KARACHI: Archaeologists have discovered that there was active city planning in the ancient town of Bhanbhore marked by regular reconstruction of certain buildings.

This was said by Dr Kaleemullah Lashari while disclosing at the National Museum of Pakistan on Monday the preliminary results of excavations carried out in Bhanbhore by the joint archaeological mission of Pakistan, Italian and French scholars.

Dr Lashari started off his presentation by giving names of the individuals who participated in the mission. They were Prof Valeria Piacentini, Mario Piacentini, Niccolo Manessero, Agnese Fusaro, Alessandro, Ana Candida from Italy; Prof Monique Kervran, Jean Baptiste Hual, Houal Laurent and Flocchi Brunilda from France; Dr Asma Ibrahim, Sarfaraz Nawaz, Syed Faraz Ali, Danish Ahmed and Dr Kaleemullah Lashari from Pakistan.

Know more: Remnants of ancient settlement unearthed in Bhanbore

Dr Lashari said the overall targets of the mission was to place Bhanbhore in its regional perspective, to identify it as the port town of Deybal or Rewar, to know about its trade links and to verify earlier assumptions made by archaeologists who had done excavation in the late 1950s. The assumptions ranged from the fact that Bhanbhore dated back to the 1st century BC to the notion that it was abandoned in the 13th century.

Dr Lashari said this year the aim was to excavate the south-western side of the site where there was a depression. This led him to talk about the specific site, Trench 9, on which the mission focused its attention. (It’s located between the mosque and the southern gate.)

During the course of their work a fine structure came up, a four-metre-high wall, hinting at a sequence of settlement pattern with wooden poll marks made for construction. It was a finely built structure having an arrangement of stone blocks. Its western building had monumental features while the eastern part was ordinarily built. He said the discovery suggested that there were at least three phases of occupation in the area, including that of the Islamic age. However, there was evidence of other phases of occupation as well.

Dr Lashari then spoke on the discovery of the dump of carved ivory suggesting the activity related to ivory and bone crafts between the late 11th and early 12th centuries. The pottery found indicated that it could be from the 12th century but not of a later period, he argued. A tank for water storage was also chanced upon. Highlighting the Persian link, he said ‘jars with red body’ were ‘definitely’ from Siraf, Iran.

Dr Lashari said there was a harbour and therefore definite maritime activity in Bhanbhore. He also talked about the coins, which were not in good shape, that were found in the region and had more to do with their Indian links than Arab influence.

Concluding his disclosures, Dr Lashari said there was activity of city planning in Bhanbhore and the presence of ivory and bone crafts meant that the region was a trading centre. He pointed out that there was no major abandonment of phases of occupation in the zone (as suggested by earlier scholars) and added that further research was needed on the subject.

After the presentation the floor was opened for a question and answer session.

Replying to a question Dr Lashari said there was not enough evidence to suggest that Bhanbhore was the city of Deybul. “We needed to be more careful and systematic while making such a claim,” he said.

Answering the question about the discovery of fish bones that how come they didn’t get decomposed over the years, he said ‘marine life has the ability to sustain moisture’ and they were ‘sturdy bones’.

The consuls general of France and Italy, the Sindh secretary for culture and the commissioner of Karachi also spoke. The programme was conducted by Dr Asma Ibarhim.

Published in Dawn March 10th, 2015

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