Listed - For all time

Pakistan has an extremely rich and diverse heritage stretching from the 7th millennium BC to the present day, and Bradford archaeologists Dr Robin Coningham and Ruth Young were called in to advise on which archaeological sites should be listed by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre in order to protect them from human and natural hazards.

Many buildings, monuments, and sites in Pakistan are of priceless and irreplaceable significance - representing masterpieces of human creative genius, epitomising lost civilisations, unique living cultural traditions or exceptional examples of a past or present way of life. In order to protect this for future generations, Pakistan requested expert help from the World Heritage Centre in listing sites and Dr Coningham, senior lecturer in South Asian Archaeology and Ms Young, a doctoral research student, were enlisted. Dr Coningham had already taken part in World Heritage missions to Nepal and Bangladesh.

Together with members of Pakistan's National Commission for UNESCO and experts from Pakistan's federal and provincial departments of archaeology, they reviewed three sites from the Indus Valley civilisation - Mehrgarh, Rehman Dheri, and Harappa. Together these three sites represent the entire sequence of the civilisation as it developed from the 7th millennium BC neolithic village of Mehrgarh into the earliest planned town of Rehman Dheri and then into the great city of Harappa - epitomy of the Indus civilisation - in the third millennium BC. Mehrgarh has long been acknowledged as one of the most pivotal sites in South Asian prehistory, providing evidence for the indigenous domestication of both crops and animals, overturning the widely-held belief that Western Asia was the centre from which domestication spread. Rehman Dheri is crucial in understanding the evolution of urbanism in this region: it was one of the first experiments of regular urban planning in the Indus flood plain. The famous city of Harappa typifies the civilisation as a whole.

The next category of sites to be reviewed, Asokan rock edicts, were inscribed in the fourth century BC and demonstrate Asoka's attempt to create a pluralistic unity from the diverse populations of South Asia, and to encapsulate elements of Buddhist and Jain thought, forsaking violence, showing respect for animals, establishing works of public benefit and rectifying bureaucratic evils. The mission also reviewed the site of Bilot, one of the best-preserved dynastic centres of the Hindu Shais with its fortifications and temples; a number of exceptional monuments belonging to the 'Multani' school of tomb architecture which as a group represent an influential pre-Mughal tomb building tradition; and the Hunza and Chitral forts astride the great arteries of the Silk Road.

The mission found remarkable skill and expertise in Pakistan in conservation, management and restoration which will set the standard for the next stage of expanding Pakistan's inventory of World Heritage sites.

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University - Public Relations - Annual Reports - 2000 Contents - Research

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