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OLDEST ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIND

Asiatic Society might extend fellowship to archaeologist

Excavator asks for more help from philanthropists, donors, government

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
Asiatic Society might extend the fellowship it awarded to Associate Professor Sufi Mustafizur Rahman of Jahangirnagar University (JU), the archaeologist who discovered the country's oldest road at Narshingdi's Belabo upazila last month, to help him continue with the excavation work.
"Since it is a very big discovery, we may extend the fellowship to help him continue his work," said Prof Emajuddin Ahmed, president of Asiatic Society and former vicechancellor of Dhaka University.
But he said the Society cannot entirely support the project due to fund constraints. "We have limitations, we cannot fund the whole excavation as it is a matter of a several crore taka."
"We will take up the matter with the government and Unesco (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) to see if we can get funds for the excavation," Ahmed said.
A JU team led by Associate Professor Sufi Mustafizur Rahman, who has been hammering away at the site since 2000, discovered the 18-metre by 6-metre and 30-centimetre thick ancient road on March 21 at Wari in Belabo, some 70 km north-east of the capital.
Discovery of the road along with a fortified citadel and a large number of artefacts dating back to 450 BC promised to redefine history of eastern India and lend support to the excavator's claim that Narsingdi was part of the Brahmaputra civilisation and formed the eastern fringe of the Mauryan Empire.
A prime trade centre flourished in Narsingdi that maintained contacts with contemporary South Asian and Roman civilisations through waterways, the archaeologist said.
Noted Indian archaeologist and teacher at Cambridge University, Prof Dilip Kumar Chakrabarti, also backed Mutsafizur's claim and recommended full-scale excavation at the site. Prof. Chakrabarti said such a long and wide road was not found in the second urbanisation period between 600 BC and 100 AD.
After working from April 2000 through June 2002, Mustafizur had to call off work for the entire year 2003 due to fund crisis. But after Asiatic Society granted him a postdoctorate fellowship last year, he resumed excavation on March 4 this year with 76 of his students.
Thanking Asiatic Society for its role, Mustafizur Rahman asked philanthropists, other donors and the government to fund a full-scale excavation at the region, where he says the remains of a civilisation lies buried.
Mustafiz said a preliminary report will be submitted to the government in three months. "We will need three years to publish the full report on works at the site as we
have to clean the artefacts, make drawings, photograph details and conduct laboratory tests. All this is very time consuming and expensive."
He asked the government to appoint researchers to properly excavate the large site (Wari-Bateshwar) to trace the country's glorious past, adding that the country is in need of experts in this field.