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many collection curators believe a full specimen is needed to create an accurate record. For F. Gary Stiles, curator of the bird collection at the National University of Colombia in Bogot, the attempt to designate the feathers and photographs as the holotype is scientically irresponsible. ProAvess publication also caused dissent inside the foundations leadership. I thought it was just too much to steal a young mans discovery of a lifetime that way, says ornithologist Niels Krabbe of the University of Copenhagen, one of two ProAves board members to resign in protest. Two months later, a description by Carantn and a co-author appeared, this time in the journal of the Colombian Association of Ornithology. They called the bird G. urraoensis. In a lengthy editorial, Cadena and Stiles said ProAves had probably won naming priority but charged grave faults in the organizations scientic ethics. Carantns defenders argue that Carantn has a moral right to his discovery, despite any missteps. They call the case the latest in a series of hard-boiled moves by ProAves aimed at gratifying British and American donors and generating publicity at the expense of Colombian researchers. They have created a lot of tension in the country, says ornithologist Luis Germn Naranjo, who is conservation director for the World Wide Fund for Nature in Colombia. There is little question that ProAves has been successful in protecting birds. Since its founding in 2001, the organization has bought 22,000 hectares of Andean habitat, creating 18 reserves for 91 threatened species. That land includes some of the only known habitat of the Colorful Puffleg, a hummingbird, and ProAves is credited with a resurgence of the rare Yellow-eared Parrot. Success has brought a list of over 100 mostly foreign donors, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and ABC. Paul Salaman, conservation director at World Land Trust in Washington, D.C., and an inuential ProAves board member, says the meteoric rise of ProAves may have generated resentment. It wants to get things done, and that upsets people, says Salaman. Some researchers still hope G. urraoensis could win out before international bodies that rule on species names. However, Ellinor Michel, executive secretary of the Inter national Commission on Zoological Nomenclature in London, says it will be difcult to unseat G. fenwickorum. If the publication by ProAves [was] legitimate, then the name they gave will stand, she says.

A R C H A E O LO G Y

Ten Years After Buddhas Destroyed, Afghans Work to Save Monastery

First they red artillery. Then they exploded bombs. Ultimately, the Talibans destruction of the worlds two largest Buddha statues, which began a decade ago this week, required explosive charges up and down the vast niches holding the statues. The Buddhas had stood watch over central Afghanistans Bamiyan Valley for some 1500 years, until the Taliban nally demolished them in March 2001. This week, cultural heritage ofcials met in Paris to review years of work to stabilize the fragile niches and to prepare for the spring opening of an open-air museum at the site. Even as they acknowledge this notorious anniversary, Afghan archaeologists are focusing on another Buddhist complex 200 kilometers south of Bamiyan that stands in peril of destruction, called Mes Aynak. The threat here is not Taliban intolerance but development: Mes Aynaks giant mounds of monasteries happen to sit atop the worlds second largest deposit of copper. The government and a Chinese mining company have agreed to delay operations, to avoid an embarrassing replay of Bamiyan. But to preserve Mes Aynaks treasures will require a huge international rescue effortperhaps the largest archaeological endeavor ever undertaken in Afghanistan, says Brendan Cassar, the UNESCO cultural heritage ofcer in Kabul. Plans for the project face time, money, and security constraints in the war-torn country. Cultural heritage in Afghanistan is still under threat 10 years after Bamiyan, adds Cassar. He and others say that although there have been successessuch as renovating the
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National Museum in Kabul and recovering important artifactsAfghanistan still lacks funds and expertise to secure ancient sites and disrupt looting networks. The Bamiyan anniversary and next weeks opening of the rst exhibit on the nds at Mes Aynak, at the National Museum, are putting the spotlight on Afghanistans beleaguered heritage. Once thought to be isolated outposts, monasteries such as those at Mes Aynak and Bamiyan now appear to have been large and complex centers that played a crucial role in linking India, Central Asia, and China. At Bamiyan, the destroyed Buddhas38 and 55 meters high, respectivelywere the most dramatic part of a monastic community that included a network of caves lled with exquisitely detailed paintings. Many were destroyed before and during the Talibans rule, though Japanese experts are conserving the remainder. Mes Aynak, a half-hours drive south of Kabul, has never been excavated but included 19 ancient settlements within a 40-hectare area, says Philippe Marquis, head of the French archaeological mission based in Kabul, who recently completed a detailed survey. A Chinese company was awarded a $3.5 billion contract to mine copper at Mes Aynakthe largest such contract in the countrys history. It intended to begin mining last year despite the unexcavated archaeological riches. Following an international outcry (Science, 30 July 2010, p. 496), the Afghan Ministry of Mines agreed in September to allow researchers time to excavate the area

