2000 years old statues discovered from an archeological site in Pakistan
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RAJANPUR - Ongoing excavation at the ancient mound Dillu Roy site in Kot Chutta Tehsil of district Dera Ghazi Khan near Jampur has led to discovery of a statue that could be around 1800-2000 years old, the lead archaeologist said on Thursday.
Deputy Director Archaeology Southern circle Punjab, Muhammad Hassan told APP, they found it from the floor level of a trench they had dug so far to a depth of one metre as part of excavation.
The sculpture was found during the visit of Director General Archaeology Punjab 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 at a height and fell on the ground, Hassan said. It was a statue of a woman and looked like a religious statue. It has signs of a garland around her neck with some beads intact, a string of beads decorating her head around hair combed in traditional style.
“We are investigating to find what era it belonged to but according to initial assessment it could be 1800-2000 years old.”
The scientific archaeological excavation at mound Dillu Roy began around two weeks ago under a Rs 17.323 million project with its first phase of building a 6400 feet boundary wall to protect the site almost completed.
During the visit of DG archaeology Punjab, Hassan briefed him about the progress and finding of the artifacts which have been found during the excavation. He showed different areas of the site to the DG and discussed with him about the potential of the site which is under investigation.
A team of Archaeology department students and staff of University of the Punjab, Lahore, under the supervision of chairman Dr. Muhammad Hameed, also joined the excavation exercise for scientific training and mythodology of excavation by Muhammad Hassan. The team leader said that the site is very rich and has a very unique archaeological significance that belonged to scythe-parthian time period. The structure style is also very significant and spread all over the site. Most of structure was built with big suze sun dried bricks measuring 37x23x5cm.
Different types of artifacts like pottery, stone objects, terra cotta beads, human and animal figurines, rusted copper coins and specially sculpture made of clay was found during the process of excavation.
The said clay sculpture ( broken) of goddess may belong to scyethian period of history which may belong to more than 2000 years old. It was the most significant discovery made so far during excavation that will complete in around 60 days.
The Director General of Archaeology acknowledged and thanked the Archaeology Department, University of Panjab for their visit and participation in the excavation. The excavation team collectively has strong impression that the evidences of Pre-Kushan dynasties such as Scytho Parthians will surely appear after the digging goes further deep.
It is further added that there is also strong possibility to find archaeological evidences belonging to Greek period and their presence in south western part of the Punjab.
