Now, Panchkula, Rakhigarhi to have museums to display excavations

Chandigarh, May 13

The Haryana government has decided to come up with of-the-art museum will come up at Panchkula in Haryana at a cost of Rs 30 crore to display significant archeological findings in the state.

The Haryana government will also set-up another museum at Rakhigarhi village in Hisar district at an estimated cost of Rs 5 crore to be built over five acres land donated by the village panchayat, showcasing various items excavated from what was once a Harappan site, Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma, who also holds the portfolio of Archaeology, said at a press conference on Wednesday.

While the work to set-up the museum at Panchkula will commence within the next 3–4 months, work on museum at Rakhigarhi will be taken up within a month, the minister said.

The minister said that the archeologists believe that Rakhigarhi was the biggest Indus Civilisation township of India.    

Archeology Additional Chief Secretary Vijai Vardhan and Archaeology and Museums Department Secretary and Director General Ashok Khemka were also present in the conference.

Earlier this year, four human skeletons dating back to the Harappan era had been recovered from a cemetery located at Rakhigarhi village, about 150 km from Delhi.

Elaborating on the excavations, Vardhan said it opened doors for understanding the kind of life people led at that time. The findings also revealed that the developed drainage system of that time.

The excavations also include utensils, and images of ox, cow and buffaloes and ornaments made of stones, stone statues and weapons made of bones.

"An important seal of Rakhigarhi depicts a composite figure of a man, bull, unicorn, elephant and a tiger. A rare seal of tiger excavated at the site could become the logo of the proposed museum to be set up at Rakhigarhi," he said.

Vardhan said that in all Indus Civilisation sites, the dead were buried in north to south direction.

"While some graves had mud plastered walls, instances of bodies buried in coffins too have been found. The belief in the concept of afterlife is established by the dead being buried wearing ornaments – with a number of undecorated pots lying besides them," he said.

Pendants, steatite beads, semi-precious stones, gold beads, terracotta bangles, shell bangles, copper tools, tools made from bones had also been found, he said.

Some pottery works had leaf motifs, he said.

The site at Rakhigarhi is spread over an area of about 325 hectares. Currently, the site is under the Archeological Survey of India.

Referring to the future plans of the department, Vardhan said the structures excavated earlier would be uncovered, preserved and protected for the benefit of the public. Domes will kept them protected/

Excavations will be undertaken at the habitation as well as burial portion of the site to establish cultural sequence, understand settlement pattern, health, diet and composition of Harappan population.

Apart from setting up onsite conservation labs, training in conservation and excavation would be imparted. — PTI