Researchers from the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute are working with conservators from the National Museum of Afghanistan to repair some of the earliest physical depictions of the Buddha, which were destroyed in 2001 when the Taliban shattered religious images at the museum. The team, supported by grants from the US Embassy in Kabul, are carefully reassembling statues from more than 7,500 fragments that had been saved in trunks in the museum’s basement after the rampage of the Taliban.

Many of the statues come from Hadda, in Afghanistan, a Greco-Buddhist archaeological site that dates to the ancient region of Gandhara, a principle node of the Silk Road connecting India, China, and the Greek and Persian worlds. The statues date to a period spanning from the first to sixth centuries CE and include standing sculptures as well as tableaus ranging in size from two meters to only a few centimeters tall.

“When they were broken, we lost a part of history—an important period of high artistic achievement—which these objects represent,” said Mohammad Fahim Rahimi, director of the National Museum of Afghanistan. “They are the only pieces remaining from the archaeological sites; Hadda was burned and looted during the 1980s, so these pieces at the museum are all we have left. By reviving them, we are reviving part of our history.” (U Chicago News)