MALIWI is part of the research network on Central Asia and Gandhara based at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. This project originated from the collaboration of two departments of Ca’ Foscari University, the Department of Humanities (Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici [DSU]) and the Department of Asian and North African Studies (Dipartimento di Studi sull’Asia e sull’Africa Mediterranea [DSAAM]), and enjoys the support of the Italian Archaeological Mission in Pakistan (IAM), directed by L.M. Olivieri.

The MALIWI project aims to analyse cultural exchanges in the Gandharan area – an important geographic and cultural junction between central Asia and the Indian subcontinent – through the lens of wine culture. The period under study spans from the Achaemenid to the Kushan ages (ca. 6th cent. BC – 3rd cent. AD). The project collects evidence on winemaking and consumption, starting from an interdisciplinary approach that involves textual, archaeological, and ethnographic materials in order to trace the production techniques and the social and convivial uses of this extraordinary drink that is present in the history of the human kind for millennia.