ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the case studies of the National Museum of Afghanistan, and the prominent archaeological sites and collections from Bactria, Bamiyan, Ghazni and Hadda, where applicable, within the evolving geopolitical landscape. When DAFA director, Daniel Schlumberger, arrived in Afghanistan, DAFA's past work had so heavily focused on the Buddhist past; it prompted him to conclude that "the ancient archaeology of Afghanistan is essentially Buddhist". In 1951, Kenneth de Burgh Codrington, the SOAS Professor of Indian Archaeology who had accompanied Evert Barger to Afghanistan in the 1930s, his assistant, F. Raymond Allchin, and Raymond's wife, Bridget, both South Asia archaeologists, proposed a visit to Afghanistan. Diplomacy helped promote the archaeological discipline in Afghanistan, and in turn, archaeology helped foster cultural exchange between Afghanistan and India. Assessing the developments of the archaeological discipline within this time frame helps reveal the relationship between Afghanistan's archaeology and nationalism in political agendas at home and diplomatic agendas abroad.
