Nimogram: Pakistani Archaeological Site Images

Nimogram: Pakistani Archaeological Site Images

 

The photographs in this collection are of an early Buddhist site, Nimogram, in the Swat District of Pakistan (map).

Its artifacts belong to the Gandhāran School of Art. Coins of the Kus̥ān̥a and Kus̥ān̥a-Sassanian periods excavated from the site are dated to the 2^nd and 3^rd century CE. Dr. Joan A. Raducha took the photos in the course of three trips to Pakistan. Two trips took place in 1979 and 1986 when she visited the site of Nimogram as well as the Swat Museum (that held the majority of items in galleries and in storerooms), and at the Taxila Museum (where a few items from Nimogram were on display). Her third trip was in 2010 when she visited the Taxila Museum storeroom where many of the objects were being held for safe-keeping after a car bomb damaged the Swat Museum in February 2008.

The site was excavated by staff of the Pakistan Department of Archaeology and Museums (DOAM) in 1967 and 1968 (Inayat-ur-Rehman. [1968]). The majority of objects found at the site are sculptures, stone and stucco that decorated the Buddhist monuments at the site. Minor finds from the site include materials used in construction, coins, and votive objects.

One of the great strengths of the Nimogram collection is that all the artifacts came from this single site. In the case of 312 objects, a record was made of the specific location of the find within the site. (Antiquities Register of Nimogram Excavations. [1967-68]) Thus the materials offer the possibility of gaining a better understanding of the decorative panorama of the site as well as an opportunity to study groups of sculptures made by the same hand or workshop, and the same motif interpreted by different hands.

Acknowledgements | How to search the site | History of Research on the Sacred Site of Nimogram | Site location | Distinctive Features of Nimogram Artifacts | Other objects from Nimogram | Select Bibliography