Early-historic Data from the 2016 Excavation Campaigns at the Urban Site of Barikot, Swat (Pakistan): A Shifting Perspective Luca M. Olivieri and Elisa Iori Introduction The site of Bīr-koṭ-ghwaṇḍai (henceforth Barikot) is located on the left bank of the Middle Swat valley, west of the modern village of Barikot, and is marked by a steep hill (ghwaṇḍai), dominating the Swat River flowing to the north. Now, after several years of research 1 carried out by the Italian Archaeological Mission – more recently within the framework of the joint Pak-Italian ACT-Field School Project – a good portion of the ancient city has been uncovered. The area of the ancient town (c. twelve hectares including the acropolis) lies on the southern plain at the foot of the hill (the ancient acropolis) and is encompassed within an imposing defensive wall with massive rectangular bastions every 28 metres, the equivalent of 100 Attic feet. The defensive wall, dated on numismatic evidence and radiocarbon data to circa 150 BCE, so far represents the only excavated Indo-Greek urban defensive structure in South Asia. The major excavated sector of the city, about one hectare corresponding to the south-western quarters of the ancient city, is formed by three adjoining trenches BKG 4-5, 11, and 12 (1990-1992, 2011-2016) (Fig. 1). Digs there have revealed an occupation sequence which runs from the second quarter of the second millennium BCE to the fourth century CE. A Preamble: The Names of the City Two towns according to the classic sources were conquered and garrisoned by Alexander the Great in the valley of Swat (Autumn 327 BCE), Ora/Nora and Bazira/Beira. The first is certainly Udegram, the second is Barikot; both Aurel Stein and Giuseppe Tucci proposed the identification of the site with the city known as Beira, “urbs opulenta” in Q. Curtius Rufus (Historiae Alexandri VIII 10, 22) and Bazira in L. Flavius Arrianius (Arrian) (Anabasis, IV, 27). 3 Archaeological investigations have proved that the two sites were again occupied by the Indo-Greeks two centuries after Alexander, 4 Ora and Bazira/Beira were totally neglected by the sources. Some unexpected information is contained in a much later source. ‘Vajirasthāna’ (vajira(sthā)ne), as a place name, 5 is mentioned in a Brāhmī-Śāradā inscription of the time of King Jayapāladeva (tenth century CE) 6 found on the hill-top at Barikot (now in the Lahore Museum), recently re-studied by O. von Hinüber. 7 Already in 1958 Tucci had convincingly associated the toponym ‘Vajirasthāna’ with Bazira/Beira. 8 The toponym can be interpreted as ‘the strong place’ or better as ‘the sthāna ([fortified] place) of Vajra/Vajira’, on which, by analogy, Bir-kot, ‘the koṭ (castle) of Bīr’, might have been modelled by later Pashto-speakers (post- sixteenth century). If Vajra was really the original name of the site (‘Strong’), the diglossia ‘Bazira’/‘Beira’