KARNAL, April 24 — Archaeologists of the Kurukshetra Development Board (KDB) has dug up artefacts dating back to more than 4500 years from a mound in Bhor Shyam village, 33 km from here. The village falls in between the historic villages of Jamba and Kirmich.

Mr A.K. Yadav, a former Chief Executive Officer of the KDB, and now posted as Additional Deputy Commissioner, Sonepat, told TNS that the KDB had ordered to stop the vandalisation of the state.

The mound stands of the western side of Bhor Shyam village surrounded by agricultural land. It covers an area of about 10.5 acres and the height is over 15 metres which could be seen conspicuously from the village.

Mr Purohit told TNS that it was a chance find when the team had gone to locate Koti Tirath, Vishnu Hrad, Jesthashram and Surya Kund pilgrimages in the village. The visit was a part of the survey ordered by the Haryana Governor and the Chairman of the KBD, Mr Mahabir Prasad, for the documentation of different pilgrimages of greater Kurukshetra which encompassed five districts i.e. Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Karnal, Panipat and Jind during the Mahabharata days.

The team found that the mound was a multi-cultural site beginning from the Harappan period to the Gupta period.

Mr Purohit said the mound contained antiquities of a multi-cultural occupational activity which was rare in this part of the land. The discovery might bring into light many more truths relating to the Harappan painted grey culture, Mauryan, Kushan and Gupta cultures.

The Curator further stated that the mound has been dug up by a contractor who had obtained this land on lease from the Punjab Wakf Board. The Archaeological Department didn’t knew about the mound. As a result of digging, substantial portion of the mound had already been raised to the ground and “a large number of antiquities and structure have been destroyed.” Therefore, much of the material evidence for the reconstruction of the history of the region has been lost.

He regretted that this was the reason why sufficient material evidence with regard to the Mahabharata war was not available for corroboration because most of the Mahabharata period sites had been converted into agricultural lands around the places associated with the epic.

After the Partition in 1947, the sites of Harappa and Mohenjodaro were left in Pakistan. However, extensive excavation all over the country revealed sites comparable to the Harappa and Mohenjodaro culture. These sites were located in Banawali in Hisar district, Kalibanga in Rajasthan, Ropar in Punjab, Lothal and Dholavira in Gujarat. In Haryana, there were hundreds of Harappan and painted greyware sites.

Mr Purohit maintains the exposed parts of the structures such as fortification wall and two domestic wells substantiated the facts that it was a multi-cultural site. There may be an occupational deposits of about 15 metre high in an area of 10.5 acre with at least four to five fold cultural sequence beginning from the Harappan Period (2400 to 1700 BC) followed by the late Harappa (1700 to 1400 BC), painted greyware culture (1200 to 700 BC) often corroborated with the Mahabharata times. It was succeeded by black slipped (600 to 200 BC) further followed by Kushan (100 AD to 300 AD) and Gupta culture (400 to 600 AD).

The ceramics found from the surface collection particularly of the Harappa and painted greyware from this mound is comparable to Bhagwanpura, 22 km, from Pipli, which is an interesting site where the inter-locking of Harappan and painted greyware was found for the first time.

The surface material spread all over the mound includes potteries such as the perforated jar, painted redware etc. of the Harappan period. It also has clay potteries of the painted greyware culture with the usual designs comparable to Hastinapur in Uttar Pradesh and other such sites. The black slipped ware, the redpolished ware (potteries of Gupta period) and other redwares have also been found from this mound. The Mauryan, Kushan and Gupta bricks used in different structures could also be seen from the edge of the mound. Two wells probably of Harappan times can also be seen from the bottom portion of the mound which has been exposed due to digging.