(Kartemquin) May 6, 2015: #SAVEMESAYNAK. Watch the film: igg.me/at/savemesaynak.

FILM: Saving Mes Aynak

The award-winning film Saving Mes Aynak follows Afghan archeologist Qadir Temori as he races against time to save this 5,000-year-old Buddhist archeological site in Afghanistan from imminent demolition [by Chinese industrialists who want to extract gold and rare earth minerals].

Saving Mes Aynak, from the producers of Life Itself and The Interrupters, examines the conflict between ancient cultural preservation and new economic opportunity, through the lens of the Afghan archeologists and local villagers who live and work near Mes Aynak.

They face a nearly impossible battle against the communist Chinese, the Islamic Taliban, and local politics to save their Buddhist culture and heritage from permanent erasure. But we can help.

For the past few years, the effort of American Director (and Northwestern University Professor) Brent E. Huffman, through Saving Mes Aynak, has played a vital role in delaying the demolition of this historical treasure.

Mes Aynak: 1 sq. mile Buddhist temple complex

But again time may be quickly running out. A state-owned Chinese mining company still has immediate plans to destroy Mes Aynak and mine it for precious minerals, and it could happen AT ANY MOMENT.

Now, the only way for Mes Aynak to be saved is if the Afghan government (that sold off the mineral rights in a desperate attempt to earn foreign currency) intervenes, halts mining, and officially petitions to UNESCO to make Mes Aynak a World Heritage Site.

Only the Afghan government can approach UNESCO. Through the film Saving Mes Aynak, the major goal is to raise mass awareness of the impending demolition, creating an international movement to put pressure on the mining company, the Afghanistan government, and UNESCO to make Mes Aynak a World Heritage Site.

This is the ONLY WAY to #SAVEMESAYNAK. The more funds raised, the more people will see the film and know the beauty and importance of Mes Aynak, and the greater the chance of Mes Aynak being saved.

To do this, the focal point of the campaign is #SaveMesAynak Day, July 1st, a global event when supporters everywhere stream the film and stand in unity together to save Mes Aynak.

Through social media, plans are to use this day to spark worldwide conversation, action, and protest. After that, an ambitious outreach effort will be mounted through the film to reach as many people as can be reached.

The more awareness that can be raised, the larger the pressure that can be put on the Afghan government to stop the demolition and to formally petition UNESCO instead. This way, we can all ensure Mes Aynak's safety for future generations. #savemesaynak

[Look, we're working on it:] ...a number of achievements, especially related to the enhancement of the joint Ministry of Information and Culture (MoIC)-Ministry of Mines and Petroleum (MoMP) discussions about the Mes Aynak case. During a round of renegotiation between the MoMP and the Mining Company, it was suggested to implement an underground mining method, at least for the Central Aynak Deposit, to allow for in-situ conservation. This exploration of an integrated approach from the side of the MoMP, a tremendous step forward, led to the organization of the Mes Aynak Symposium (July 2019). The aim was to provide the government with a complete understanding of the relationship between mining and cultural resources in Mes Aynak and to examining the available options to reconcile them before approving a mining plan... unesco.org/en...afghanistan-heritage

A new survey of two archeological sites along the Silk Road has unveiled a stunning new discovery that rewrites our understanding of the famed Eurasian (Europe-Asia) trade route that spanned continents and centuries.

As reported in Newsweek, a new aerial survey of Tashbulak and Tugunbulak — two archeological sites roughly three miles apart in the Uzbekistan mountains — utilized LiDAR (a remote sensing technology that uses laser pulses to penetrate obstacles and create 3D images of a landscape) to reveal more than 300 medieval archeological features.

The two sites, which were discovered in 2011 and 2015, are located 6,562 to 7,218 feet above sea level. At that elevation, the land was unlikely to have supported large-scale urban development at the time, given the difficulties posed to construction and agriculture.

But this new survey — the results of which were published in Nature — indicates that that’s exactly what occurred at Tashbulak and Tugunbulak.

“The LiDAR results indicate that the scale of urbanization in this area was much more expansive than previously known,” Brown University researcher Zachary Silvia told Newsweek.

Silvia, while not involved directly in the study, has published a News & Views article for Nature about the results and singled out the significance of this revelation

 “This is the first — and probably only — ancient or medieval city located at this elevation in Central Asia, which forces us to reconsider what we know about urbanization in the area.”

Among the structures discovered by the study’s LiDAR flights were “watchtowers connected with walls along a ridgeline, evidence of terracing, and a central fortress surrounded by walls made of stone and mud brick.”

But while this survey revealed what structures were once present at Tashbulak and Tugunbulak, there are still more questions to be answered.

“Typically, remote sensing techniques are one tool within the broader tool kit of the archaeologist,” Silvia noted to Newsweek. “The next step for the team would be to confirm their findings through geophysics — techniques that ‘see’ below the surface — and targeted excavations that can confirm whether or not this is indeed such an extensive settlement. I am optimistic that this is precisely what the team will find in the coming years.” Source