The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Eminent educationist Dr Zillur Rahman Siddiqui urged the Government to declare Wari-Bateshwar a 'Protected Area.'

Discovery of artefacts from this area has created a huge interest among the people and the Government should give priority to the Wari-Bateshwar," he said.

He was addressing as chief guest at the concluding ceremony of the eighth phase of excavation at Wari-Bateshwar, a 2,500 years old civilisation, at Belabo upazila in Narsingdi on Friday.

Trustee of Oitijja Anneshwan and Chairman of Daffodil Group Md Sabur Khan chaired the function.

Exhibition of the newly discovered archaeological relics from Wari-Bateshwar, photography exhibition and baul songs were an added attraction of the ceremony.

Dr Zillur Rahman said, "Many antiques found at Wari-Bateshwar were not from Bangladesh. Those were brought from abroad. This proved that Wari-Bateshwar was once an important commercial centre of international repute, he noted.

AKM Zakaria, archaeologist and former secretary, said this area was known to him from 1939. During that time he heard that many valuable stones including pearls were found there, which were not available in other areas.

Nasiruddin, a high official of Prime Bank, said they feel proud to become a part of the excavation works at Wari-Bateshwar. "We will continue our cooperation in future," he assured.

Dr Sufi Mostafizur Rahman, Professor of Jahangirnagar University and Team Leader of the excavation team, believes that Wari-Bateshwar is a rich, well planned and ancient emporium (a commercial city). Ptolemy Greek geographer, astronomer and mathematician, in his book 'Geographia' referred to Wari-Bateshwar as 'Sounagora'. The artefacts found at Wari-Bateshwar bear similarity with those found in the other emporia sites.

Wari-Bateshwar is the site of an ancient fort city dating back to 450 BC. This 2500-year old site is a significant archaeological discovery. It challenges the earlier notions about the existence of early urban civilisation in Bangladesh.

The site is about 75km from Dhaka situated near the Wari and Bateshwar villages in the Belabo Upazila of Narsingdi District. A local schoolteacher, Hanif Pathan, discovered it in the early 1930s. However, formal excavation started only recently in 2000. The current scientific study is being carried out by a team from the Archaeology Department of Jahangirnagar University led by Professor Sufi Mostafizur Rahman.

According to researchers, the discovery of Rouletted Ware, Knobbed Ware, stone beads, sandwiched glass beads, gold-foil glass beads, Indo-Pacific monochrome glass beads and importantly its geographical location indicates to Southeast Asiatic and Roman contacts.

Excavation also unearthed the presence of pit dwelling. The discovery of a pit dwelling is the first of its kind in Bangladesh. People used to live in these small ditches. The pit dwelling is a Copper Age or Chalcolithic artefact. Similar pit-dwellings have been found in India and Pakistan, which are believed to be 4000 years old. The unearthing of a 180-meter long, six-meter wide and 21-35cm thick road with a by-lane points to very early urbanisation in this area. Before the discovery of this, the widely held view was that urbanisation occurred later than what Wari-Bateshwar ruins indicate.