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.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Cultural Conservation 
of the Crossroads of Civilization Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds as follows: 
(1) Afghanistan has been at the crossroads of 
civilizations, a mosaic of ethnic and linguistic cul-
ture, and a major contributor to the world commu-
nity for more than two millennia. 
(2) Afghanistan, flanked by Central, West, and 
South Asia, has seen waves of migrating peoples 
pass through what has been referred to as the 
roundabout of the ancient world. 
(3) Archaeologists have identified evidence of 
Stone Age technology and a 20,000-year-old sculp-
ture head in Aq Kupruk. 
(4) The earliest settlers in Afghanistan, who 
migrated from northern territories approximately 
50,000 years ago, lived as individual hunters in the 
caves of the northern Hindu Kush mountains. 
(5) Evidence has been uncovered at the foothills 
of the Hindu Kush Mountains and Darra-e Dadil 
(near Darra-e Suf), Hazara Sum (near Aibak), and 
Qara Kamar (near Khulm) indicating that North 
Afghanistan was home to the earliest domestic 
plants and animals. 
(6) The Khyber Pass, a 33-mile passage 
through the Hindu Kush mountain range and dating 
back to 326 B.C., connects the northern frontier of 
Pakistan with Afghanistan. 
(7) During the period from 336 to 323 B.C., 
Alexander the Great defeated Duriush III, the last
Kakhamanesh ruler, took control of Afghanistan, 
and introduced new coins and artistic styles to the 
region. 
(8) Alexander the Great and his army marched 
through the Khyber Pass to reach the plains of 
India, Aryans passed through on their victorious ad-
vance of Persian and Greek armies, and Scythians, 
White Huns, Seljuks, Tartars, Mongols, Sassanians, 
Turks, Mughals, and Durranis made successive in-
roads into the territories beyond Peshawar Valley 
and Indus via the Khyber Pass. 
(9) 
Graeco-Buddhist 
Gandharan 
culture 
reached its height during Afghanistan’s Kushan Em-
pire under King Kanishka. 
(10) During the Kushan Empire, Buddha was 
first given a human face, and the world’s largest 
Buddhas ranging from 120 to 175 feet tall were 
carved into the cliff at Bamiyan. 
(11) The Silk Road passed through Afghani-
stan, bringing Roman glass and Chinese ceramics. 
(12) In 962, the rise of the Ghaznavid Dynasty 
ushered in the Islamic era and gave Afghanistan a 
permanent political and cultural role in Islamic civ-
ilization.
(13) In 1219, Changiz (Genghis) Khan invaded 
Bukhara to avenge the looting of his caravan. 
Changiz eventually defeated Khwarazn Shah and 
proceeded through Afghanistan in his conquest of 
Asia. 
(14) Most archaeological material excavated in 
Afghanistan during the 20th century was housed in 
the National Museum in Kabul or in regional muse-
ums. 
(15) Reports indicate that copies of ancient 
maps are being used by looters to track long lost vil-
lages in the eastern provinces of Nangarhar, 
Laghman, and Kunar. 
(16) The Archaeological Institute of America 
has published articles listing thousands of artifacts 
that are among the stolen or imperiled treasures of 
the National Museum in Kabul. 
(17) The nation of Afghanistan has endured a 
raping and pillage of its cultural property over the 
past two decades, leading Abdul Wasey Feroozi, di-
rector of the National Archaeological Institute in 
Kabul, to state, ‘‘The catastrophe of war annihilated 
seventy years of our hard work and accomplish-
ments. In the period from 1992 to 1994 . . . over 
70 percent of the Kabul National Museum was
burned and damaged and 100 percent of the objects 
were stolen or vandalized. Illegal excavations and ex-
tensive clandestine digging started at most historical 
sites, and thousands of valuable objects were trans-
ported to other countries, notably through Pakistan, 
to the international markets.’’. 
(18) It should be recognized that the cultural 
heritage of Afghanistan is at extreme peril and this 
legislation is a result of a profound concern for the 
damage to Afghan antiquities, sites, monuments, 
and cultural institutions. 
SEC. 3. EMERGENCY IMPLEMENTATION OF IMPORT RE-
STRICTIONS. 
(a) AUTHORITY.—The President may exercise the au-
thority the President has under section 304 of the Conven-
tion on Cultural Property Implementation Act (19 U.S.C. 
2603) with respect to any archaeological or ethnological 
material of Afghanistan as if Afghanistan were a State 
Party under that Act, except that, in exercising such au-
thority, subsection (c) of such section shall not apply. 
(b) DEFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘‘archae-
ological or ethnological material of Afghanistan’’ means 
cultural property of Afghanistan and other items of ar-
chaeological, historical, cultural, rare scientific, or reli-
gious importance illegally removed, after the date of the
enactment of this Act, from the National Museum in 
Kabul or other locations, including archaeological sites, in 
Afghanistan. 
SEC. 4. TERMINATION OF AUTHORITY. 
The authority of the President under section 3 shall 
terminate upon the earlier of—
(1) the date that is 5 years after the date on 
which the President certifies to the Congress that 
normalization of relations between the United States 
and the Government of Afghanistan has been estab-
lished; or 
(2) September 30, 2009.
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