Bamiyan valley, Afghanistan
Bamiyan
Statues in the 6th and 7th centuries, murals from the 5th (two calibrations, and drying oil in some caves)
Two standing Buddhas were cut into this cliff, about 55 metres and about 38. A heritage summary dates the larger to 580–636 CE and the smaller to 540–591. A 2022 recalibration prints different 1-sigma clusters, and some of the cave paintings, not the statues’ own surfaces, used drying oil in the mid-7th century.
Why this is extraordinary
The cliff at Bamiyan is a wall of caves with one tall niche standing empty. Until 2001 two Buddhas stood in this rock, the larger about 55 metres and the smaller about 38. What a visitor sees now is the socket. The dates come from pieces of the surface and from straw, wood, and rope in the walls.
A heritage account of those excavations puts the 55-metre statue in 580 to 636 CE and the 38-metre statue in 540 to 591, using radiocarbon together with inscriptions. A 2022 recalibration, on the IntCal20 curve and at 1 sigma, splits the eastern statue into three tight clusters, 440–460, 478–496, and 534–546, and gives the western statue 606–642. The usual identification is that west is the larger body and east is the smaller. This room does not re-measure the cliff, so the two lists sit side by side instead of being averaged. Where they overlap, the later 6th and the 7th century, both publications are telling one story. The cluster at 440–460 is the part they do not share. Several dates on one statue can be a first coat and a later repair. A 1-sigma window is the laboratory’s narrower report, not a promise.
The oil is a different object. In 2008 a synchrotron study found drying oil in 12 of about 50 caves, in paint of the mid-7th century. The ratios look like walnut, poppyseed, or perilla. The same caves also used resins, proteins, and gums, so oil was a choice, not the only recipe. On the eastern statue the materials study found something else again, cow-milk casein and cow skin glue. The giants were not, on that evidence, oil paintings. Some of the cave walls were. European panels that use drying oil come centuries later. A binder in a mural and a panel tradition can share an oil and still be two crafts. That is the open name, not the chemistry. Wall paintings in the valley run from the 5th century into the late 8th, and one 2008 account carries them toward the 9th. The oil group is the mid-7th-century slice of a longer painted cliff.
In the niche of the 55-metre Buddha a roundel shows three figures the file calls celestial beings, halos around the heads. In Buddhist painting a halo marks a person of the sacred or heavenly kind. The photograph does not say which heaven, and the photographer is unrecorded, so it may be the wall or a copy of the wall. No source used here gives an azimuth of the niche toward a sunrise. The beings are the sky the paint contains. The empty niche faces the fields because that is how the cliff faces the valley. What this changes: if 440–460 is the first phase, the smaller statue is a century older than the heritage span. If the oil is accepted as oil painting, the technique’s biography starts in these caves. Neither result repaints the other.
Why it matters
The century of the statues decides which Buddhist kingdoms of the valley cut them. The oil decides whether a mural binder in these caves counts as oil painting centuries before European panels. They are two arguments. Mixing them makes one cliff carry both clocks.
The photograph is the valley after 2001, when the statues were destroyed, so the dates come from fragments and from organic material in the walls. The painted roundel is identified as celestial beings from the niche of the 55-metre Buddha. The usual map puts the larger statue on the west and the smaller on the east. This room does not re-survey that.
Photo tour
2 photographs, unedited. On a phone, swipe the row. Choose one to look closely.
What is still unexplained
These sit beside the consensus account, with the same visual weight. None of them is marked solved.
Location and dating
- Location
- The cliff on the north side of the Bamiyan valley, central Afghanistan. The pin is the Buddha niches. Kakrak and Foladi, named in the paint studies, are neighbouring cave groups in the same valley.
- Period label
- Current consensus — open to revision Statue surfaces in the 6th and 7th centuries on both published calibrations, with an eastern cluster that reaches the 5th. Cave paintings from the 5th century into the 8th or 9th. The oil-bearing group is mid-7th century.
- How this dating was done
- Radiocarbon on organic material from the statue surfaces and from the paintings, with one set recalibrated on IntCal20. Inscriptions are cited with the heritage ranges. The oil identification is chemistry of the binder, not a date by itself. The mid-7th century is the radiocarbon context of those layers.
- What could change it
- A published table that puts each sample on a named niche, east or west, under both calibrations, would show whether 440–460 is a repair, a first coat, or a sample from somewhere else.
What is actually there
- The larger statue was about 55 metres, the smaller about 38. Both niches are empty.
- Heritage ranges and a 2022 IntCal20 recalibration overlap for the larger statue and only partly for the smaller.
- Drying oil is reported in 12 of about 50 caves, mid-7th century. The eastern statue’s samples showed casein and skin glue.
- A roundel in the larger niche is identified as celestial beings with halos. No sunrise azimuth of the niche is printed here.
