The Afghan Queen: A True Story of an American Woman in Afghanistan (8 page)

AUTHOR COMMENTARY:

Lela wrote extensively about the stories she heard from the journalist couple. They met while studying anthropology at Oxford. She was a cultural anthropologist specializing in human migration. Her thesis was “Silk Road, Pathway of Humanity.” He was into physical anthropology. Both did two years of doctoral work at Çatal Hüyük, the prehistoric city on the Anatolian plain near the south-central Turkish coast.

They were traveling on a branch of the Silk Road to Athens. Lela’s travels in Afghanistan, Middle East and Europe followed the Silk Road too. The Silk Road was a network of land, sea, and now air routes throughout the world. Its focal point seems to have been Çatal Hüyük.

The Silk Road may have begun with the first human migrations out of Africa. By the time of the Roman Empire, the Silk Road extended from the cod fisheries of the Newfoundland Grand Banks, in the northwest Atlantic, to China, Japan, and Peru in the east. All branches crossed through Çatal Hüyük.

Silk Road
*

LELA:

I hoped to get a flight to Newark when we got to Athens. The airline brochures indicated daily flights to Newark with one stop at Frankfort, and this was going to be fine as I had business with museums and art galleries in the Frankfort area. There are direct flights to Kennedy from Frankfort, but it’s a hassle getting from Kennedy to Newark, and I prefer the stopover.

The only mishap on the car trip with the journalists was a tire blowout just as we got to Athens. We easily put on the spare and had the tire repaired at a nearby garage. The garage owner turned out to have lived in New York for 25-years, developed a successful restaurant in lower Manhattan, and then sold everything to retire to his home in Athens.

His English was perfect, and we spent an hour or so talking. During this time the journalist couple took photos and taped conversations with some of the Greek people they met. We tried to pay him for the tire and gas fill, but he would not take any payment.

I gave him an Afghan tribal necklace, set with turquoise and lapis, for the “woman in your life,” and he was thrilled with such a fine gift. He told us that his wife managed the restaurant and that we three must be their guests.

The garage owner had realized his dream of an American style bistro, sports tavern, and garage, all within a mile of each other. He insisted on taking the three of us to dinner at his huge stainless steel bistro that looked like some sort of futuristic diner.

While the bistro featured Greek food, American dishes were prominently displayed in florescent lettering on black Lucite signs. Our host ordered wonderful appetizers. The main course was fresh tuna filets, slow roasted in parchment with fresh fennel, garlic, lemon, chalets in a yogurt sauce.

Retzina
, a wonderful dry resin wine, was served with the appetizers and main course. Fresh fruit and goat cheese followed with
Mavrodafni
, a black grape wine from the Ionian Islands. Our host’s beautiful wife joined us for dessert and coffee.

As soon as she sat down, he put the necklace around her neck. She was a work of art without the necklace, but with the necklace she could have been Aphrodite herself. She was American born, of Greek descent. She managed the restaurant, and it was as lovely as she was.

She said that they met at the NYU library twenty years ago. She was working on her doctorate in philosophy, “Elements of Pre-Socratic Thought in Quantum Physics.” He was doing post-doctoral research in genetic technology.

It was a lovely dinner, and the next morning we strolled over to the garage. The garage owner was so grateful for his wife’s necklace that he insisted on doing an oil change before we returned the car to the rental agency.

On my first caravan trip in 1975, we experienced at least one bus breakdown in every nation on our itinerary from Zurich to Kabul. The flat tire in Athens turned out to be more of a happy adventure than an adversity.

The European roads were fine except for some parts of Yugoslavia. Travel through Yugoslavia to Greece, the roads worsened as we continued south to the Greek border. (Yugoslavia is now Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia.)

Throughout Yugoslavia, most of the roads were mountainous with muddy bypasses and the danger of potential rock slides. In the six-vehicle caravan, vehicles experienced tire blow outs, broken windshields, and three axle replacements. Falling rocks and rock throwing in Iran gave the vehicles what I called carpox, and once, in Iran a vehicle was broken into.

Returning home after nearly three months of travel was pleasant compared to traveling to Kabul. Now, in a rented car, we were being treated like welcomed guests, especially in Greece.

Road travel between Zurich and Kabul
*

I was fascinated with the journalists’ experiences. As we traveled the Silk Road to Athens, I was entertained with additional stories of the Silk Road as we drove through appropriate regions. These journalists sure got around.

One journalist spoke about the site of Troy, on the west central coast of Turkey, south of the Bosporus, and on a latitude with the adjacent Greek Isles. The archaeological site of Troy was not found until the early 1900s. Previously, Troy was the stuff of myth, but 4,000 years ago, Troy was a thriving city-state, probably of Greek origin.

At that time a brisk far flung sea trade flourished throughout the world. Sharing the Mediterranean Sea trade with Troy were Crete; Sumer, on the Tigris-Euphrates; Phoenicia, on the coast of Syria; Egypt; India, and China. Athens was not a major sea trader until perhaps 3,500 years ago. That was when Athens grew into a major player in Mediterranean Sea trade, rivaled by Troy in control of the sea lanes.

