Double-crop Pocket Zones and Empires. The Case of Swat

The exceptional nature of these interfacial phases in the context of the standard anthropogenic sequence in Swat can be hypothetically explained by climatic crises, or at any rate, by high-impact exogenous factors. This is especially clear when we consider what was Swat’s great fortune for human settlement, namely, the combination of climate, water, fertile land, and hours of insolation per annum that made this valley one of the most important economic double-crop pocket areas in this part of Asia during antiquity. Initial reflections on the significance of these pocket zones led to refer to the power relations between consumer centers and their productive peripheries—between large cities of the Gandharan plains and the productive plains of Swat.