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Abstract
Excavation and research at the Bir-kot-ghwandai site (Swat) has been carried out by the IsMEO/IsIAO Italian Archaeological Mission in Pakistan since 1977.
The site occupation sequence is sub-divided into 10 cultural periods, which date from the mid-second millennium BC to the fifteenth century AD. The most relevant occupation phases are connected to the life of a fortified city and of its akropolis, from the end of the second century BC to the fourth/fifth century AD.
During the excavation of the fortified city 107 iron fragments and parts of scale coats or armours were recovered. The findings – from peripheral areas of the city and of the akropolis – mostly belong to the second to fourth century AD occupation phases, when the fortification wall had already fallen into disrepair. The study presents the findings according to their typology, position, and stratigraphy. Where possible, comparisons at the regional level are also attempted. Even if this material is not frequently recorded in urban sites excavations, representations of charachters wearing scale coats are frequent in coeval narrative scenes in Gandharan art. The material is presented as one possible item for the reconstruction of the role of the aristocracy and army in an urban context in the Kushan and Late-Kushan periods. The presence of this material in the urban context fits the scenario, suggested by the stratigraphic and survey data, that at the beginning of its Kushan phase: (a) the city was demilitarised; (b) manor houses and an intra muros Buddhist sacred area were constructed; (c) the Buddhist monasteries in the ager became the foci of the local economy.
Notes
1. An earlier version of this paper was published under the title ‘“Scale Armour” from Bir-kot-ghwandai and Correlated Finds. Clues for a Tentative Historical Reassesment’, Gandhāran Studies, I (2007), 23–43. After the recent publication of an updated reassessment of the BKG cultural/structural sequence (in P. Callieri and others, ‘Technical and Diagnostic Investigation on Some Metallic Objects Coming from the IsIAO Excavations at the Site of Barikot (Swat, Pakistan)’, Conservation Science in Cultural Heritage, 8 (2008), 111–46), it has been considered important to publish here a new article incorporating a number of revisions, corrections, and updates (courtesy of M. Nasim Khan, the editor of Gandhāran Studies in which the earlier version was published).
2. See references in L. M. Olivieri, The Survey of the Bir-kot Hill. Archaeological Map and Photographic Documentation, Bīr-kot-ghwandai Interim Reports, I (Rome: IsIAO Reports and Memoirs, Series Minor VI, 2003); P. Callieri, ‘Buddhist Presence in the Urban Settlement of Swāt, Second Century BCE to Fourth Century CE’, in Gandhāran Buddhism. Archaeology, Art, Texts, ed. by P. Brancaccio and K. Behrendt (Vancouver: Buddha Dharma Kyokai Foundation, UBC Press, 2006), pp. 60–82; P. Callieri, ‘Barikot, an Indo-Greek Urban Center in Gandhāra’, in On the Cusp of an Era. Art in the Pre-Kusāna World, ed. by D. Srinivasan, Brill's Inner Asian Library, 18 (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2007), pp. 133–61. P. Callieri, ‘Bir-kot-ghwandai in the Post-Kushan Period’, in Coins, Art and Chronology II. The First Millennium C.E. in the Indo-Iranian Borderlands, ed. by M. Alram, D. Klimburg-Salter, M. Inaba and M. Pfisterer (Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2010), pp. 371–88.
3. For the BKG chronology, my bench-points were P. Callieri and others, ‘Bīr-kot-ghwandai, Swat, Pakistan. 1988–1999 Excavation Report’, East and West, 50.1–4 (2000), 191–226; D. Mac Dowall and P. Callieri, A Catalogue of Coins from Bīr-kot-ghwandai, 1984–1992, Bīr-kot-ghwandai Interim Reports, II (Rome: IsIAO Reports and Memoirs, New Series III, 2004); Callieri, ‘Buddhist Presence’; Callieri, ‘Barikot’; Callieri and others, ‘Technical and Diagnostic Investigation’. For the absolute chronology of the different Cultural Periods referring to the BKGCS, see .
4. D. Faccenna, ‘Un particolare tipo di cotta, a scaglie semicircolari rivolte in alto (a scaglie inverse), nei rilievi gandharici’, in Central'naja Azija. Istoćniki, istorija, kult'tura (Papers in honour of B. A. Litvinskij), ed. by E. V. Antonova and T. K. Mkrtyćev (Moscow: Vostočnaja literatura, 2005), pp. 692–710, n. 3.
5. D. Faccenna and A. Filigenzi, Repertorio terminologico per la schedatura delle sculture dell'arte gandgarica sulla base dei materiali provenienti dagli scavi della Missione archeologica dell'IsIAO nello Swat, Pakistan/Repertory of Terms for Cataloguing Gandharan Scultures Based on Materials from the IsIAO Italian Archaeological Mission in Swat, Pakistan (Rome: IsIAO Reports and Memoirs, New Series V, 2007), pl. 166. I use terminology derived from this work.
6. Faccenna and Filigenzi, pl. 166, 1.1, 1.2.
7. See C. Lo Muzio, ‘Armi e armature. Asia Centrale’, in Enciclopedia dell'arte antica, classica e orientale. Supplemento I 1971–1994 (Rome: Istituto Treccani dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, 1994). As to the presence of scale coats in Gandharan art, I refer to Faccenna's expertise (see the article cited in note 4 above, along with its references).
