Featured Help identify this old thing from Afghanistan

Good afternoon.
I found it in Afghanistan
From what time is it?

 

looks like a lid of sorts....

 

It may be related to the Gandhara tradition in Afghanistan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandhara) . This figure of a woman appears to have the same hairstyle, and is holding a similar object. The bunched sleeves are also similar.


http://store.barakatgallery.com/product/gandhara-schist-relief-seated-female-figure/

There are also many examples of what are called cosmetic palettes, recovered from Gandharan sites.


(This is the closest I have found to the iconography on yours. Unfortunately, it was a pinterest link and when I click on it this particular palette does not appear on the pinterest page, so I could not find a reference. )

 

should read "stolen", but that's a cultural difference.

 

Pinterest is just eye candy for the most part. Even if you found a live page, it would not have any substance, from a research standpoint.

I exclude pinterest from all of my google searches as follows:
search term -pinterest

Normally, my research searches look like this:
search term -pinterest -ebay -etsy

Thanks for reading my little pinterest bashing~!

 

I am usually searching images, and can sometimes use a pinterest image to track down a legitimate reference. It is frustrating, though.

 

I believe there have been some legitimate excavations in Gandharan sites. I wouldn't tar everyone with the same brush.

 

nice that you "believe". better seeing a paper, export and import.

 

http://www.carc.ox.ac.uk/GandharaConnections/

 

Are you talking about this specific artifact? Gandharan artifacts in general? Archeology in foreign countries in general? I would not characterize all objects from an area "stolen" any more than I would characterize all objects as products of well documented excavations. There is usually a range of ways that artifacts make it out of the ground, from looting/theft, to early excavations that might be considered inadequate by today's standards but were legitimately authorized at the time, to modern excavation by professional archeologists with thorough documentation.
I am also curious about what you meant by "cultural difference". In several posts on this forum I have firmly advocated for the importance of professional archeological excavation, and decried traffic in artifacts without provenience. I would be very happy if there was no commercial market at all for such cultural artifacts, with or without papers.

 

are we still talking about OPs question or about your superb knowledge ?
IMO the OP would neither need to ask about the item if he were part of an official excavation team, nor would he ask here if it was part of the project that Bronwen kindly linked.

 

Maybe a mortar? (practically speaking)

 

Your initial response was to my use of the word "recovered" with reference to a type of Gandharan artifact. How the OP acquired his particular item was not the subject. He/she wished to know more about it's possible date. If you wanted to make a point of calling it stolen, you should have addressed your comment to the OP. I imagine we will be seeing many more such items with returning service people.

 

so it's clear to you, that the 29 year old male in Afghanistan is a serviceman ? that's what I meant by cultural difference. in Europe such people find themselves in court. if memory serves right there was such a case quite recently in GB, because it was the state that fought the war and not a lonely serviceman; no looting there, everything goes to the state that pays the widows rents, pays the social security, school money for the children and healthcare etc. .
but hey, I understand you.

 

I don't know how old the OP is, or what country he/she is from. I don't know if the OP is or was in the military. I have read about all manner of looting and souvenir collecting that goes on during wars and assume that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are no different. I don't know where you are from, Fid, but I would be interested in learning more about how these issues are dealt with where you are located. I do not understand your comment about the state vs the lonely serviceman.

 

you can easily see what he is when clicking on his name. and you can easily see in his photographs what he amassed.
I'm Swiss. living in France. and what I heard from seniors of the colonial wars, looters were shot at sight; if members of the own troops and not far away from the next prison, they were brought back to France and court-martialed. today it's the court only of course - if they make it to there...

 

Well said.

 

@Fid's point is true, of course. People usually do not come to this forum to ask questions if they already know what they have. The point of contention seems to be whether we should try to answer the OP's question, which is what we usually do here, or make assumptions about how the artifact was obtained and make the possibly untrue charge that it was "stolen".

 

I'm not as sweet-tempered as many here, I know. when something seems "louche", there's the little alarm-bell.
I sometimes even feel that many new members abuse the widespread knowledge here and don't take the pains to investigate themselves before coming; it's that attitude of "oh well, I'm too lazy to make a google search, so let's ask those funny and grumpy old men and women"...

 

Fair point. Some have even said so, though not with the "funny and grumpy old men and women" bit.