Decline or Transformations: Patterns of Change in Swat at and after the end of the Kushan Era (3rd-6th Century AD)

In the last years the ISMEO/ACT teams were busy in excavating the late-Kushan and Kushano-Sasanian stratigraphy and urban religious complexes at the Bir-kot-ghwandai site (Swat, Pakistan). The ancient city started declining around mid-3rd century and was abandoned by early 4th CE. Its crisis and abandonment matches the general crisis of urbanization in the northern regions of the Sub-Continent, following the collapse of the Kushan system of power and the rise of nonurban/ non-Buddhist elites. In the phase that saw the abandonment of the urban site(s), in Swat, Buddhist complexes in the countryside managed to survive. Though, major changes are documented in that phase, e.g. at Amluk-dara: radical reconstructions, massive introduction/import of stucco and kanjur (the first is the byproduct of the second; the second is not a local lithotype), and progressive decline of both the schist quarry areas the stone sculptors' workshops.