8. For this terminology see Faccenna and Filigenzi, pl. 167, 2b.
9. Faccenna, ‘Un particolare tipo di cotta’, pp. 702–09.
10. For the Lahore relief see ibid., p. 698, n. 6. See also A. E. Dien, ‘A Brief Survey of Defensive Armor across Asia’, Journal of East Asian Archaeology, 2.3–4 (2000), 1–22 (p. 15, fig. 15).
11. For Chatpat see A. H. Dani, ‘Excavations at Chatpat’, in Chakdara Fort and Gandhāra Art, ed. by A. H. Dani, Ancient Pakistan, 4 (Special Issue) (1968–69), 65–102 (pls 41a, b). For Butkara I, D. Faccenna, Sculptures from the Sacred Area of Butkara I (Swat, Pakistan) (Rome: IsMEO Reports and Memoirs, II, 2–3, 1962–64), pl. CDLXXVIb, inv. no. 509.
12. See D. Faccenna, Il fregio figurato dello Stūpa Principale di Saidu Sharif I (Swat, Pakistan) (Roma: IsIAO Reports and Memoirs, XXIII, 2, 2001), pp. 85, 87, table 14A, 36; Faccenna and Filigenzi, pl. 166, 1. See also C. Lo Muzio, ‘Armi e armature. India’, in Enciclopedia dell'arte antica, classica e orientale.
13. M. Ashraf Khan, Mahmood-ul-Hasan, and A. G. Lane, A Catalogue of the Gandhara Stone Sculpture in the Taxila Museum (Islamabad: Department of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Pakistan, 2006), I–II, fig. 19.
14. Unfortunately, there are few reports publishing materials from the historical settlement of ancient Gandhara and its surrounding areas – exceptions include J. Marshall, Taxila, 3 vols (Cambridge: University Press, 1951); M. Wheeler, Chārsada. A Metropolis of the North-Western Frontier (London: Oxford University Press, 1962); A. H. Dani, ‘Shaikhan Dheri Excavation, 1963 and 1964 Seasons (In Search of the Second City of Pushkalavati)’, Ancient Pakistan, 2 (1965–66), 17–214; F. R. Allchin, ‘A Piece of Scale Armour from Shaikhān Dherī, Chārsada (Shaikhān Dherī Studies)’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 2 (1970), 113–20; R. Coningham and Ihsan Ali, Charsadda. The British-Pakistani Excavations at the Bala Hisar, Society for South Asian Studies Monographs, 5 (Oxford: British Archaeological Reports 1709, 2007). On the other hand, there is an abundance of literature dedicated to ancient weaponry discovered outside the Gandhara region. Relative to the range of information available, I am aware of having referred to only a small sample of works relevant to the topic. For a general reappraisal of this subject as it pertains to India, Iran, and Central Asia, I consulted C. Lo Muzio, ‘Armi e armature. Iran’, in Enciclopedia dell'arte antica, classica e orientale; Lo Muzio, ‘Armi e armature. India’; Lo Muzio, ‘Armi e armature. Asia Centrale’ (see also B. A. Litvinskij, ‘Armor II. In Eastern Iran’, in Encyclopædia Iranica, Online Edition (15 April 2010) <http://www.iranica.com/articles/armor-ii> [accessed December 2010]). With regard to the southern Bactrian sites, see F. Grenet, J.-C. Ligier, and R. De Valence, ‘L'Arsenal’, in Campagne de fouille 1978 à Aï Khannoum (Afghanistan), ed. by P. Bernard and others (Paris: BEFEO, LXVIII, 1980), 1–103; G. Fussman and O. Guillaume, Surkh Kotal en Bactriane. II. Les monnaies. Les petits objets (Paris: MDAFA, XXXII, 1990); C. Rapin, Fouilles d'Aï Khanoum. VIII. La trésorerie du palais hellénistique d'Aï Khanoum (Paris: MDAFA, XXXIII, 1992); B.A. Litvinskij, Chram Oksa v Baktrii (Južnyj Tadžikistan), 2. Baktrijskoe Vooruženie v drevne-Vostočnom i grečeskom Kontekste (Moscow: Vostočnaja literatura, 2001). With regard to Central Asia, K. Abdullaev, ‘Armour of Ancient Bactria’, in In the Land of the Gryphons. Papers on Central Asian Archaeology in Antiquity, ed. by A. Invernizzi (Florence: La Lettere, 1995), 163–80, and Dien are particularly useful. If we look westward to Syria, Mesopotamia, and Iran, apart from the ‘classics’, an impressive list of entries can be found in M. Mode, ‘Archäologisches Material zur Untersuchung von Transfer-Momenten im Bereich der Waffentechnologie zwischen Steppen- und sedentären Völkern in parthischer und sasanidischer Zeit’ (2000) <http://www.orientarch.uni-halle.de/ca/arms.htm> [accessed March 2010]. An outstanding volume on Dura Europos military materials (S. James, Excavations at Dura Europos. Final Report VII: Arms and Armour and Other Military Equipment (London: British Museum Press, 2004)) must absolutely be added to this list. With regard to Central Asia and Iran, a relevant symposium was dedicated to the topic in 2003. The proceedings have recently been published in Arms and Armour as Indicators of Cultural Transfer. The Steppes and the Ancient World from Hellenistic Times to the Early Middle Ages (Proceedings of the International Conference held at Wittenberg, November 25–27, 2003), ed. by M. Mode, J. Tubach, and G. S. Vashalomidze (Wiesbaden: Reichert, 2006).
