The Taliban religious extremists in Afghanistan have used bulldozers to flatten more than 150 ancient archaeological sites.
"You can unearth layers of a civilisation in each mound," says Said Reza Huseini, a research fellow at Cambridge University.
Born in Balkh, he spent time in his 20s as a volunteer surveying archaeological sites in northern Afghanistan, including some of those the researchers say have been bulldozed. He was shocked to see the images from the University of Chicago.
"When I hear about it, I feel as if my soul is dying," he said.
