Preliminary Report of Archaeological Excavations at Hayatabad, Peshawar:

Field Season 2019

Abstract

This preliminary report is based on the archaeological investigations conducted by the Department of Archaeology, University of Peshawar, at the Hayatabad site for the third field season from February to May 2019. The Department of Archaeology has already executed field explorations and excavations at the same site in 2017 and 2018, whose reports have been published in this journal (Khan et al. 2019, 2020). These excavations brought into light structural remains and numerous archaeological finds like coins, terracotta figurines, stone and terracotta beads, stone tools, pottery and iron objects. The evidences reveals that the site under discussion had been occupied from the second century BCE to the end of second century CE. Accordingly, it was founded during the time of the Indo-Greeks and remained in occupation until the rule of the Great Kushans. The characteristic features of this site are the smith workshops systematically built in a sequence at different levels of occupation. In addition, a group of workshops within proper enclosures was found in a compound area bounded by massive walls. These workshops were equipped with working platforms, furnaces, fixed crucibles, grinding stones, stone anvils and large quenching pots.