On Tuesday, international archaeologists reportedly found the remnants of a stupa and an antique pottery kiln at the ancient Bazira city in Swat.
Italian Archaeological Mission and the department of archaeology started the excavation effort in Bazira city of Barikot, also known as the city of Alexander. According to the archaeologists, the new dig was of utmost significance since it turned up a Buddhist stupa and ceramic kiln.
Alice Caprioli, a PhD scholar at the University of Chicago, who was part of the excavation campaign, said, “The importance of the excavation is two-fold as we have excavated a new stupa, belonging to the Huna period. The second important factor of the excavation is the discovery of a big kiln of ceramic production along with different pits,”
She said that they dug trenches where it was decanted before utilizing the raw clay to make pottery. On the southern side of the old city, where they had reached the Indo-Greek era, she claimed that excavations were currently taking place. Swat, according to Ms. Caprioli, is a paradise for archaeologists, particularly those who specialize in Buddhist or Gandharan art and archaeology.
“Swat is a significant region where we can find various currents and fractions of Buddhism, created here and then spread worldwide. Swat is a fundamental location for Buddhist history,” she said. She added that coming to Swat was a dream for her and she would try to come again and again.
Senior archaeologists said that discovering pottery kilns in Gandharan region was very rare as there were only a few examples of such kind of discoveries.
“In Peshawar, a small pottery workshop was earlier excavated by the University of Peshawar belonging to the Indo-Greek period. Here we have found a larger pottery kiln dated to Saka Parthian period, the mid-first century BCE to the beginning of the first century of the current era,” said Dr Luca Maria Olivieri.