Stones of Uraśa: A Review of the Archaeology of Hazara Division, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Abstract

Hazara Division in northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan, is a frontier region between the Gandhara, Kashmir and Upper Indus valley regions in the mountain areas of Hazara, comprising of the districts of Abbottabad, Mansehra, Haripur, Battagram, Torghar and Kohistan. But, despite the prominence of the extensively explored sites of Taxila and Peshawar, Hazara has now a much more substantial archaeological record, from the Mansehra Rock Edicts of the Mauryan emperor Ashoka in the third century BCE, through a rich concentration of Buddhist stupa sites, monasteries and settlement sites recorded in the eight districts of the Hazara division. This paper aims to review the archaeology of Hazara from the early historic period of Mauryan through the Buddhist monastic period under the patronage of the Kushans to the medieval period of Uraśa kingdom, based on the excavations reports, epigraphic studies, and recently conducted GIS based heritage survey by the Department of Archaeology, Hazara University, Mansehra. The paper also reflects the history of the region's ancient name Uraśa, and the archaeological context during Alexander the Great's campaign in the region of Amb, as well as the current conservation problems of the site in a still comparatively under-researched region in comparison to its archaeological value.