RAJANPUR – Ongoing excavation at the ancient mound Dillu Roy site in KotChutta Tehsil of district Dera Ghazi Khan near Jampur has led to discoveryof a statue that could be around 1800-2000 years old, the leadarchaeologist said on Thursday.
Deputy Director Archaeology Southern circle Punjab, Muhammad Hassan toldAPP, they found it from the floor level of a trench they had dug so far toa depth of one metre as part of excavation.
The sculpture was found during the visit of Director General ArchaeologyPunjab Muhammad Ilyas Gill to the site last Tuesday, Feb 18.
The mud clay statue was found in broken condition with its head, an arm,and torso separated and it looked as if it was fixed in a wall or placed ata height and fell on the ground, Hassan said. It was a statue of a womanand looked like a religious statue. It has signs of a garland around herneck with some beads intact, a string of beads decorating her head aroundhair combed in traditional style.
“We are investigating to find what era it belonged to but according toinitial assessment it could be 1800-2000 years old.”
The scientific archaeological excavation at mound Dillu Roy began aroundtwo weeks ago under a Rs 17.323 million project with its first phase ofbuilding a 6400 feet boundary wall to protect the site almost completed.
During the visit of DG archaeology Punjab, Hassan briefed him about theprogress and finding of the artifacts which have been found during theexcavation. He showed different areas of the site to the DG and discussedwith him about the potential of the site which is under investigation.
A team of Archaeology department students and staff of University of thePunjab, Lahore, under the supervision of chairman Dr. Muhammad Hameed, alsojoined the excavation exercise for scientific training and mythodology ofexcavation by Muhammad Hassan. The team leader said that the site is veryrich and has a very unique archaeological significance that belonged toscythe-parthian time period. The structure style is also very significantand spread all over the site. Most of structure was built with big suze sundried bricks measuring 37x23x5cm.
Different types of artifacts like pottery, stone objects, terra cottabeads, human and animal figurines, rusted copper coins and speciallysculpture made of clay was found during the process of excavation.
The said clay sculpture ( broken) of goddess may belong to scyethian periodof history which may belong to more than 2000 years old. It was the mostsignificant discovery made so far during excavation that will complete inaround 60 days.
The Director General of Archaeology acknowledged and thanked theArchaeology Department, University of Panjab for their visit andparticipation in the excavation.The excavation team collectively has strong impression that the evidencesof Pre-Kushan dynasties such as Scytho Parthians will surely appear afterthe digging goes further deep.
It is further added that there is also strong possibility to findarchaeological evidences belonging to Greek period and their presence insouth western part of the Punjab.