Activities

Survey and Explorations

The Department of Archaeology, University of Peshawar, the Provincial Directorate of Archaeology and Museums, Government of NWFP, the Federal Department of Archaeology and the Hazara University has been conducting archaeological survey and exploration in the Hazara and Mansehra region since 2007. An impressive number of Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim period sites have so far been recorded. .

Excavations

Being the oldest institution of its kind in the country, the Department of Archaeology, University of Peshawar is keeping the tradition of being the leading organization in conducting archaeological activities in the country. Currently the Department of Archaeology, University of Peshawar, in collaboration with the Provincial Directorate of Archaeology and Museums, Government of NWFP, has been carrying out excavations at the famous site of Gor Khattri, Hund and Aziz Dheri.

Gor Khattri

The archaeological site of Gor Khattri is located at the heart of walled city of old Peshawar. It is the highest place in Peshawar having a huge deposit of the historic periods commencing from the Indo-Greeks or even earlier. The first excavations at this site were conducted in 1994-95 and thereafter series of excavations took place in the subsequent years. The recent exactions, continuation of the previous archaeological investigation, was conducted under the supervision of Dr. Gul Rahim Khan (Archaeology, University of Peshawar) organized by the Provincial Government of Archaeology. The aim of current excavations was to find out the historical and cultural profile of the Peshawar and to discover the earliest occupational period of the city.
The 2007/08 years excavations were mainly conducted in the post-Kushan levels. In result of these diggings ten layers have been exposed. These layers mostly consist of floor levels as they yielding ovens with compact levels and sometimes loose filling with ceramic fragments. In these occupations dressed walls of mud-bricks made in different directions are found in good state of preservation.
Antiquities recovered during excavations mostly consisted of  pottery including glazed sherds from upper levels, coins, terra cotta figurines, bangles and other finds.

Hund

Almost at the same time as Gor Khattri excavation in November 2007 started, archaeological investigations commenced at Hund in the western side of the acquired land of the site. Two trenches, each one of 5x10 meters, were excavated but, activities were stopped at a depth of about 1.5 meters exposing only the top layers of the Mughal period occupation. Excavation was conducted by Mr. Imtiaz Khattak (Ph.D. Research scholar).

Aziz Dheri

Several different field campaigns have been made to Aziz Dheri since 1993. The objectives of the 2007/2008 years campaign, which was headed by Dr. M. Nasim Khan, were to learn about the nature of the site and to understand the cultural profile of the area. With these aims excavation at Aziz Dheri was started in mid-November 2007, and was ended in February 2008. The different field activities at the site mostly comprised the preparation of layout drawings of the exposed structures and excavations at eight different spots and levels of the mound. The survey and excavations produced enough information to enable us to achieve our goals of field campaign 2007/2008 up to a certain extent. Report on the field activities is included in the present issue of the Gandhāran Studies.

During 2007/2008 campaign we could not reach to the virgin soil or probe to the earliest occupation level of the mound. Therefore, excavation was been started by Dr. Nasim Khan at Aziz Dheri in the first week of November 2008 and will continue till February 2009 to establish a complete cultural profile for the site.

Symposium