Traces of Alexander in Pakistan?

Archaeological news from Pakistan only reaches us sparingly. As a result, the remote Swat Valley remains as hidden to us as it was in the days of Sir Aurel Stein and even Alexander! 

[The Battlefield of Alexander. Picture from Shafeeq Gigyani]

That does not mean that the northwestern corner of Pakistan was totally isolated in antiquity. Approximately 150 Buddhist heritage sites have been counted so far. The Buddhist monastery in Barikot (Bazira in antiquity) from the 1st century AD was the latest (see: Old Buddhist complex discovered in Pakistan). 

Alexander certainly crossed the Swat Valley, which was then part of India. The spectacular hoard of coins retrieved from a well at Mir Zakah is there to prove his presence (see: Alexander’s real face). 

More recent excavations high on a hill overlooking the Swat Valley revealed an ancient cemetery. Pending Carbon dating, archaeologists suggest that this was the burial site of the Dardic people who lived here between 1000 and 500 BC. As many as 32 sealed graves were discovered, shedding light upon the burial rituals of this community. It appears that the graves were used for more than one generation, adding the dead to the existing burial site. Typically, the graves contained two skeletons, one male and one female, facing each other. 

In 327 BC, Alexander marched through the Swat Valley and the village of Udegram or Odigram. In antiquity this was the large city of Ora, surrounded by defensive walls running up the slopes of the high mountain. It is roughly located between Swat and Barikot. This is the area populated by the Assacenians who sought refuge on the Aornos Rock. 

[Picture from Livius]

Amazingly enough, none of the graves contained any weapons. Archaeologists discovered, however, hairpins, some pieces of iron, beautiful pots, and a variety of ornaments executed in copper and in bronze. 

Most of the excavations in the Swat Valley are centered on Barikot, although the cemetery of Udegram holds important treasures of its own. As always, the main concern is to find enough money and the right expertise to proceed further.

Old Buddhist complex discovered in Pakistan

Alexander the Great and the later Greco-Bactrian Empire with its unique artistic expression eventually led to the emergence of the Kushan Empire that ruled much of modern Afghanistan, Pakistan and northern India from 30 AD to 375 AD.

It is remarkable that the common thread through that part of history is Buddhism, which existed already in Alexander’s day and still lives on today. Hellenistic art, however, was soon picked up by the Buddhist sculptors and painters to explode in fascinating and vivid artwork that lived on to the end of Kushan dynasty in the Gandhara civilization. 

The Swat region in Pakistan is very remote and only occasional archaeological excavations have been carried out. Consequently, today’s discovery of a Buddhist monastery in Barikot (Bazira in antiquity) from the 1^st century AD is headline news. 

It is a vast complex in the center of a small valley composed of several stupas, meditation halls and a school where philosophy was taught. The Buddhist monks lived in small cells cut out of the mountain walls above. 

The most remarkable feature at this Abbasahib-China Buddhist site are the fresco paintings. Six of these figures are intact and depict Buddha in different poses, including the Namaste (greeting) pose. The frescos are not only rare, they are said to be unique since no other example of such wall painting have been discovered so far in the Gandhara  area. It is difficult to see the real beauty of these paintings because they are set in niches situated right underneath the ceiling. Scholars speak of a new chapter in the historical records of early Buddhism in Swat. 

Until now, it was believed that Swat and Gandhara  possessed an important painting school but this could not be documented until these intact murals were found. A serious plea is made to preserve this unique archaeological site! 

Overall, there seem to be approximately 150 Buddhist heritage sites in the northwestern corner of Pakistan alone, including the Swat Valley. So many treasures are still hidden and awaiting to be discovered!

[Pictures from The Archaeology News Network]

Hidden treasures in northern Pakistan

It is beyond doubt that Alexander marched through northern Pakistan after crossing the Hindu Kush to India. His exact route has not been established mainly because little or no excavations have been undertaken in that part of the country. From time to time, however, some spectacular and less spectacular finds trickle to the outside world, like the enormous hoard of coins retrieved from a well at Mir Zakah (see: Alexander’s real face).

[Excavation site near Barikot, picture from Archaeology News Network]

At Barikot in Pakistan, ancient Bazira, archaeologists recently discovered a large amount of weapons and coins from the Indo-Greek period (2^nd century BC to 1^st century AD), as well as earthenware that had been imported from Greek Bactria and even from as far away as the Mediterranean at some time during the 2^nd century BC.

