Even where large collections of artworks can be related to individual sites, the exercise of comparing material within and between these places is still at an early stage. However, insights of this kind have been harder to gain for other areas, including the Gandhāran heartland of the Peshawar basin. Well documented modern excavations at particular sites and areas, such as the projects of the Italian Archaeological Mission in the Swat Valley, have demonstrated the value of looking at sculptures in context and considering distinctive aspects of their production, use, and reuse within a specific locality. Many surviving Gandhāran artefacts are unprovenanced and the difficulty of tracing substantial assemblages of sculpture to particular sites has obscured the fine-grained picture of its artistic geography. The geographical variations in Gandhāran art have received less attention than they deserve. Even the superficial homogeneity of Gandhāran sculpture, which constitutes the bulk of documented artistic material from this region in the early centuries AD, belies a considerable range of styles, technical approaches, iconographic choices, and levels of artistic skill. Yet this tradition is also highly varied.
Indeed it has distinctive visual characteristics, materials, and functions, and is characterized by its extensive borrowings from the Graeco-Roman world.
Gandhāran art is usually regarded as a single phenomenon – a unified regional artistic tradition or 'school'.
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