[2] More recent studies by Pakistani scholars, such as Muhammad Zahir, consider that these protohistoric graves extended over a much wider geography and continued in existence from the 8th century BCE until the historic period.

Estimates, based on ancient DNA analyses, suggest ancestors of middle Swat valley people mixed with a population coming from the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor, which carried Steppe ancestry, sometime between 1900 and 1500 BCE.

[8] A constant funeral tradition with pottery and similar artifacts can be found along the banks of the Swat and Dir rivers in the north, Chitral, and the Vale of Peshawar.

Multiple burials and fractional remains are found in the later phase, along with iron objects, coeval with the beginning of urban centers of Taxila and Charsadda.

Parpola adds that these graves represent a mix of the practices found in the northern Bactrian portion of BMAC, during the period of 1700–1400 BCE and the Fedorovo Andronovo culture.

[20] According to Parpola, in the centuries preceding the Gandhara culture, during the Early Harappan period (roughly 3200–2600 BCE), similarities in pottery, seals, figurines, ornaments, etc.

[27] Narasimhan et al., 2018, analyzed DNA of 362 ancient skeletons from Central and South Asia, including those from the Iron Age grave sites discovered in the Swat valley of Pakistan (between 1200 BCE and 1 CE from Aligrama, Barikot, Butkara, Katelai, Loe Banr, and Udegram).

They further state that the Swat valley grave DNA analysis provides further evidence of "connections between [Central Asian] Steppe population and early Vedic culture in India".