated sheep and goat remains, fragments of beaten copper from the

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...

, many projectile points,

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

and simple jewellery. Collections: #

AMNH The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 i ...

- excavated material. #

BIAS Bias is a disproportionate weight ''in favor of'' or ''against'' an idea or thing, usually in a way that is closed-minded, prejudicial, or unfair. Biases can be innate or learned. People may develop biases for or against an individual, a group ...

- flint and stone. #

Kabul Museum The National Museum of Afghanistan (Dari: موزیم ملی افغانستان, ''Mūzīyam-e mellī-ye Afghānestān''; ps, د افغانستان ملی موزیم, ''Də Afghānistān Millī Mūzīyəm''), also known as the Kabul Museum, is a ...

- excavated material, stone head. Field-work: # 1959 Dupree, American Universities Field Staff - survey. # 1960 Hayashi & Sahara, Kyoto University - survey. # 1962 & 65 Dupree, AMNH - excavations. # 1971 McBurney,

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...

- sondage.

References

{{reflist * Archaeological Gazetter of Afghanistan / Catalogue des Sites Archéologiques D'Afghanistan, Volume I, Warwick Ball, Editions Recherche sur les civilisations, Paris, 1982.

External links

Satellite map at Maplandia.com

Archaeological sites

See also

References

External links

Further reading