(10 April, 2017) The University of Durham’s journal “Antiquity” recently published an article by Massimo Vidale, from the Cultural Heritage Department of the University of Padova and Roberto Micheli, an archaeologist of the Archaeology Superintendence of Friuli Venezia Giulia; about the the recent discoveries of the “ACT-Archaeology, Community, and Tourism” project in the Swat, Pakistan. The Swat valley is located in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in the North of Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan. The project is aimed at the excavation of protohistoric grave sites carbon-dated from 1400 to 900 BCE, the same period in which experts pinpoint the diffusion Indo-Arian languages- a branch of the Indo-European family- from Central Asia to the Indo-Pakistani subcontinent. The team from Padova recently carried out micro-stratigraphic excavations of grave sites and human remains. In other words, they focused on the minute variations in the composition of the soil. This method revealed not only complex rituals of reopening the burial sites to place or extract funerary objects or to manipulate the bones of the deceased; but also revealed remains of fabric, baskets and decomposed wooden vases that had never been identified. Vidale commented “We are very satisified with the excavation and with the analyses of the discoveries, and the interionational collaborations that are forming. Micro-stratigraphic excavation – a ‘specialty’ of the University of Padova School of Archaeology-permitted David Reich from the Department of Genetics of Harvard Medical School to carry out DNA analyses of human remains and for the possibility to reconstruct funerary rituals of these ancient civilisations of the Bronze age”. Vidale has been conducting archaeological research in Pakistan since 1981. Since 2012, the University of Padova Cultural Heritage Department: Archaeology, Art History, Music and Film has collaborated with the Italian Archaeological Mission in recognition, excavation and 3D documentation of artefacts, sculptures, and cave landmarks with Giuseppe Salemi and Michele Cupitò. (red)
