Resistance at the Edge of Empires

The Archaeology and History of the Bannu basin from 1000 BC to AD 1200

Cameron A. Petrie

• Publisher: Oxbow Books
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781785703041
• Topic: Sciences sociales
• Subtopic: Archéologie

From 1985 to 2001, the collaborative research initiative known as the Bannu Archaeological Project conducted archaeological explorations and excavations in the Bannu region, in what was then the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan, now Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. This Project involves scholars from the Pakistan Heritage Society, the British Museum, the Institute of Archaeology (UCL), Bryn Mawr College and the University of Cambridge. This is the third in a series of volumes that present the final reports of the exploration and excavations carried out by the Bannu Archaeological Project. This volume presents the first synthesis of the archaeology of the historic periods in the Bannu region, spanning the period when the first large scale empires expanded to the borders of South Asia up until the arrival of Islam in the subcontinent at the end of the first and beginning of the second millennium BC. The Bannu region provides specific insight into early imperialism in South Asia, as throughout this protracted period, it was able to maintain a distinctive regional identity in the face of recurring phases of imperial expansion and integration.

Chapter 1

At the edge of empires: the Bannu basin from 1000 BC to AD 1200

From the mid-first millennium BC to the early second millennium AD, the history of north-west South Asia is marked by the rise, floruit and collapse of a series of major kingdoms and empires. These entities were controlled from centres within South Asia, but also Central Asia, and on the Iranian Plateau, and while often large in geographical terms, the historical records, inscriptions, and coins that survive indicate that they typically comprised collections of smaller states or provinces. These smaller entities were often geographically bounded, and one appears to have been centred on the Bannu basin, which today lies in the south of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, formerly the North West Frontier Province, Pakistan (Fig. i).

The Bannu basin never takes centre stage throughout this protracted period, but it is either incorporated into or sits at the edge of several empires in a number of guises. For instance, between c.520 and 330 BC, it was the province of Thatagush or Sattagydia under the Achaemenids and it might have been the Banagara mentioned by Ptolemy in the second century AD. Chinese pilgrims to the subcontinent referred to it as Poh-na in the fifth century AD and Fa-la-na in the early sixth century AD, and Islamic historians in the later seventh century AD refer to it explicitly as Banna. The region’s name therefore appears to be ancient.

Part of the Bannu basin’s importance lies in the fact that it is situated strategically across two of the major routes from the alluvial plains of the Indus and Punjab to the highlands areas to the west that comprise modern Afghanistan (e.g. Markham 1879: 47–50; Verma 1978: 100–101; Thomas and Knox 1994; Thomas et al. 2010). Although it appears in the historical record with some regularity, its importance is usually overshadowed by the Peshawar Valley to the north.

The extended period stretching from 1000 BC to AD 1200 was marked by phases of both stability and conflict, which included dramatic shifts in the orientation and nature of political control that impacted on the borderlands of South Asia. Long-range overland trade appeared to continue throughout this period, but there is relatively little known about the nature of the non-trade-based relationships that must have existed between the various centres of royal or imperial control and the regional kingdoms that made up their dominions. This is partly due to the focus of research on the centres of imperial power, and also to the nature of the available textual and historical documents, which are not comprehensive and often originate from those centres. It is therefore perhaps no surprise that our lack of knowledge is most acute when it comes to comprehending the impact of shifts in political control on the lives of the inhabitants of regional areas such as the Bannu basin.

The Bannu Archaeological Project conducted archaeological research in the Bannu region between 1985 and 2001 and has demonstrated that the region’s archaeological heritage stretches back to the Palaeolithic (Khan F. et al. 1991). Most of the research of the Bannu Archaeological Project focused on the early villages of the proto-historic period, with particular attention being given to the period between the late fifth and late third millennium BC (Khan F. et al. 1991, 2010a; Petrie 2010).

