Chandigarh : Archaeologists have found a 2,000-year-old “very potential site” of Kushan era in Fatehabad district where a “good structure of bricks” has been found on a mound spread in almost ten acres of the land. The Haryana government has decided to acquire the entire piece of the land situated at Bhattu village for excavation to know chronology of the civilisation. The site is located near Kunal village, which is billed as biggest archaeological site in Haryana.

Deputy Director of Haryana Archaeology and Museums Department Banani Bhattacharyya told Friday that the chief minister has given green signal to acquire the land at Bhattu village.

“We have initiated the process to acquire the land. We have asked the Fatehabad deputy commissioner to inform about the estimated cost of the land. The Deputy Commissioner has held meeting with the person who is owner of the land in this regard,” said Bhattacharyya.

“The surface of the site indicates that it’s atleast 2,000 year old. There is big structure of bricks. The stone sculptures have also been found from the site,” says an archaeologist.

Currently, the site is being used for the agriculture purposes by the land owner. “We came to know about the site in 2019 during a survey. It’s excavation may reveal the chronology of the civilisation in this part of Haryana apart from its association with different eras,” says Bhattacharyya.

According to the archaeologists, the influence of Kushan era can be observed in the area.

A villager, Ajay Kumar, who is an engineer by profession, told The Indian Express that during past few years many items including silver coins, broken sword and metal items have been found from the spot. “We believe that there was a town spread in 3-km area which was known as Karan Kott. Bones have been found in the area suggesting that it was destroyed during a war which probably took place hundreds of years back. The current village Bhattu came into existence few decades back, atleast 2 km away from the site of Karan Kott,” he said adding he started informing the government officials about the importance of the site two years back.

The excavation at neighbouring Kunal has been taking place since 1985-86. The latest excavation was conducted in 2017-18. Its findings had pointed to the existence of a steatite bead-making workshop at the location, and support the theory that this was an early trading centre with skilled artisans and outside links possibly stretching to as far as Mesopotamia in West Asia.

Other important Harappan site, Bhirdana is 18 km and Banawali is 30 km from Kunal while Rakhigarhi falls in neighbouring district Hisar. Archaeologists consider Rakhigarhi, 150 km from Delhi, as the second most important Harappan site after Dholavaria in Gujarat.