Akhtar Munir (1949-2020)

Abstract

Akhtar Munir, nicknamed “Tota”, was born at Panr in 1949 in a family of humble origins. He was constantly marked, for all his life, by an exceptional intellectual spirit, and by an inextinguishable passion for the art and archaeology of Swat. After completing his primary education at the time of the Swat State of the Miangul dynasty, he deepened by himself, with personal readings, his cultural background. At an age of 8, he imposed his presence in Domenico Faccenna’s dig at Butkara I, whose trenches were opened between school and his father’s house. At the beginning, because of his young age, he could not be enrolled. So, while he was there at the site almost as a mascot of the team, his ability in recognizing the joining pieces of Gandharan sculptures was soon recognized. After school, in the house of the Mission at Saidu Sharif - soon becoming a kind of second house for him - he used to help Francesca Bonardi Tucci in re-fitting fragments and restoring the schist sculptures. Giuseppe Tucci soon discovered that he was a brave and tireless explorer of passes and mountains; Domenico Faccenna and Maurizio Taddei appreciated his skills as a field excavator; and eventually Francesca Callori di Vignale introduced him to the delicate secrets and practices of archaeological restoration.