BBC is reporting Ancient settlements dating back to the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age – some earlier than 1000BC – are among those they say have been damaged.
Dozens of archaeological sites in Afghanistan have been bulldozed to allow systematic looting, according to researchers at the University of Chicago.
They say their analysis of satellite photos provides the first definitive photographic evidence that looting patterns that began under the previous government have continued since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.
Ancient settlements dating back to the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age – some earlier than 1000BC – are among those they say have been damaged.
Most of the sites identified are in northern Afghanistan’s Balkh region, which more than two millennia ago was the heartland of Bactria.
It was one of the richest and most populous regions of ancient Afghanistan under the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th Century BC.
By 327BC, Alexander the Great had conquered the region and married a Bactrian woman named Roxana, after defeating the Achaemenid ruler.
