TRACCE no. ***Book announcement*** back to index

The second volume of "Materialien zur Archaeologie der Nordgebiete Pakistans" is dealing with the petroglyph site Shatial, 60km west of Chilas in the upper Indus valley of Pakistan.

As manifested in the rock carvings this place was a traffic junction where, during the first centuries AD, influences from Inner and South Asia met.

The most remarkable feature of this site is the unique concentration of more than 550 Sogdian inscriptions. Besides there are more than 400 inscriptions in Brahmi and many representations of stupas of particular quality.

Some of the other engravings like tamgas, fire altars and animal drawings, too, refer to the Sogdians, a lot of other carvings show other cultural influences.