Archaeologists from Italy dig deep to preserve Pakistan’s archaeological sites

150 years of Italian unification celebrated by the Sindh culture dept.

KARACHI:

“Seven years of excavation and 13 pages of reports [left behind by previous cultural department officials] left us confused,” said Sindh Department of Antiquities Secretary Dr Kaleemullah Lashari. “Asma Ibrahim (the director of State Bank Museum and Art Gallery Department) sorted out and made sense of the material which was left behind and it was a Herculean task,” he told the crowd at the National Museum on Monday morning.

The audience came to learn about ‘Italian Archaeology in Pakistan Past and Present’ at a conference organised by the Sindh antiquities and culture departments and the Consulate of Italy to celebrate 150 years of Italian Unification.

Italian Consul General Dr Roberto Franceschinis apologised to the packed auditorium for the delay, as anxious guests chit-chatted while waiting for MNA Zubaida Jalal Kurd and Governor of Balochistan Nawab Zulfiqar Ali Magsi, the chief guests.

The culture department’s secretary, Abdul Aziz Uqaili, was invited to the crystal-clear podium to welcome the guests. He spoke of the culture department being devolved to the provinces. “The government has taken care of over 13 archaeological sites from Sindh to Kashmore, including Moen jo Daro and Bhambore,” he explained.

“When history becomes silent, the work of archaeologists starts,” said Lashari. He presented a slideshow of archaeological sites and their remains in Sindh, including findings from the harbour town of Bhambore.

The area is believed to have been built by Alexander the Great in 325 BC. Lashari briefed the visitors about how archaeologists believe Bhambore has been through three epochs: the Scytho-Parthian, the Hindu-Buddhist and the Muslim period. Pottery found from the Scytho-Parthian era dates as far back as first century BC and has Greek influences. According to Lashari, temples in Bhambore, such as the Shiva temple, trace back to the Hindu-Buddhist era. Muhammad bin Qasim’s arrival in Bhambore in 712 AD marked the beginning of the Muslim era in the subcontinent, he added. Referring to today’s age as the “archaeological renaissance in Pakistan”, Lashari thanked the Italians for their collaboration with the culture department.

The vivid slideshow also highlighted images of opaque pottery, splash pottery, stone clay pottery and other remains. “I regret that Bhambore and Moen jo Daro have only been excavated 10%,” said the moderator before he introduced a grey-haired Prof. Dr Valeria Fiorani Piacentini from the Catholic University of Sacred Heart in Milan, Italy. She participated in the ‘Cattolica University Research in Balochistan and Sindh: From the ‘Green Belt’ to the Harbour town of Bhambore.’

She referred to herself as a historian but said she did not wish to “write history from behind the desk but would rather join hands with archaeologists.” After briefly struggling to get her presentation on the laptop, she presented images from her work at archaeological sites, mainly in Balochistan. The Sindhi topic clad moderator, representing the cultural department, introduced the IsIAO Italian Archaelogical Mission to Pakistan as the first pioneering travelers in Pakistan to excavate archaeological remains. “The mission is the only team working constantly in Pakistan in regions including Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Swat and Indus,” he explained.

Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente (IsIAO) Archaeological Mission to Pakistan’s director Dr Luca M Olivieri discussed the organisation’s projects, focused mainly in the Swat Valley. The mission started in 1933 as IsMEO and Guiseppe Tucci, the director at the time, led excavations to Tibet. According to Olivieri’s timeline, when the mission was brought to Pakistan in 1956, they led projects in Chitral, Kohistan, Moen jo Daro and Baltistan, while they also conducted a survey of Buddhist regions in Sindh. He also spoke about the Archaeology, Community and Tourism (ACT) project, which has launched in Swat. “With the help of the Pakistani government, the project aims to safeguard archaeological and cultural sites in Swat Valley and Barikot. We will also train the local staff so that they are responsible for the sites and Swat Museum once we leave,” he explained.

Activities at the Swat Museum were suspended after it was damaged in a bomb blast in February 2008, according to Olivieri. The three-year ACT project aims to open the Swat Museum again in 15 months.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 7^th, 2011.