IsMEO/IsIAO – DOAM Excavations at Bīr-koṭ-ghwaṇḍai 1984-1992. A Reassessment of the Chronological Sequence on the Basis of the Latest Fieldwork at the Site

Excavations at the early historic site of Bīr-koṭ-ghwaṇḍai (Barikot), the ancient Bazira of Alexander the Great (Tribulato and Olivieri 2017) started after almost ten years of explorations of the protohistoric phases of the site carried out by G. Stacul. The new project was launched in 1984 by the then IsMEO (from 1992: IsIAO) in cooperation with the Department of Archaeology and Museums (DOAM), Government of Pakistan, under the direction of P. Callieri. The first departmental representative was Mr. Aftab Ahmad Khan (Karachi National Museum), the last in 1992 was the current Director of DOAM Dr. Abdul Azeem, at that time Field Officer of the Sub Regional Office NWFP (SRO Peshawar). The excavation reports were at that time first published in the Department’s official journal Pakistan Archaeology, as required by the excavation license (Callieri et al. 1990, Olivieri 1993). The excavations at the lower city were interrupted in 1992, while those at the citadel were concluded in 2000. Excavations resumed in 2006, and then expanded to a larger scale from 2011 onwards. The following pages present a revised structural and chronological sequence of the site within the chronological limits of the ancient urban settlement (BCE 6th-5th – 3rd-4th CE), with a focus on the trenches excavated in collaboration with DOAM (BKG 1, 3, 4-5). Trench BKG 2, which has a later chronology, is not here considered. The revised sequence is based on the new data yielded by the 2011-2017 excavation campaigns.