DADU: A number of artefacts and other objects were found during excavation by archaeologists in the Brahman Abad, about 22 kilometres from Sanghar city, a team of experts belonging to the Shah Latif University (Salu), Khairpur, and officials of the archaeology department said the other day.

The 17-members team of the department along with four professors from Salu’s archaeology department has been working to discover more artefacts at the ancient site.

The Salu team is led by Prof G.M. Vessar and Assistant Prof Ms Tasleem while the team of archaeology and antiquities department is led by its director general Manzoor Ahmed Kanasro. Director Fatah Shaikh, and assistant directors Zahida Qadri and Mohsin Soomro are the other senior members of the department’s team.

Speaking to this correspondent, Prof Vessar said that the artefacts discovered so far were related to the Sassani, Buddhist and Islamic periods. They included pottery, coins, ivory objects, bangles, rings and animal figurines. Semi precious stones, besides row material and finished products, were also found, he added.

He said researchers at Salu were working on these objects to determine their age and the dynasties they belonged to. Their efforts were fully supported by the archaeology and antiquities department, he added.

Mr Kanasro told this correspondent that the archaeologists working at this site found the artefacts buried five metres deep. They seemed to have belonged to the 2nd BC to 13AD period, he said. He recalled that Brahman Abad was first excavated a little after 1856 and a research on scientific lines was started on the discoveries made at that time.

According to Mr Kanasro, the archaeologists’ efforts are being facilitated in the search for more artefects at the ancient site. Layers of earth is being removed very carefully to ensure that the artefacts are not damaged and handled with extra care in transporting them to the department’s office.

Ms Tasleem said that Mansura referred to Brahman Abad in later centuries and was the capital of Umayyad caliphate in Sindh over eight centuries and then Abbasid caliphate from the year 750AD to 1006AD. The city transformed into a very vibrant metropolis during the Abbasid era, she said.

The ongoing excavation and research would open up more chapters of history, she said.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2021