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Scavi Della Missione Dell'università Cattolica Di Milano Alla Foce Dell'indo

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Scavi Della Missione Dell'università Cattolica Di Milano Alla Foce Dell'indo Acc. Sc. Torino Atti Sc. Mor. 149 (2015), 155-179 ARCHEOLOGIA, EPIGRAFIA E NUMISMATICA Scavi della Missione dell’Università Cattolica di Milano alla foce dell’Indo: archeologia e storia Nota di NICCOLÒ MANASSERO* e VALERIA PIACENTINI FIORANI** presentata dal Socio nazionale ANTONIO INVERNIZZI nell’adunanza del 12 maggio 2015 e approvata nell’adunanza del 9 febbraio 2016 Riassunto. Il sito archeologico di Banbhore sorge alla foce dell’Indo, in posizio- ne strategica che ne rende verosimile l’identifi cazione con il porto di Daybul/ Debal, menzionato dalle fonti antiche come il centro principale sulla direttrice dei traffi ci commerciali tra la Valle dell’Indo e le terre al di là dell’Oceano Indiano. L’articolo offre una panoramica dei lavori intrapresi dalla Missione congiunta italo-pakistana-francese a partire dal 2011. Gli scavi delle campagne 2014 e 2015, in particolare, hanno portato alla luce evidenze di una città fi o- rente e vivace, protagonista di produzioni artigianali e di scambi commerciali ad ampio raggio, dall’area siro-mesopotamica a quella indiana e cinese. Il sito fu attivo per almeno un millennio, dall’epoca sasanide fi no agli inizi del 13° secolo, e non è escluso che gli strati più profondi portino testimonianze di epoche ancora precedenti. PAROLE CHIAVE: Indo, Barbarikon, Daybul/Debal, archeologia sasanide, archeologia islamica. Abstract. The archaeological site of Banbhore lies at the mouth of the Indus river, in a crucial location that leads to tentatively identify it with the harbour of Daybul/Debal, mentioned by ancient sources as the main center for tra- de between the Indus Valley and the destinations beyond the Indian Ocean. The article provides an overview of the works undertaken by the joint Italo- Pakistani-French Mission since 2011. The excavations of 2014 and 2015 campaigns, in particular, brought to light evidence of a thriving and wealthy town, the protagonist of handicrafts and trade wide-ranging from the Syro- Mesopotamian area to India and China. The site was active for at least a mil- lennium, since the Sassanian period until the early 13th century, and the deeper layers might bear evidence of even earlier times. KEYWORDS: Indus, Barbarikon, Daybul/Debal, sasanian archaeology, isla- mic archaeology. * CRAST (Centro Ricerche Archeologiche e Scavi di Torino) dell’Università di Torino. E-mail: niccolò[email protected] ** Membro del Comitato Direttivo del Centro CriSSMA (Centro di ricerche sul Sistema Sud e il Mediterraneo Allargato) dell’Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano e Direttore Scientifi co della ricerca a Banbhore. E-mail: [email protected] 156 Niccolò Manassero e Valeria Piacentini Fiorani Jacobabad Shikarpur Ghotki Larkana Sukhar Dadu Khairpur Naushahro Feroze Nawahshah Sanghar Mirpur Khas Hyderabad Umar Kot Karachi BANBHORE Badlin Tharparkar Thatta Fig. 1. Localizzazione geografi ca di Banbhore. 