DŪNQEŠLĀQ (Dong Qešlaq), group of pre-Islamic and Islamic archeological sites on the Emām Ṣāḥeb plain in the Qondūz province of Afghanistan, about 10 km south of the Oxus, 37° 10’ N, 68° 59’ E. The pre-Islamic sites date mainly from the Hephthalite-Turkish period (5th-9th centuries), and there are also traces of Islamic settlements of the 10th-13th centuries (Ball and Gardin, I, no. 307). Earlier traces include abandoned canal systems providing evidence that artificial irrigation was practiced in this area from prehistory. Mud-brick ruins and pottery finds are classified according to local type sites: Watagan Tepe, Emām Sayyed, Majar, Tepe Dūnqešlāq, Tepe Afḡānī, and Tūrānī. Field research was interrupted by political and military events in 1358 Š./1979.
Bibliography:
W. Ball and J.-C. Gardin, Archaeological Gazetteer of Afghanistan, 2 vols., Paris, 1982.
K. Fischer, “Preliminary Remarks of Archaeological Survey in Afghanistan,” Zentral-asiatische Studien des Seminars für Sprach-und Kulturwissenschaft Zentralasiens der Universität Bonn 3, 1969, p. 351.
J.-C. Gardin and B. Lyonnet, “La prospection archéologique de la Bactriane orientale (1974-1978).
Premiers résultats,” Mesopotamia 13-14, 1978-79, pl. V.
(Klaus Fischer)
Originally Published: December 15, 1996
Last Updated: December 2, 2011
This article is available in print.
Vol. VII, Fasc. 6, pp. 587-588
