History of Gilgit City as Evidenced by Archaeology

Abstract

Gilgit Baltistan (GB) has remained home to a very rich culture of different civilizations, and for many ancient societies including Hindu and Buddhist. For this research venture, the work conducted an archaeological survey in the vicinities of Gilgit city aiming to explore the hidden archaeological sites and to re-examine the sites which were already documented by different scholars. Through this research study, the establishment of cultural history of Gilgit becomes possible: besides, the survey also sheds light upon the understanding of details of such sites and monuments. Moreover, an in-depth and analytical study in relation to similar archaeological discoveries in the surrounding world has helped in understanding the cultural importance of area on preliminary grounds. More than this, the focus of study is on the pottery collection from different surfaces, Rock arts from different sites, Structural settlements, and collective burial system. . This dissertation, presenting the investigations, is offered in six chapters. The first Chapter includes introduction, statement of problem, Scope of the study, literature review and methodology. Chapter two, deals with the history and geography of Gilgit. The chapter three is specified on the past investigations, conducted on the archaeology of district Gilgit. This portion of dissertation presents a brief review of ancient literature in broader context of Gilgit-Baltistan. Our fourth and main chapter let us know the recent archaeological explorations, with the descriptive details of the explored sites of archaeological and historical significance. It includes the details about the selected archaeological sites. The fifth chapter focuses to explain the details of the surface collections from the sites Chok Kot (CKK) and Kargah monastery (KGM) in a comparative study to Gandharan collection. The sixth and last chapter of study is ‘discussion and conclusion’ an attempt to build a cultural and historical outline with the help of explored antiquities of the study area. Keywords: Gilgit Baltistan, Archaeological Sites, History, Culture, Chok Kot, Monastery, Settlements, Rock Art