Darra-i Kur

Location

NOTE 1: »To our dismay, we hit the floor of the limestone cave at a depth of little more than one meter … Blocked by a major rockfall in front of the cave, I right-angled a trench trench around the rockfall, and in front of the cave found a completely buried, lower rock shelter formed by a roof-fall on the slope« (DUPREE, L 1969: 90-91). NOTE 2: Not seen: DESIO (1964). NOTE 3: »… in 1966, a team of American archaeologists searching for evidence to support the theory that "Neanderthaloids possibly developed out of the East Asian strains of Java and Peking Man, and, during the lush Third Interglacial Period, spread along the foothills of the Eurasian mountains into Europe," excavated hundreds of stone tools of classic Middle Palaeolithic types from a rock shelter called Darra-i-Kur near the village of Baba Darwesh not far from Kishm, in Badakhshan. (L. Dupree, director) These represent the first tools of this early period [note 7] to be scientifically excavated in Afghanistan. They date ca. 50,000 years ago« (DUPREE, S N 1977). DUPREE, L (1972a: 12-13) dated the Middle Palaeolithic (Mousterian) stone tools to 30,000 (+1900 / -1200 years B.P.; repeated by KENNEDY 1977: 102), saying that the archaeological excavation of Darra-i-Kur, proved frustrating for hitting rock falls everywhere (similar to –>Hazar Gusfand). When finally the third trench was sunken into the talus slope past the disturbed roof fall it reached an older solution area which contained overbank sedimentation of silt and clay layers deposited when a stream was within 7.5 m of the cave (personal communication, Lattmann 1969). The clays yielded fossil clam and crab remains. The periodic overbank floodings disturbed hearths and mixed up the charcoal in the overlying silts. Therefore the 14-Carbon dating is pretty poor. NOTE 4: Dupree's »Chenar-i- Baba Darwesh« is indicated as »Baba Darwesh« on AIMS sheet PJ42-15 (May 2002) and positioned as Baba Darvish, Baba Darwash, Baba Darwesh, and Baba Da'ash at N36°46'55”: E069°59'55” on AMS sheet NJ42-15 (nima.mil/geonames accessed 2003.10.04) in Kalafgan district, Takhar province. NOTE 5: Dupree's »Kishm« is marked Keshem on sheet AIMS PJ-42-15 (2002 edition) and positioned as Kesem, Keshem, Kishm and Kishma at N36°48'23”: E070°06'15” on AMS sheet NJ42-15 (nima.mil/geonames accessed 2003.10.04). Concerning the literary archaeology of Kishm (Casem, Karisma, Kashm, Kachem, Kechem, Kilissemo, Krishma, Scasem) see YULE, Henry (1920): The book of Ser Marco Polo.- (online: gutenberg.net/1/0/6/3/10636/ accessed 2005.11.24) vol. 1, book 1, chapter 28 note 4: »It is very notable that in Ramusio, in Pipino, and in one passage of the G. Text, the name is written Scasem, which has led some to suppose the Ish-K·shm of Wood to be meant. That place is much too far east -- in fact, beyond the city which forms the subject of the next chapter. The apparent hesitation, however, between the forms Casem and Scasem suggests that the Kishm of our note may formerly have been termed S'kashm or Ish-Kashm, a form frequent in the Oxus Valley, e.g. Ish-Kimish, Ish-K·shm, Ishtrakh, Ishpingao. General Cunningham judiciously suggests (Ladak, 34) that this form is merely a vocal corruption of the initial S before a consonant, a combination which always troubles the Musulman in India, and converts every Mr. Smith or Mr. Sparks into Ismit or Ispak Sahib.« NOTE 6: Dupree's »Chenar-i- Gunjuskan« is indicated as Chenar-i- Gonjeskan on AIMS sheet PJ-42-15 (2002 edition) and positioned as Cenaregunjeskan, Cenar-i- Gunjeskan, Chenar-e- Gonjeskan and Chinar-i- Gunjishkan at N36°47'45”: E069°59'51” (WGS84 nima.mil/geonames accessed 2003.10.04) on AMS sheet NJ42-15 in Kalafgan district, Takhar province. NOTE 7: The bone is described by ANGEL (1972: 54-56) and the stone tools by DUPREE & DAVIS (1972), the ceramics by DUPREE & KOLB (1972) and a metal object by CALEY (1972b). DUPREE, S.N. (1977 afghanan.net/afghanistan/sites accessed 2003.11.05) explains how »… archaeologists searching for evidence to support the theory that "Neanderthaloids possibly developed out of the East Asian strains of Java and Peking Man, and, during the lush Third Interglacial Period, spread along the foothills of the Eurasian mountains into Europe," excavated hundreds of stone tools of classic Middle Palaeolithic types from a rock shelter called Darra-i-Kur. These represent the first tools of this early period to be scientifically excavated in Afghanistan. Continuing their search, the team moved west during the summer of 1969 and found additional evidence in the foothills near Gurziwan, south-east of Maimana. The tools from Ghar-i-Gusfand Mordeh (Cave of the Dead Sheep) may be even older than those from Darra-i-Kur. During the 1974 season Middle Palaeolithic tool types closely resembling those found at Darra-i-Kur were also recovered from terraces north of Dasht-i-Nawur. They in-clude Levallois flakes, side and round scrapers, points and possible burins. What manner of man made these tools? Ordinarily, skeletons of Neanderthal Man are found in association with the type of tools found at Darra-i-Kur. Indeed, less than 150 miles to the north, at Teshik Tash in Uzbakistan, Soviet archaeologists found the skeleton of a Neanderthal child with such tools. At Darra-i-Kur, however, a massive temporal bone has been pronounced by experts to be essentially modern with certain Neanderthaloid char-acteristics. Additional evidence is needed and continued excavations are planned, but it may be that Darra-i-Kur will necessitate a reappraisal of the development of contemporary man. "North Afghanistan may well be the zone where modern Homo sapiens, or at least a variety of modern man, developed physically and began to revolutionize Stone Age technology," says Dupree [i.e. DUPREE, L. 1974].« Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 02/02/2016

Darra-i Kur (Cave of the Valley) consists of two distinct archaeological sites, of which one is an unspecified »cave« (unidentified nature, unspecified dimensions) and the other site, below the »cave« (or so), is a buried rock shelter (note 1). Both items occur in unspecified rock (note 2), are archaeologically important (note 3) and situated at unspecified locations somewhere »near Baba Darwesh« or Chenar-i Baba Darwesh (note 4), a village west of Kishim (note 5) in western Badakhshan. The nearest village on the main road is Chenar-i Gunjuskan (note 6). ARCHAEOLOGY: The site yielded a broken right temporal bone in a cultural context described by J. Lawrence ANGEL (Smithonian Institute) to fit into a partly Neanderthal population as well as into a modern Homo sapiens population (note 7). Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 02/02/2016