The discipline of archaeology in Afghanistan was at a turning pointwhen the original editions ofThe archaeology of Afghanistanand the Archaeological gazetteer of Afghanistanwere published in 1978 and1982, respectively. The first three decades of modern archaeological activity in Afghanistan (1920s–1940s) were dominated by French archaeologists who primarily focused on the pre-Islamic past, particularly the Buddhist period. Following the Second World War, however, Afghanistan gradually opened archaeological practice to a more international community. Consequently, the scope of archaeological exploration expanded to include more robust studies of the prehistoric, pre-Islamic and Islamic periods