Patterns of Early Urbanisation in Swat:

A Reassessment of the Data from the Recent Excavations at Barikot

Abstract

The study presents a set of new data, all coming from recent excavations in the ancient urban site of Barikot (Swat, Pakistan), which may allow a new look at phenomena hitherto considered certain, such as the delay of protohistoric phases, the so-called marginalization of Swat, and the beginning of urban phases seen in association with the Indo-Greek colonial power. In our reconstruction, the protohistoric phases end around 800 BCE, while, after a phase of negative interface, i.e. of significant abandonment, towards the middle of the first millennium, there are conditions for the establishment of an urban settlement in Barikot. At this stage, very significantly, for the first time, the local ceramic tradition is replaced by Gangetic and Iranian forms, which are interpreted as markers of a growing process of trans-regional trade relations. In this ongoing process of historical reconstruction, the silence of the archaeological component towards the so-called Mauryan phase, of which field archaeology has not yet managed to provide a clear picture, remains strident.