The entire study set out in the following pages is owed to the work and the documentation assembled by Domenico Faccenna on the Saidu Sharif I excavation in the Swat Valley.Added to the data collected by Faccenna (1963‑82) are the new data deriving from the excavations and final restoration works on the site (2011‑14). All this work, both old and new, was carried out in the context of the programmes of the Italian Archaeological Mission in Pakistan, founded in Swat in 1955 by Giuseppe Tucci as the first archaeological mission of what once was the IsMEO. Today the Mission is part of the International Association for Studies on the Mediterranean and the East (Associazione Internazionale di Studi sul Mediterraneo e l’Oriente – ISMEO), perpetuating the scientific heritage of the former Institutes IsMEO (1933‑96) and IsIAO (1996‑2011). As from 2013 the new ISMEO has incorporated the Mission as a research unit with the support of contributions by the University and Research Ministry and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. Since 2020‑21 the Mission has been jointly run by ISMEO together with the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.