It was not Helen’s face that launched 1,000 Greek ships, but a trade war between Troy and the Greek city states. It did not take ten years to build a Trojan horse, but it did take ten years of raiding Trojan ports to end Trojan power.

As the two journalists discussed travel and trade through the ages, an argument of sorts took place. I sat in the back seat jotting notes in my travel journal as the hours passed. She, the cultural anthropologist, insisted that the Silk Road was the overland and sea route first used to trade Chinese silk to Europe.

The Chinese expanded the Silk Road as they wanted to expand silk export and trade to spread Chinese influence. Similarly, the Roman Empire expanded trade roads and sea lanes as a means of exporting Roman power.

She insisted that Chinese and Roman dominions defined the extent of the Silk Road. He, the physical anthropologist, declared that she was too narrow in defining the Silk Road within those limits.

The debate continued on and off for days, while I wrote as much as I could. When they were pleased with each other, they talked about other issues. But when they were peeved, they started in again about the Silk Road. Each succeeding Silk Road discussion became a little more strained, especially when they were hungry or tired of driving.

Stopping for a meal or when I took the wheel, it was all light hearted banter. Within a few hours, as soon as the trip became tiresome, they started in again.

“OK, so explain why my view of the Silk Road is too narrow. After all, it’s my specialty, not yours,” she said.

“Yes, it’s certainly your field, and you’re doing outstanding research in that limited area,” he replied. “In my view, and, admittedly, I’m speaking from my bias in physical anthropology, the silk trade is merely one limited aspect of trade since a few hundred humans migrated out of Africa,” he continued.

“You make me feel as if I’ve buried my head in the academic sand all this time. Just come right out with it; enlighten us. I’m sure Lela is as interested in your revelations as I am,” she added sarcastically.

When they referred to me, I found myself shrinking down in my seat more and more. Why drag me into their family argument? Sure, I was quite interested in their discussions, but I certainly resisted the idea of refereeing their arguments.

“You’ve had me review and critique all your research, as you’ve done with mine, and I’ve said repeatedly that your work is excellent, flawless, within the narrow confines of your academic specialty. So what I’m suggesting is outside the realm of academic peer review,” he stressed.

When he said that, I noticed her face getting red.

“Well, don’t stop there. We need to hear your complete thesis,” she replied. At that point, I was glad to be driving with her sitting next to me, patting my leg after each of her verbal assaults.

He took a loud deep breath and began, “In my non-academic view, speaking from my research in physical anthropology, especially our joint work at Çatal Hüyük, we have seen the results of at least 18 levels of settlement and trade, over at least 10,000 years. Fortunately, each level is built on top of the remains of the previous level.

“It’s as if a time machine were left for us. We peel the levels like an onion. At the earliest level we’ve seen evidence of flint tool and weapon manufacture, and we assume trade. Again, there’s no clear evidence of trade. At a later level obsidian became a dominant artifact.

“We know the obsidian originated from the black volcanic glass at the dormant volcanos some miles to the north. Later we find glass beads and jewelry. At a later level, there is some scant evidence of textiles and decorated pottery. Still later we find copper, iron and tin, distinctly analyzed as originating from Ireland, Whales, Scotland and Britain. Even codfish bone fragments were found.

“The nearest codfish is the Grand Banks, off the coast of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. The Basques of northern Spain are known to have fished North American coastal waters for thousands of years. These discoveries point to an extensive global trade network passing through Çatal Hüyük. I believe Çatal Hüyük is the earliest focal point of world trade, as well as the axis of the Silk Road.”

Abruptly, his wife interrupted, “All speculation—not one bit of solid data to support your conjecture. Cod fish traded in the middle of Turkey? Give me a break. Sturgeon maybe, but certainly not cod fish. You wouldn’t dare publish such speculation, not even in a tabloid. In any case cod are fished off the coast of Europe.

“What are you, some kind of seer? All they found was less than a millimeter of petrified calcium vertebra. The radio isotope readings suggested some kind of fish, something like cod. DNA comparisons would be needed for positive identity, and that’s decades away. Even if it is cod bones they could easily have been of Iberian coastal origin.

“You can’t possibly believe the bones are from the Grand Banks of North America, please? Basques routinely fish cod off Newfoundland, for trade in North Europe. Trading salted cod as far as the Silk Road? My love, try your hand at science fiction. You’ll have a better future in fiction than in Anthropology.”

She leaned over the back seat, laughing and kissing him passionately. They were both laughing. I joined in, giggling with tears in my eyes. Once they came up for air, though, I knew the great debate would continue.

Sure enough, as soon as the hilarity ended, the husband began his rebuttal, “Histories of Basqueland repeatedly refer to fishing the Grand Banks. They write of filling their ship bulkheads with rock salt as ballast. They used hemp nets and winches to dump cod in the ship’s hold, shoveling salt between each layer of cod.