Dr. Luca Olivieri: Temples of Swat. The Shahi archaeological landscape

This talk focuses on the recent research at Barikot, Swat, Pakistan. The ancient urban site, known in Greek and Latin sources as Bazira/Beira, between 700 and 1000 CE, became a major Śāhi centre with palatial and cultic structures, known as Vajira in epigraphic record of the end-10th century. Excavations on the acropolis revealed a large Brahmanical temple built by the Shahis of Kabul (c. 700 CE) and expanded under the so-called Hindu Shahis. The temple was demolished by the Ghaznavids in the 11th century, when a military settlement was established at the site. Shahi temples were part of a complex landscape, testified today by ruins of palaces, castles, and watchtowers. Archaeological survey documented three more Brahmanical temples. The first temple was documented by Alfred Foucher at Zalamkot at the gates of the Swat valley along the ancient “Buddhist roads”. A second temple was identified by Harold Deane at Manyar (near Barikot). A third temple was found by Aurel Stein in the Talash valley not far from the junction between Swat and Panjkora rivers. The latter is not far from Afghan Kunar, where similar temples were documented by the German Hindukush Expedition in 1935.