Abstract
To the shock of the British, the newly independent Afghanistan granted exclusivity in archaeological excavation to the French, whereupon the French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan (DAFA) was founded in 1922. This paper considers how archaeological work in Afghanistan from this date to the Soviet invasion in December 1979, was reported to the general public in France and Britain. The authors examined reports in the French and British press, and present their method and their findings in context. Through an overview of the press from the mid-19th century to the 1980s, they consider topics including the mediatic focus on the French monopoly and some archaeologists, the coverage (or non-coverage) of work at major sites (Balkh, Hadda, Lashkari Bazar, Mundigak, Aï Khanoum), the presence of other missions in Afghanistan, the French and British women at the DAFA sites, and the authors and sources of the information that was published.