July, 2nd-6th 2018 | Naples, Italy

The 24th conference of the European Association for South Asian Archaeology and Art, hosted by the University of Naples “L’Orientale” and the ISMEO, took place in Naples in the monumental complex of San Domenico Maggiore. 

The conference included relevant topics on the archaeology and history of art of Afghanistan, thus providing an important window into the pre-Islamic era and, at the same time, an occasion for scholars to meet and exchange ideas. Archaeologists and experts in the field have shown and discussed the ongoing researches in Afghanistan, in particular at Mes Aynak (Logar province), Tepe Narenj and Qol-e-Tut (Kabul area). The documentary value of Tapa Sardar (the Buddhist site excavated in the Ghazni area by the Italian Archaeological Mission in Afghanistan - IAMA - in the 1960s and 1970s) is central to such discussions. Thanks to the availability of a highly reliable archaeological documentation secured by the IAMA, the need to deepen such studies in a diachronic and synchronic perspective has been assessed, as a contribution to the safeguarding of the Afghan sites and of the larger cultural heritage to which they belong.