This volume looks at a very different part of the chronological spectrum, and presents the first systematic investigation of the archaeology and history of the Bannu basin from the first millennium BC to the early second millennium AD. It does this by combining information from primary and secondary historical sources, assessing numismatic, architectural, and sculptural remains and presenting the results of fieldwork carried out by the Bannu Archaeological Project. This fieldwork included surface surveys conducted between 1985 and 1996, and excavations carried out at the sites of Ter Kala Dheri in 1995 and Akra from 1996 to 2000 (cf. Khan F. et al. 2000a, 2000b, 2000f; Magee et al. 2005a). In interrogating this diverse range of information, this volume contextualises the archaeology and history of the Bannu basin and Akra across this extended period, both in relation to that of the borderlands as a whole and to the surrounding regions. It thus presents a ‘local history’ of this small region during the historic periods.

The period being considered is protracted, but it reflects the span of occupation at Akra as far as it has been determined. In archaeological terms, this period stretches from the appearance of the first truly sizable settlements in the region around 1000 BC, through the period during which the Achaemenids and various other entities exerted political control during the rest of the first millennium BC, and thence on throughout the first millennium AD and up to the reign of the Ghaznavid sultans. It should perhaps be no surprise that the archaeological evidence for the Bannu region does not have consistent resolution across this entire span, and attention is focused on two major chronological periods.

The first is the period during the early to mid-first millennium BC when the urban centre at Akra was established, and there is evidence of the contemporaneous use of a regionally distinct assemblage of material culture. This material is distinctive to the Bannu region, which appears to have been some type of regional polity that was subsequently incorporated into the Achaemenid Empire as the province of Thatagush. Wheeler (1962: 5) argued that the Achaemenid Empire was responsible for bringing iron, order, and civilisation to this part of the subcontinent in the first millennium BC, but it has long been known that this overtly colonialist interpretation was incorrect. The research of the Bannu Archaeological Project plays a critical role in re-evaluating the nature of the regional economy of Bannu in the centuries before the rise of the Achaemenids. It also provides insight into the relationship between the Achaemenid imperial core and its eastern periphery, and the place of Bannu within the complex local socio-economic and political milieu of the mid- to late first millennium BC. Local potentates may have been both empowered local rulers and satraps of the empire who had to negotiate political relationships at local and imperial scales, and also with neighbouring regions that were potentially beyond the reach of the empire.

The second period of focus examines the gradual spread of Islam towards South Asia in the mid- to late first millennium AD, and the impact that this dispersal had upon the predominantly Hindu society and economy that appears to have existed at that time in the borderlands of north-west South Asia. It has traditionally been assumed that the Bannu basin was a part of the Turki and Hindu-Shahi kingdoms from around AD 666 up until the time when it was apparently ravaged comprehensively by Mahmud of Ghazni in AD 1000, during one of his early campaigns into South Asia. Nevertheless, the detailed analysis of archaeological material from Akra and the Bannu basin and the relevant historical evidence that is presented here demonstrates that the process of interaction during the mid- to late first and early second millennia AD was far more nuanced than previously assumed. This volume demonstrates that Akra continued to be occupied up until c. AD 1200 and that a complex regional economy persisted up until at least that point. By providing evidence of the continuity of existing cultural practices into the Ghaznavid period and potentially beyond, it is possible to challenge the prevailing assumptions that the arrival of Islam in South Asia shattered the society and economy of the entire frontier. Rather than destruction, it appears likely that the new Ghaznavid rulers imposed a form of hegemonic control on some of their new domains, which were thus able to go some way towards resisting imperial domination.