[Indo-Greek coin found at Barikot, picture from Archaeology News Network]

It is evidently not a direct legacy of Alexander’s passage, but the successive layers of occupation of Bazira could clearly be identified. Beneath the Indo-Greek remains that included a defensive wall from the 2^nd century BC, archaeologists exposed the Mauryan settlement from the 3^rd century BC. Outside the defense wall, they found remains from the Gandhara culture going back to the 8^th and 7^th century BC. These excavations confirmed that all the pre-Greek layers have been purposely destroyed in order to build the defensive wall and a fortress that could be Greek. Only one tenth of the fort has been excavated so far and the work will take at least another thirty years or so to be completed.

During these operations, a large late Kushan temple from the 3^rd century AD has also been located at the northern end of the site. It is a little surprising to hear about this Buddhist temple considering that today’s inhabitants are either Muslim or share the Kalash belief of multiple gods.

The Swat Valley is still shrouded in mystery and the most recent excavations reveal that several towns were built one on top of previous settlements. Archaeologists are hoping to gather more information about the origin of the mysterious Kalash people. The most recent studies seem to indicate that their forefathers came from Europe and it remains to been proven whether these people arrived in the wake of Alexander the Great or were traders passing through the Swat Valley.

De Kaboul à Samarcande. Les archéologues en Asie Centrale by S. Gorshenina and C. Rapin

Under the original title "De Kaboul à Samarcande. Les archéologues en Asie Centrale”(From Kabul to Samarkand) by Svetlana Gorshenina and Claude Rapin (ISBN 9782070761661), this book is being edited by Découvertes Gallimard. It is one of the rare books that treat archaeology in Central Asia in a professional way. It only has the size of a pocketbook but is stuffed with pertaining maps like Alexander’s route and Central Asia set against today’s countries, with plenty of illustrations.

After a short introduction about mainly Russian occupancy of Central Asia going back to the Tsarist era, it appears that finds from Central Asia not only wind up at the Hermitage in St Petersburg and its subsidiary museums but also in newly created museums in Samarkand, Tashkent, Fergana, and Ashkhabad, as well as in countless private collections.

The French who excavated in Afghanistan were allowed to keep half their finds which were eventually moved to the Musée Guimet in Paris, but the oriental museums of Rome and Turin got their share with parts of the reliefs from Gandhara discovered in the Swat area. Strangely enough, most collections from Western European museums have vanished unless they dwell in some lost corner of their basements. Exceptions, however, are the museums in Bern, Copenhagen, Berlin, Helsinki, and Stuttgart. We may remember Ai-Khanoum, once the capital of eastern Bactria at the confluence of the Amu Daria (Oxus) and the Kokcha Rivers that revealed how a Greek city in that part of the world looked like, establishing the relation between the Greeks and the nomads. Also, the role of the philhellenic Parthians is highlighted.

From the sites themselves, especially in Bactria, very few remains have survived simply because the cities were built with mud bricks – examples are Afrasiab, Shahr-i-Sabz, Erkugan, Bactra, and Merv.

Headlines were made with the discovery of the Oxus treasure, composed of golden and bronze objects like statues, vases, bracelets, necklaces, rings, gems, votive plaques with Zoroastrian priests, benefactors, and sacred animals. On top of all that, they found about 1300 coins ranging from the Achaemenid period to Hellenistic, probably from a temple treasury. Another exceptional discovery was the Hellenistic temple of Takht-i-Sangin, with some 800,000 artifacts from its treasury, similar to the finds at Oxus and one of the richest collections of its kind in Central Asia. The hoard counted ex-votos, instruments tied to the cult, portraits of gods and benefactors, and a plaque from the 5th century BC showing a dignitary in Bactrian dress holding a dagger, very much like the procession at Persepolis.

The book also devotes a chapter to religion, starting from early Buddhism during the Kushan Empire (including a handy map) in the first centuries AD with cities like Hadda, Tapa Sardar, Bamyan, Bactra, Dilberdjin, Dalverzine-Tepe, Shahr-i-Nau, Airtam, Adjina-tepe, Karatepe and Fayaz-Tepe, near Termez, and Balalyk-tepe. Matters change dramatically with the arrival of Islam with a high level of cultural and economic renewal.

Another turn-around happened when the Soviet Union occupied Central Asia and when Afghanistan was closed to foreigners. Today, as many of the countries in Central Asia have become independent, a revival of their national inheritance is slowly taking place, while the situation in Afghanistan is still unchanged.

Well, this book shows that there still is a great deal of work to be done on the historical sites themselves and in the larger context of reciprocal exchanges between East and West.