I 

108TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 4641

To authorize the President to take certain actions to protect archaeological 

or ethnological materials of Afghanistan. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 22, 2004

Mr. ENGLISH (for himself, Mr. HOLDEN, Mr. VAN HOLLEN, Mr. 

MCDERMOTT, Mrs. MALONEY, Ms. HART, Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania, 

Mr. MCGOVERN, and Mr. GRIJALVA) introduced the following bill; which 

was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means 

A BILL

To authorize the President to take certain actions to protect 

archaeological or ethnological materials of Afghanistan.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Cultural Conservation 

5 of the Crossroads of Civilization Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 The Congress finds as follows: 

8 (1) Afghanistan has been at the crossroads of 

9 civilizations, a mosaic of ethnic and linguistic cul-
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1 ture, and a major contributor to the world commu2 nity for more than two millennia. 

3 (2) Afghanistan, flanked by Central, West, and 

4 South Asia, has seen waves of migrating peoples 

5 pass through what has been referred to as the 

6 roundabout of the ancient world. 

7 (3) Archaeologists have identified evidence of 

8 Stone Age technology and a 20,000-year-old sculp9 ture head in Aq Kupruk. 

10 (4) The earliest settlers in Afghanistan, who 

11 migrated from northern territories approximately 

12 50,000 years ago, lived as individual hunters in the 

13 caves of the northern Hindu Kush mountains. 

14 (5) Evidence has been uncovered at the foothills 

15 of the Hindu Kush Mountains and Darra-e Dadil 

16 (near Darra-e Suf), Hazara Sum (near Aibak), and 

17 Qara Kamar (near Khulm) indicating that North 

18 Afghanistan was home to the earliest domestic 

19 plants and animals. 

20 (6) The Khyber Pass, a 33-mile passage 

21 through the Hindu Kush mountain range and dating 

22 back to 326 B.C., connects the northern frontier of 

23 Pakistan with Afghanistan. 

24 (7) During the period from 336 to 323 B.C., 

25 Alexander the Great defeated Duriush III, the last 
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1 Kakhamanesh ruler, took control of Afghanistan, 

2 and introduced new coins and artistic styles to the 

3 region. 

4 (8) Alexander the Great and his army marched 

5 through the Khyber Pass to reach the plains of 

6 India, Aryans passed through on their victorious ad7 vance of Persian and Greek armies, and Scythians, 

8 White Huns, Seljuks, Tartars, Mongols, Sassanians, 

9 Turks, Mughals, and Durranis made successive in10 roads into the territories beyond Peshawar Valley 

11 and Indus via the Khyber Pass. 

12 (9) Graeco-Buddhist Gandharan culture 

13 reached its height during Afghanistan’s Kushan Em14 pire under King Kanishka. 

15 (10) During the Kushan Empire, Buddha was 

16 first given a human face, and the world’s largest 

17 Buddhas ranging from 120 to 175 feet tall were 

18 carved into the cliff at Bamiyan. 

19 (11) The Silk Road passed through Afghani20 stan, bringing Roman glass and Chinese ceramics. 

21 (12) In 962, the rise of the Ghaznavid Dynasty 

22 ushered in the Islamic era and gave Afghanistan a 

23 permanent political and cultural role in Islamic civ24 ilization. 
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1 (13) In 1219, Changiz (Genghis) Khan invaded 

2 Bukhara to avenge the looting of his caravan. 

3 Changiz eventually defeated Khwarazn Shah and 

4 proceeded through Afghanistan in his conquest of 

5 Asia. 

6 (14) Most archaeological material excavated in 

7 Afghanistan during the 20th century was housed in 

8 the National Museum in Kabul or in regional muse9 ums. 

10 (15) Reports indicate that copies of ancient 

11 maps are being used by looters to track long lost vil12 lages in the eastern provinces of Nangarhar, 

13 Laghman, and Kunar. 

14 (16) The Archaeological Institute of America 

15 has published articles listing thousands of artifacts 

16 that are among the stolen or imperiled treasures of 

17 the National Museum in Kabul. 

18 (17) The nation of Afghanistan has endured a 

19 raping and pillage of its cultural property over the 

20 past two decades, leading Abdul Wasey Feroozi, di21 rector of the National Archaeological Institute in 

22 Kabul, to state, ‘‘The catastrophe of war annihilated 

23 seventy years of our hard work and accomplish24 ments. In the period from 1992 to 1994 . . . over 

25 70 percent of the Kabul National Museum was 
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1 burned and damaged and 100 percent of the objects 

2 were stolen or vandalized. Illegal excavations and ex3 tensive clandestine digging started at most historical 

4 sites, and thousands of valuable objects were trans5 ported to other countries, notably through Pakistan, 

6 to the international markets.’’. 

7 (18) It should be recognized that the cultural 

8 heritage of Afghanistan is at extreme peril and this 

9 legislation is a result of a profound concern for the 

10 damage to Afghan antiquities, sites, monuments, 

11 and cultural institutions. 

12 SEC. 3. EMERGENCY IMPLEMENTATION OF IMPORT RE13 STRICTIONS. 

14 (a) AUTHORITY.—The President may exercise the au15 thority the President has under section 304 of the Conven16 tion on Cultural Property Implementation Act (19 U.S.C. 

17 2603) with respect to any archaeological or ethnological 

18 material of Afghanistan as if Afghanistan were a State 

19 Party under that Act, except that, in exercising such au20 thority, subsection (c) of such section shall not apply. 

21 (b) DEFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘‘archae22 ological or ethnological material of Afghanistan’’ means 

23 cultural property of Afghanistan and other items of ar24 chaeological, historical, cultural, rare scientific, or reli25 gious importance illegally removed, after the date of the 
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1 enactment of this Act, from the National Museum in 

2 Kabul or other locations, including archaeological sites, in 

3 Afghanistan. 

4 SEC. 4. TERMINATION OF AUTHORITY. 

5 The authority of the President under section 3 shall 

6 terminate upon the earlier of—

7 (1) the date that is 5 years after the date on 

8 which the President certifies to the Congress that 

9 normalization of relations between the United States 

10 and the Government of Afghanistan has been estab11 lished; or 

12 (2) September 30, 2009.

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