Ancient Gandhara Artifacts Excavated in Swat

The archaeological remains include three plastered Buddha fresco paintings and coins

Photo of Web Desk Web DeskJanuary 22, 2021
Courtesy: Discovery Pakistan

Archaeologists across the world have been diligently working for eons to reveal evolution of human life and behavioral changes it went through. In a bid to discover ancient Gandhara remains, archaeologists excavated around a 2,000-year-old university in Swat and discovered artifacts dating back to Gandhara civilization in the Swat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Pakistan.

Director of Archaeology Abdul Samad informed media that the excavation has revealed two thousand years old archaeological remains that include three plastered Buddha fresco paintings and coins.

Fresco painting is a method of painting water-based pigments on freshly applied plaster, usually on wall surfaces.

It has been estimated by the archaeologists that the excavated artifacts in Swat date back to the early days of ancient Gandhara, an ancient region in the Peshawar basin in the far north-west of the Indian subcontinent.

Swat district has been considered as a treasure trove of historical cultures enrich with thousands of years old antiques and relics of Buddhism.

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Earlier in the preceding year, the archaeologists have discovered remains of a Brahmanical or Deval temple in Barikot, Swat.

Along with the temple, a water reservoir and a Ghaznavid military watchtower were also discovered dating back to the Gandhara era.

The discovered temple is believed to be around 1,300 years old and of Lord Vishnu that was built during the Hindu Shahi period.

Besides this, the archaeological experts from Pakistan and Italy had also discovered a 3,000-year-old city in 2019 in Barikot tehsil of Swat district.

In the year 2012, Italian archaeologists who were working in Pakistan at the site of Buddhist treasures in the northwestern district revealed complex funeral sites with the collection of almost 30 graves.

However, an incident caused an uproar in the country, when workers in the Mardan district of KP found an ancient Buddha sculpture and immediately vandalized it as they believed it to be “un-Islamic”.

As per the provincial archaeological department, the Buddha statue was 1,700 years old and the act was labeled a crime while the workers involved were booked for the incident.

Photo of Web Desk Web DeskJanuary 22, 2021
Photo of Web Desk

Web Desk

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