1. Introduzione Il sito archeologico di Banbhore sorge sulla riva settentrionale del Gharo, un ramo secondario dell’Indo, a metà strada tra Karachi e Thatta, a circa 30 km dall’attuale linea costiera (Fig. 1). Esso è composto da una «cittadel- la» fortifi cata e una vasta area di rovine extra moenia (strutture portuali, quartieri urbani e suburbani, magazzini, offi cine, sbarramenti artifi ciali), per una superfi cie complessiva di circa 65 ettari. L’importanza del sito è legata alla sua posizione strategica presso la foce dell’Indo; diverse fonti storiche danno notizia di una città portuale qui collo- Scavi della Missione dell’Università Cattolica di Milano alla foce dell’Indo 157 cata, che svolse un ruolo cruciale all’incirca a partire dal 3° secolo a.C.: dap- prima Barbarikon, l’emporio «scitico» (da intendere come sbocco sul mare del regno Kushana) menzionato dall’autore del Periplus Maris Erythraei1; poi Dib, menzionata per la prima volta dal predicatore Mani2, e successiva- mente da svariate fonti in arabo (come Daybul) e persiano (come Debal o Debol)3. Anche se tale identifi cazione è fortemente controversa, la posizio- ne e l’imponenza delle strutture della cittadella sul Gharo rendono l’ipotesi molto verosimile. Il valore archeologico di Banbhore fu riconosciuto inizialmente da H. Cousens, che visitò il sito nel 1896-97, e da N.G. Majumdar, che vi scavò alcune trincee nel 1930, dando il via ad un vivace dibattito sulla identifi - cazione del sito, ancora oggi non risolto4. Più tardi, tra gli anni ’50 e ’60 del secolo scorso, L. Alcock vi intraprese scavi preliminari, continuati da M. Rafi que Mughal e in particolare da F.A. Khan, il quale effettuò scavi ar- cheologici estesi e sistematici5. Questi ultimi studiosi ed i loro collaboratori6, 1 L. Casson, Periplus Maris Erythraei: Text with Introduction, Translation and Commentary, Princeton University Press. Princeton, 1989, 38:13.3-4. 2 G. Widengren, Manichaeism and the Iranian Background, in «Cambridge History of Iran», 3:2 (1983), pp. 965-990 (in particolare p. 968). 3 Sui numerosi toponimi menzionati dalle fonti e sulla loro dibattuta identifi cazione sul terre- no, si vedano soprattutto V. Piacentini Fiorani, Behind Ibn Hawqal’s Bahr al-Fars. 10th-13th Centuries AD: Sindh and the Kij-u-Makran region, hinge of an international network of reli- gious, political, institutional and economic affairs («Studies in the Archaeology and History of Baluchistan», vol. II, BAR International Series, 2651), Oxford, 2014; e M. Kervran, Les ports multiples des bouches de l’Indus: Barbariké, Deb, Daybul, Lahori Bandar, Diul Sinde, in «Sites et monuments disparus d’après les témoignages de voyageurs» («Res Orientales», VIII), ed. by R. Gyselen, Peters Press, Louvain, 1996, pp. 45-92. 4 H. Cousens, The Antiquities of Sind («Archaeological Survey of India», New Imperial Series, XLVI), Calcutta, 1929; N.G. Majumdar, Explorations in Sind («Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India», 48), Delhi, 1934. Tra i più autorevoli studiosi pakistani riluttanti ad identifi care i resti di Banbhore con Dib/Daybul/Debol e/o Barbarikon, si ricor- dano H.M. Elliot, H. Haig, H.G. Raverty, H.T. Lambrick e lo stesso H. Cousens. 5 Le campagne di scavo realizzate da F.A. Khan durante il periodo 1958-1965 furono solo in parte pubblicate, ed i quaderni di scavo, i disegni e gli altri documenti originali sembrano es- sere andati persi. Si vedano F.A. Khan. Excavations at Banbhore, in «Pakistan Archaeology», 1, 1964, pp. 48-55; e id., Banbhore, A Preliminary Report on the Recent Archaeological Excavations at Banbhore, 3rd ed. Karachi, 1969. 6 P.T. Nasir, Coins of the Early Muslim Period from Banbhore, in «Pakistan Archaeology», 6, 1969, pp. 117-81; S.M. Ashfaque, The Grand Mosque of Banbhore, in «Pakistan Archaeology», 6 (1969): pp. 182-209; M.A. Ghafur. Fourteen Kufi c Inscriptions of Banbhore, the Site of Daybul, in «Pakistan Archaeology», 3, 1966, pp. 65-90. 