15. Marshall, pp. 549–50, no. 90, p. 550, no. 91.
16. Marshall, p. 550, no. 92, pl. 170p, q.
17. This part of the armour is defined as ‘lamellate legging’ in Faccenna and Filigenzi, pl. 166, 3c.
18. See Allchin.
19. For the scales, Allchin, fig. , , pl. I, 2; for the plaques, ibid., fig. , , pl. I, 5.
20. For a reassessment of the ‘House’ chronology in connection to the BKG ‘Palace’, see M. Taddei, ‘Recent Archaeological Research in Gandhāra: The New Evidence’, in Brancaccio and Behrendt, pp. 41–59 (especially p. 50).
21. Grenet, Ligier, and De Valence; Rapin; but see also Abullaev, n. 38.
22. Respectively in Grenet, Ligier, and De Valence, pls XXXVIIa, XXXVIIIa.
23. For Takht-i Sangin, see Litvinskij, pls 84–93; for Paykend, see G. L. Semënov and others, Raskopki v Pajkende v 2000 godu (Materialy Bucharskoj archeologičeskoj ekspedicii, II) (St Petersburg: Gos. Ermitazh, 2001); in particular, see figs 18 and 19.
24. Fussman and Guillaume, pl. 8, nos. 560, 563, 565 (iron), 566 (bronze).
25. Dien, figs 17–18.
26. In fact, Iranic defensive weapons and horsemanship items seem dominant amongst the elites in the north-west of the subcontinent between the first and fourth centuries AD. Solid-tree saddles, stirrups (P. Callieri, Seals and Sealings from the North-West of the Indian Subcontinent and Afghanistan (4th Century BC – 11th Century AD), Local, Indian, Sasanian, Graeco-Persian, Sogdian, Roman, Dissertationes, 1 (Naples: IUO/IsIAO, 1997)), covered tails (J. Ilyasov, ‘Covered Tails and “Flying” Tassels’, Iranica Antiqua, XIII (2003), 259–325 (264–66)), and crenelated manes (O. Maenchen-Helfen, ‘Crenelated Mane and Scabbard Slide’, Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 3.2 (1957), 85–138) are frequently represented in coinage and in sculptures, as well as in rock art (L. M. Olivieri, The Painted Shelters of Swat-Malakand, Materialien zur Archäologie der Nordgebiete Pakistans (Mainz: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, forthcoming).
27. Callieri and others, ‘Bīr-kot-ghwandai’.
28. L. M. Olivieri, ‘Notes on the Problematic Sequence of Alexander's Itinerary in Swat. A Geoarchaeological Study’, East and West, 46.1–2 (1998), 45–78 (73).
29. L. M. Olivieri and others, ‘Archaeology and Settlement History in a Test Area of the Swat Valley. Preliminary Report on the AMSV Project (1st Phase)’, East and West, 56.1–3 (2006), 73–150.
30. For Udegram, ‘Castle’, see G. Gullini, Udegram (Rome: IsMEO Reports and Memoirs, I, 1962).
31. D. Faccenna, ‘Results of the 1963 Excavation Campaign at Barama I (Swat-Pakistan)’, East and West, 15.1–2 (1964–65), 7–23.
32. See references in Olivieri, The Survey of the Bir-kot Hill. Further relevant evidence of military architecture was found pertaining to the Early Islamic period at BKG (L. M. Olivieri, ‘La fase di occupazione islamica del colle di Bir-kot. Le evidenze della ricognizione e dello scavo’, in Studi in onore di Umberto Scerrato per il suo settantacinquesimo compleanno, ed. by M. V. Fontana and B. Genito, IsIAO, Series Minor, LXV 2 (Naples: Università degli studi di Napoli ‘L'Orientale’, 2003), II, 593–608), Udegram ‘Castle’, and probably at Bar-tangai (Olivieri, The Survey of the Bir-kot Hill, figs 49–50).
33. Callieri and others, ‘Bīr-kot-ghwandai, Swat, Pakistan’, 195, 203.
34. G. De Marco, ‘I “Kusāna” nella vita del Buddha. Per una analisi del rapporto tra potere politico e religione nell'antico Gandhāra’, Annali dell'Istituto Universitario Orientale, 34, 43.1 (1983).
35. Faccenna, ‘Un particolare tipo di cotta’, p. 702.
36. See the Saidu Sharif I frieze in Faccenna, Il fregio figurato.
37. A complete, comprehensive historical reassessment of the BKG archaeological evidence (with a special focus on the role of Buddhism in the late phases of urban life) is in Callieri, ‘Buddhist Presence’.