This model of hegemonic control during the Ghaznavid period comes from a substantivist approach to economy within empires, where dominated regional populations are viewed as being capable of maintaining their integrity and resisting a cultural takeover. It is argued that this model fits with James C. Scott’s (1990) assertion that all subordinate groups resist in ways similar to peasants, with the existence of everyday resistance showing that the dominated have not consented to dominance. Scott (1990: 2–16; see also Scott 1985: 284–289) differentiates public transcript from hidden transcript, where domination is accepted in public, but questioned in private. A version of this framework can be applied to the investigation of the nature of political control and resistance in the Bannu region across the entire period that is being considered (see Chapters 4 & 11). It is also argued that these concepts provide a useful model for framing discussion of the relationship between rulers and the ruled in the borderlands as a whole. Importantly, the Bannu region lies at the edge of but very much within what Michaud (2010: 188, Figs 1–2, 5, also 2018) refers to as “Zomia+”, which is essentially van Schendel’s (2002) extension of the concept of “Zomia” that was formulated in 2007, but not published. Taken together, Zomia and Zomia+ are upland areas that lie between the regions of East, South-east, Central and South Asia and have been occupied by populations that have resisted dominance by large-scale states and empires (van Schendel 2002; Scott 2009; Michaud 2010, 2018).

In addition to considering long-term politico-historical change, this volume explores the specifics of the organisation of the regional economy in Bannu through a detailed analysis of three ceramic assemblages from the site of Akra, two from the first millennium BC and one from the late first and early second millennium AD. In particular our analysis considers what the evidence for ceramic production and distribution contributes to our understanding of the operation of a productive economy, and thereby the regional economy at this time.

1.1. The borderlands of western South Asia and the Bannu basin

The regions that comprise the modern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Pakistan) have for millennia been a borderlands area. They are part of the geographical transition zone where the plains of the Indus and Punjab and the ridges of the Salt Range that make up the north-western corner of South Asia, meet the far eastern edge of the Iranian Plateau to their west, and the Himalayas to their north (Fig. i). Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the northern extension of this borderland region, while the southern extension lies within the modern province of Baluchistan. In this location, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is situated at the major junction between the South, West, and Central Asian landmasses, and is both a geographical and a modern political frontier.

The Bannu basin is a small topographically defined region that lies to the south of the Peshawar Valley, to the north of the Gomal plain, and almost immediately to the west of the Indus River (Fig. 1.1; see notes on terminology). The Bannu basin has been described as being climatically marginal, as it is situated between western winter and eastern summer precipitation zones and does not receive regular rainfall from either regime (Thomas 1986; Thomas et al. 2010b). It is likely that this climate placed specific constraints on the subsistence strategies and social and settlement systems of the prehistoric and historic inhabitants (Thomas 2003; Thomas et al. 2010a). It is notable that throughout the history of settled occupation in the region, there are indications of continuous contact with the highland areas immediately to the west. There was also variable and intermittent contact with Baluchistan, the Gomal, and the Indus Plain to the south and east, and more distant parts of Central Asia to the north-west and west (Thomas and Knox 1994; Thomas et al. 1995; Khan F. et al. 2010b; Magee et al. 2005a).

Figure 1.1. Topographic map showing the location of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Bannu basin in the borderlands of South Asia.

1.2. Previous research on the borderlands in the historic periods

The western borderlands of South Asia have been of interest to Indologists and antiquarians for over 150 years, although much of this attention has focused on the Peshawar Valley (e.g. Cunningham 1871; Marshall 1904). The Bannu basin is considerably less well known, but it was certainly investigated during the same period.

Of all the ancient settlements known in the region, the site of Akra has received the most attention as it is physically the most prominent site, being similar in size to the Bala Hissar at Charsadda (Khan F. et al. 2000a: 9–10). Its prominence attracted the attention of a number of European officers stationed in the district in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including Sir H. Edwardes (1851) and S.S. Thorburn (1876). H.G. Raverty (1883), Sir M. Aurel Stein (1905), D.H. Gordon (1943: 170), A.H. Dani (1968), and F. Khan (1986) all described the site and/or aspects of its historiography (Khan F. et al. 2000a: 45–52). Akra has long been referred to as the ancient capital of the Bannu basin (e.g. Stein 1905: 10; Khan F. 1986: 184), and is probably the most important historic-period site in the region (Khan F. et al. 2000a: 9).

