Helmand Valley Sites

This chapters describes the 50 archaeological sites identified and surveyed by the Helmand Sistan Project along the Helmand River between Lashkar Gah and the hamun lakes. These sites date from the Bronze Age to the post-Timurid age. Each site is briefly described in the chapter with its coordinates, its type, its occupation dates(s), and its listing in the 2019 Archaeological Gazetteer of Afghanistan (if any). A brief description of each site is provided based upon our fieldnotes and a brief summary of the material culture found there provided. Photographs of the site are included as are, in many cases, satellite photographs taken in the last decade. Those that had been studied by previous research teams were noted and their contributions described. Sites include numerous mounds (tepe), fortresses (qala), several pre-modern standing mosques, fire temples, other religious structures, and sites recently occupied with long archaeological histories, such as Qala-i Sirak and Qala-i Fath.