17th century BC grave excavated in Chitral village

CHITRAL (Source) — Archaeologists claimed to have excavated ancient graves and artefacts made of clay dating back to 17th century BC in remote Parwak village of Chitral district.

Chitral was a Buddhist country before the invasion of Islam, and the traces of Buddhism are still found.

Members of the excavation team of Directorate of Archaeology and Museums Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Zorawar Khan, Fawad Khan and Mir Hayat told The News that the fresh finding would add to new information about the Aryan civilisation as human skeletons and pottery objects found there belonged to that ancient era.

They said the Aryan people spread from Central Asia in the shape of nomads from 1700 to 1500 BC and some of them settled in Chitral district in the bygone age. They said the human remains, pottery, artefacts and the images carved on various excavated objects shed enough light the way Aryan people lived.

The excavators said the late noted archaeologist, Dr Hasan Dani, named the civilisation of that time as Gandhara grave culture. However, they added, the newly found skeletons were different from the ones excavated in Singoor and Chamarkun. Zorawar Khan said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Archaeology Department was interested in building a museum in Chitral and work on the project would be started soon.

From ancient times, Chitral was an important point on the trade routes from northern Afghanistan (ancient Bactria) and the Tarim Basin to the plains of Gandhara (in northern Pakistan), and the region near Jalalabad, in eastern Afghanistan.