It is argued that the interpretation of the historic periods in the borderlands generally, and the Bannu region in particular, has suffered in two key areas: first, there has been no coherent reconstruction of long-term political, social, and economic development from the first millennium BC to the early second millennium AD; and secondly, for most of the latter part of that period, there has been minimal attention paid to the archaeological record and its relationship to these factors.

Various attempts have been made to reconstruct later prehistory and early history of the borderlands during the first millennium BC, and there has been a significant shift in academic opinion, particularly over the last fifty years (e.g. Wheeler 1962; Dittman 1984; Magee et al. 2005a; Coningham and Ali 2007; Petrie and Magee 2007, 2012, 2013; Petrie et al. 2008; Magee and Petrie 2010). The annexation of the borderlands by the Achaemenid Empire was initially given a colonialist spin with suggestions that it led to the introduction of iron technology and order to regions that ’were the battlefields of jealous local régimes‘ (e.g. Wheeler 1962: 5). In contrast, it is now argued that the appearance of urban centres and distinctive material cultural assemblages in these regions during the late second and early first millennia BC potentially indicate that regional polities existed throughout the borderlands several centuries before the Achaemenid Empire even existed (e.g. Magee et al. 2005a; Coningham and Ali 2007; Petrie and Magee 2007, 2012, 2013; Petrie et al. 2008; Magee and Petrie 2010). There is no doubt that the Achaemenids gained control of the borderlands, and it was also through this region that invaders and migrants as diverse as Alexander the Great, the Indo-Greeks, the Indo-Scythian, the Indo-Parthians, the Kushans, and the Turks all made their way into the subcontinent. The region also came under the control of the Mauryan Empire as it expanded to the west and into Afghanistan and was a critical bulwark under the Turki- and Hindu-Shahis as they resisted the expansion of various Islamic states. The archaeological and historical evidence for this great sweep of history is, however, patchy.

Attempts to understand and hypothesise about the political and economic dynamics that were in operation during the mid- to late first millennium BC in the borderlands have typically been patched together using inscriptions, distant and often later historical records from the classical world and East Asia, and a rich, enigmatic, and challenging body of numismatic material (e.g. Errington and Curtis 2007). Disappointingly, consideration of other aspects of the archaeological record, particularly ‘ordinary’ objects (cf. Smith M.L. 1999, 2010), has been limited.

Similarly, there have been few attempts made to create coherent models for the social, political, and/ or economic developments that transpired in the borderlands during the first and early second millennia AD (e.g. Dani 1989). When reference has been made to social, political, and economic factors it has again been common for scholars to use textual, epigraphic, or numismatic evidence in isolation, with little or no reference to the archaeology of ordinary people. Furthermore, most of the archaeological investigation that has actually been done on this period was conducted before chronometric dating and other methods of scientific analysis were commonly used in South Asia (e.g. Wheeler 1962; Mughal 1967b; Rahman A. 1968–69). In general, it has been the norm for preconceived conclusions derived from the historical material ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• English and Urdu summaries
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Notes on terminology
• Chapter 1. At the edge of empires: the Bannu basin from 1000 BC to AD 1200
• Chapter 2. Environment and settlement in the Bannu basin from 1000 BC to AD 1200
• Chapter 3. Historical context of the Bannu basin from 1000 BC to AD 1200
• Chapter 4. Empire and resistance in the borderlands from 1000 BC to AD 1200
• Chapter 5. The BAP Excavations at Akra and Ter Kala Dheri
• Chapter 6. Chronological context of Akra and Ter Kala Dheri
• Chapter 7. Small finds from Akra
• Chapter 8. Ceramics from Akra: raw materials and fabrics
• Chapter 9. The first-millennium BC ceramics from Akra and Ter Kala Dheri
• Chapter 10. The late first- and early second-millennium AD ceramics from Akra
• Chapter 11. Resistance at the edge of empires: the Bannu basin from 1000 BC to AD 1200
• Bibliography