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Gone, but not forgotten. A massive niche stands empty at Bamiyan (left page). Philippe Marquis (above in beret, at Mes Aynak) and Omar Sultan (far right) struggle to preserve whats left of Afghanistans heritage.

and conserve the hundreds of fragile statues and wall paintings before operations begin. We will have 3 years to excavate the site, says Omar Sultan, deputy minister of culture in Kabul. Sultan, an archaeologist, was the one who rst spotted the importance of Mes Aynak in the mid-1970s. But excavators began probing the site only in 2009, shortly after the mining contract was awarded. They quickly began to uncover a dazzling array of richly decorated monasteries and related settlements that ourished from the early centuries C.E. until after the arrival of Islam in the 7th century C.E., including wall paintings and large reclining, sitting, and standing Buddhas, as well as chapels, stupas, and dormitories. Like Bamiyan, Mes Aynak was a center of learning that helped spread Buddhism throughout Central Asia and into China, says art historian John Huntington of Ohio State University in Columbus. The monasteries also appear to have played important economic and political roles. The monks and residents at Mes Aynak, for example, mined copper for profit. Buddhism was thought to have been snuffed out with the arrival of Islam, but increasing evidence suggests that the two faiths coexisted, with Hinduism and Zoroastrianism, for centuries. Researchers say a thorough excavation of Mes Aynak will be a Herculean effort that could require $45 million and 1000 workers. A multimillion-dollar 10,000-square-meter conservation facility is slated to be built nearby, with funding provided by the U.S. government, according to ofcials in Kabul. Marquis says the World Bank has agreed to

CREDITS: (TOP, LEFT TO RIGHT) A. LAWLER; PASCAL LE SEGRETAIN/GETTY IMAGES; (BOTTOM) SHAH MARAI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES/NEWSCOM

provide $4 million for initial work, that the International Security Assistance Force, based in Kabul, may also contribute, and that the Chinese government recently agreed to provide archaeologists to help. Given the sheer size and scope of the project, however, we may need more time beyond 3 years, says Marquis. Its not a hell of a lot of time to excavate a site of that extent, adds Vienna University art historian Deborah KlimburgSalter, who visited the site late last year and was stunned by its size and obvious importance. Omara Khan Masoudi, who directs the National Museum in Kabul, fears the ticking clock. If we lose the artifacts, we lose our heritage, he says. Already, security fences are in place around the rugged site, which lies in a Talibanfriendly area. Nearly 2000 Afghan guards reg-

Troubled treasures. This Buddha from Mes Aynak shows the ancient monasterys sophistication.

ularly patrol the boundaries, and a camp for Chinese workers has been built in the center, enclosing one of the monasteries partially excavated in 2009. But smelters and a railroad to ship the copper to China are still lacking, and one ofcial close to the project says that given the world economic downturn, the company may be in no rush to begin copper extraction. Mining will require destruction of the site, ofcials say, so archaeologists must decide what is worth rescuing before those operations begin. The early results of the Mes Aynak digs will be on display at the rst public exhibition of the sites materials, which will open on 15 March at the National Museum. We advocate an extension of the museum to house the new material from sites like Mes Aynak, says Cassar. A U.S. embassy source says the American ambassador may use the Mes Aynak opening as an occasion to pledge a signicant commitment to the museum. Meanwhile, back at Bamiyan, Cassar says proposals to reconstruct the massive Buddhas were rejected as expensive and impractical. Conservators have instead spent $5 million in the past 7 years xing dangerous cracks in the niches, removing unexploded mines and bombs from under the statues rubble, and conserving what they can of the fragments for display. Ironically, the Buddhas destruction left piles of pegs, timbers, and other elements that provide new insight into how the massive structures were built. A German-led team has dated fragments of the statues to the 6th century C.E., later than scholars once thought, and conrmed that the Buddhas were brightly paintedthe larger with orange robes, the smaller in white (http://scim.ag/Bud-dhas). The story of their creation, along with that of the destruction, will be laid out in the modest open-air museum slated to open as early as this spring in the remote valley northwest of Kabul. ANDREW LAWLER

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