A team from the Department of Ancient History, Culture and Archaeology in the Ishwar Saran PG College have marked and documented 50 sites of archaeological importance in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), New Delhi, has licensed the college for conducting the archaeological survey in this area.
The team conducted a village-to-village survey on foot in the vicinity of the confluence of the Ganga and the Yamuna rivers of Prayagraj, from Jhunsi to Shringverpur and from Daraganj to Kali Paltan in Kaushambhi district on both sides of the Ganga river.
The survey stretched for 70 km on the ground surface and 3-5 km, in width, on both sides of the river.
According to reports, the principal of the college and head of the department and project director, Professor Anand Shankar Singh and the project deputy director and Assistant Professor Jamil Ahmad, along with his team had given directions to carry out the survey.
This was, probably, the first time that an archaeological survey in such a large scale has been taken up in this area.
Talking about the development, Professor Singh said: “The survey was conducted in more than 80 villages on both the shores of the river Ganga which fall under the Phoolpur, Sadar and Soraon tehsils of Prayagraj district and the Chail tehsil of Kaushambhi district. Nearly 50 sites of archaeological importance have been marked and documented, from where, a large number of archaeological remains from Chalcolithic period (around 3,000 to 2,000 BC when copper was the dominant metal) to the Mughal period and later, have been found,” said Singh.
Reports suggest that the remains consist of various types of potteries, terracotta and semi-precious stones, microlith (1cm to 8cm long stone tools), beads and tools of stone and iron and materials made of bone and ivory.
These antiquities obtained from the Gangetic area have been kept for study by the researchers in the newly built Archaeological Centre of the College.
The team has sent a detailed report of the survey to Indian Archaeological Survey, New Delhi for publication in their annual journal, ‘Indian Archaeology – a Review’. The college is now working on sending a proposal for further excavation of selected archaeological sites near Kaurihar to Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), New Delhi.