158 Niccolò Manassero e Valeria Piacentini Fiorani appoggiandosi all’autorità di un grande storico, N.A. Baloch, furono tra i più autorevoli sostenitori dell’identifi cazione di Banbhore con Daybul. Dopo un silenzio più che quarantennale, Banbhore tornò ad attirare l’interesse della comunità scientifi ca nel 2010, quando gli obiettivi di due Missioni (la Missione Archeologica e Storica Italiana in Makran e Kharan, diretta dalla Prof. Valeria Piacentini Fiorani7, e la Missione Archeologica Francese in Sindh, diretta dalla Dr. Monique Kervran8) si trovarono a con- vergere. Entrambe le Missioni erano alla ricerca di una grande città portuale, un centro di snodo commerciale nella rete internazionale di scambi tra, da una parte, il subcontinente indiano e l’Asia interna, e dall’altra la penisola arabica, il Mar Rosso e la costa orientale dell’Africa. La ricerca comune di questo porto spinse le due squadre a unirsi avvalendosi della collaborazio- ne di un gruppo di colleghi pakistani sotto la direzione della Dr.ssa Asma Ibrahim, Direttore dello State Bank Museum of Pakistan (Karachi), e del Dr Kaleemullah Lashari, e a elaborare un nuovo progetto di ricerca, formaliz- zato e strutturato alla fi ne del 2010 come Missione Storica e Archeologica Pakistana-Francese-Italiana a Banbhore (Sindh). 2. Obiettivi della Missione L’unità italiana opera sotto la direzione scientifi ca della Prof.ssa Valeria Piacentini Fiorani, del Centro CriSSMA (Centro di ricerche sul Sistema Sud e il Mediterraneo Allargato) dell’Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano. Due accordi scientifi ci hanno formalizzato altrettante collaborazio- ni, rispettivamente con il CRAST (Centro Ricerche Archeologiche e Scavi di Torino, rappresentata sul campo dal Dott. Niccolò Manassero), e con il Dipartimento di Scienze di Base ed Applicate per l’Ingegneria-Laboratorio di Analisi non distruttive e Archeometria (LANDA), Università La Sapienza di Roma (sotto la direzione scientifi ca del Prof. Mario Piacentini). 7 V. Piacentini Fiorani e R. Redaelli (eds.), Baluchistan, terra incognita: a new methodological approach combining archaeological, historical, anthropological and architectural studies, («Studies in the Archaeology and History of Baluchistan», vol. I, BAR International Series, 1141), Oxford, 2003. 8 M. Kervran, The fortress of Ratto Kot at the mouth of the Banbhore River (Indus delta, Sindh, Pakistan), in «Pakistan Archaeology», 27, 1992, pp. 143-70; e ead., Pakistan. Mission Archéologique Française au Sud-Sind, in: «Archéologies. 20 ans de recherches françaises dans le monde» [ed. by Ministère des Affaires Etrangères], Maisonneuve et Larose, Paris, 2005, pp. 595-598. Scavi della Missione dell’Università Cattolica di Milano alla foce dell’Indo 159 L’obiettivo primario della missione congiunta è quello di stabilire un oriz- zonte cronologico defi nitivo per il sito, e ottenere informazioni dettagliate sulla sua struttura urbana e sulla vasta gamma di attività che vi si svolgevano. In particolare interessa comprendere se Banbhore possa essere identifi ca- ta con Barbarikon, il porto della Scizia menzionato dal Periplus, con Dib, dove l’apostolo Tommaso sbarcò e cominciò a diffondere il Cristianesimo in India, e con la Daybul conquistata dopo un lungo assedio, nel 711-712, da Muhammad ibn Qasim al-Thaqafi , episodio che segnò la conquista del Sindh da parte delle armate dell’Islam.
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