Schists and Pigments from Ancient Swat (Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, Pakistan)

Since the earliest agricultural communities settled in the greater Indus basin in the 7th millennium BC, rocks and minerals have had an important role in the local processes of social evolution in order to signal the superior status of elites, as Italian excavations and surveys demonstrated in numerous projects (IsMEO-IsIAO and National Museum of Oriental Art in Rome, MNAO). This paper presents results from minero-petrographic analysis carried out from sculptures exposed in MNAO, with the aim of better understanding their context and provenance. The petro-textural characters have implications for both the conservation of the sculptures and reconstruction of the provenance history of the raw materials from the Swat Valley. A set of brightly coloured particles made of different raw materials (pigments and gold leaf) was also analysed. These precious materials were probably placed in the reliquary alongside a few cremated bones in the frame of a highly symbolic, ritual setting