KARACHI, Jan 17: Fourteen stone sculptures recovered recently in Thar area, and dating back to over 1,000 years have been put on display at the Umerkot Museum.

The sculptures were accidentally discovered while excavation work for a road connecting Mithi and Nagarparkar in Thar was in progress.

The material used in the sculptures is black stone washed with gold, sandstone, and marble. Other remains found were of a wall constructed with burnt bricks, suggesting that some important archaeological discoveries could be made if proper exploration and excavation is carried out. Some of the sculptures got damaged while being taken out mechanically.

As the sculptures were left unattended at the site, some of them were taken away by area people or by ranger personnel posted at the nearby Virawah check post.

Sources said that the archaeology department staff went to the village and recovered sculptures from villagers and sent them to the Umerkot Museum, while the remaining sculptures could not be obtained as the rangers personnel refused to hand them over.

The rangers are reportedly using these sculptures as decoration pieces or have fixed them in walls and doors.

The higher ranger authorities have, however, agreed to return the sculptures.

The sources said that the sculptures are heavy, and could not be moved manually. The archaeology department is trying to raise funds for lifting them through cranes or lifters, which will also be shifted to the Umerkot Museum.

Conservationists, pointing out to the remains of an ancient city, Parinagar, a major port in the area once, urged the authorities to carry out proper survey around Virawah and Nagarparkar so that more sites are not destroyed while carrying out development projects.

They said the Parinagar ruins are spread over approximately five square kilometres, and there is a cluster of Jain temples, constructed between 8th Century and 12th century AD, near Karoonjhar Hills, Nagarparkar. The area can also be developed as a tourist spot.

Mehmood Begra, the ruler of nearby Gujarat State (now in India), had also built a mosque nearby.

They said that when a development project is financed by the international financial institutions they insist that such surveys should be carried out as was the case with the Ghazi Barotha project, Lakhra project and evaporation ponds project in Cholistan in which donors insisted that survey be carried out by the archaeology department so that no important site gets damaged.

They pointed out that some time back a metalled road in Sanghar district had been constructed through the archaeological site of Mansura, bisecting the ruins of the ancient city, which remained the capital of Sindh for a few centuries during an earlier Muslim rule.