Open questions
| Question | Status |
|---|---|
| Is 440–460 CE a first phase of the eastern statue, or another coat? | Open. It is one 1-sigma cluster among three. The heritage span for the smaller statue starts in 540. |
| Does drying oil in a mural count as the start of oil painting? | Open. The oil is in the caves. The European panel tradition is later. They share a binder class, not a workshop. |
The current narrative
Where publication stands today. It is the best-supported reading, and it is open to revision. It is not a verdict.
The current narrative — open to revision
Statues of the later 6th and the 7th century
The two Buddhas were cut in the 6th and 7th centuries, the smaller first, the larger after. The heritage spans and the later western date agree on that neighbourhood. Cave murals run longer, and some of them, not the statue surfaces, used drying oil in the mid-7th century.
What supports this
- 580–636 and 540–591 CE are the heritage spans for the 55-metre and 38-metre statues.
- The 2022 western 1-sigma span, 606–642, overlaps the larger statue’s heritage span.
- Casein and skin glue on the eastern statue, and drying oil in separate cave layers, keep the two technologies apart, which a single “oil Buddha” story would blur.
What pushes back
- The eastern 1-sigma cluster at 440–460 is earlier than 540 and has to be explained as another phase or set aside.
- Paintings in the caves continue into the 8th or 9th century, so the cliff was worked long after any one reign.
- The east-west identification of the two niches is the usual one, and this room has not re-measured it.
What would settle it
It is the centre because two publications overlap on the later 6th and the 7th century for the bodies. The 5th-century cluster stays visible until the samples are published niche by niche.
Emerging narratives
Other published readings. Each may be right. None is adopted here unless the evidence carries it.
An emerging narrative
The oldest oil paintings, in the caves
Drying oil used as a paint binder in the mid-7th century caves is oil painting, centuries before European panels, so the history of the technique starts on this cliff.
What supports this
- Twelve of about fifty caves had oil-bearing layers, dated to the mid-7th century.
- The fatty-acid ratios point to walnut, poppyseed, or perilla, oils that dry.
- European panel oil painting is not attested this early.
What pushes back
- The same caves also use resins, proteins, and gums, so oil is one binder among several.
- The eastern statue’s own coating was casein and skin glue, not that oil.
- A mural binder is not, by itself, the layered panel craft later called oil painting. The ratios are “most likely,” not a labelled jar.
What would settle it
The oil in the murals is a real laboratory result. Calling it the origin of oil painting is a name for a technique. The name is the open part, not the chemistry.
Should the current view be reevaluated?
Open to revision
The statues belong to the 6th and 7th centuries on the overlapping spans, and one earlier cluster is not yet explained. The oil is real and belongs to the caves. Open keeps the calibrations side by side and refuses to paint the statues with the caves’ binder.
What drives this
- Two radiocarbon publications that overlap, and one 5th-century cluster that does not.
- Drying oil in 12 caves, protein binders on the eastern statue.
- Painted celestial beings in the larger niche, with no measured sunrise line.
This is the museum’s own weighing of the evidence. It is not a visitor vote, and it is separate from the slider.
Weigh it yourself
Anonymous. Nothing here is stored except on this browser. Your lean does not change the assessment beside it.
Visitor lean so far — not evidence. On this browser only; a shared tally is not collected.
If the contested reading is right
What would follow if a reading that is not the consensus turned out to be true, and what could settle it. This explains the stakes. It does not adopt the reading.
The eastern statue was already coated in the 5th century
The smaller Buddha would move back by about a century from the heritage span, and the valley’s Buddhist cliff would start earlier than 540. The larger statue’s 7th-century window would still stand.
Why it is still worth a test
A sample list that names the niche, the layer, and both calibrations for every date.
The cave murals are the first oil paintings
A history of oil painting that starts in 15th-century Europe would be late by centuries, and this valley would be one place the binder was already in use. The statues’ protein coatings would remain a different recipe.
Why it is still worth a test
A comparison of the Bamiyan ratios with other early mural binders, published with the cave numbers.
Sources
- Bamiyan, dates of the niches French Ministry of Culture
- Organic materials used for the giant Buddhas and wall paintings Applied Sciences, 2022
- Synchrotron light unveils oil in ancient Buddhist paintings from Bamiyan European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, 2008
Image credits
- The cliff at Bamiyan. The tall niche is empty. Smaller openings honeycomb the same face. Fields and trees fill the valley. The file identifies the tall niche as the place of the larger statue. . Monikajoannah, CC BY-SA 4.0. Shown unedited.
- A roundel the file identifies as celestial beings from the niche of the 55-metre Buddha. Three figures share an oval, and each head has a halo. The photographer is unrecorded. . Unknown painter; photographer unrecorded, Public domain. Shown unedited.