ASIA, SOUTH | Kashmir and the Northwest Frontier

Abstract

This entry into the encyclopedia examines the archaeology of the Northwest Frontier and Kashmir region from early prehistory to the end of the Early Historic period in third century AD. It examines the palaeolithic communities of the Potwar Plateau and Northern Valleys, and the first food-producing communities in the Kashmir and Swat Valleys and the Vale of Peshawar. It details the first emergence of urban centers, such as Rehman Dheri, in the south of the region between 3300–1900 BC, and the relationship between these sites and the Indus Valley Tradition. Rejecting the concept of Aryan invasions it discusses emergence of Gandharan Grave Culture, and megalithic architecture in Kashmir during the second millennium BC. It then details the emergence of the major urban centers of Taxila and Charsadda and their subsequent incorporation into the imperial worlds of the Mauryan, Indo-Greeks and Kushans. These cities were important trade centers linking the South Asian subcontinent with the Near East and Central Asia, and facilitated the spread of Buddhism through the edicts of Ashoka. Finally, this entry ends with the partition of the region into the Sasanian and Gupta Empires in 320 AD.