López Prat, MònicaDe Luca, RaffaellaPecci, AlessandraMileto, SimonaBandyopadhyay, Sudipa RayBloise, AndreaGuido, AdrianoCipriani, MaraLancelotti, CarlaCarrascosa, BegoñaNoori, Noor AghaSimón Cortés, José ManuelMiriello, Domenico2024-05-032024-05-032024López-Prat M, De Luca R, Pecci A, Mileto S, Bandyopadhyay SR, Bloise A, Guido A, Cipriani M, Lancelotti C, Carrascosa B, Noori NA, Simón-Cortés JM, Miriello D. The modeling pastes of the monumental terracruda sculpture of the Silk Roads: archaeometric study of the Tepe Narenj and Qol-e-tut examples (Kabul,Afghanistan). Archaeometry. 2024;66(1):76-99. DOI: 10.1111/arcm.129220003-813Xhttp://hdl.handle.net/10230/59985This paper presents the results of the mineralogical, petrographic and chemical study of different archaeological samples related to terracruda sculptures and other elements that were part of the architectural decoration of the Buddhist sites of Tepe Narenj and Qol-e-tut (Kabul, Afghanistan; fifth to 11th centuries CE). The main objective of the study was to characterize the samples using an archaeometric approach. The study helped to better understand the materials involved in the modeling of Afghan sculptures and their processing, such as the different nature of the clay layers and the finishing ‘stucco’ coating. The results further indicate that similarities exist among the manufacturing process of the studied samples and that used today by an ancient caste of clay artists in West Bengal (India), suggesting the existence of a continuous technological tradition that deserves to be further explored in the future.application/pdfengThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2023 The Authors. Archaeometry published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of University of Oxford.info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1111/arcm.12922Afghanistanarchaeometryclayheritage conservationorganicbinderssilk roadsstuccoterracruda sculpturetraditionalknowledgeinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess