The new site may be as rich as Mohenjodaro, but suffers from extreme neglect.Significant clues and material found along the right bank of Indus on Sukkur-Shikarpur highway do provide evidence of the continuity of ancient civilisation in the region dating back to more than five millennia. Though an important advancement in terms of archeological and anthropological studies, Lakhian Jo Daro is nothing but a sorry tale of official neglect spanning the last two decades. Contrary to general perception, the LJD is not a new discovery.
Located some 40 kilometers north of Kot Diji and about 120 kilometers southwest of Moenjodaro, LJD has been known to archeologists of Shah Abdul Latif University (SALU), Khairpur, since the early 1980s, and to local, provincial and federal officials as well as to international experts since 1988. As pointed out by on-site officials, the fact that the remains were unearthed in an area that had been allotted by the Sindh administration for industrial activity seems to be the prime reason for the refusal of official machinery to declare it a heritage site for as long a period as 20 years, during which time factories were built over the ruins.
Some Italian experts, who had visited the area during the mid-90s, took away some organic material from Lakhian Jo Daro and had the relevant C-14 Carbon Dating done at the Centrum voor IsotopenOnderzook (Center for Isotope Research) at the Dutch University of Groningen. The official report dated the samples to be about 3,960 (+/-140) years old.
The report – located only in the personal files of Prof. Mukhtar Qazi, who was the project director in the mid-90s, relates to only the uppermost crust that was scratched at the time. Now that the dunes have been reduced to the level of natural soil in parts of the site – spread over six kilometers east-west and two kilometers north-south – many more findings have been made and parallels can be easily drawn with the period of Moenjodaro.
Dr Nilofar Shaikh, one of the senior archaeologists of the country who is also the SALU vice-chancellor, says relative studies hold much more worth than actual laboratory procedures and the areas excavated thus far has thrown up innumerable parallels with earlier and established findings all along the Rohri Hills – from Kot Diji to Bhando Qubo.
Despite the Absolute Chronology confirmation, all the Relative Chronology studies done by trained, professional and experienced archeologists, and the recovery of artifacts in their hundreds, it was not until March 27, 2007 that the government finally granted the site protection under the Antiquity Act.
At least a part of the area that has been given protection under the notification, however, stands buried under the concrete foundations of industrial concerns. Nobody is quite sure how the excavation work would proceed under the circumstances. Industrialists like Haji Wazeer Ali Memon, Sibghatullah and Sami Memon, who have their flour mills in the vicinity have so far faced no moves from the officials concerned and hope that things would be smooth in the days to come as well.
They can probably relax because they had their infrastructure up and running well before the 2007 notification, but their colleague Shakil Mukhtar has not been as fortunate. Work on his plot of land, D-7, has been stopped and he has a lot to say about the whole activity.
His words reflect sheer frustration. ‘After I had the work started, certain people came to me asking for money. On refusal, they threatened me with consequences, and just days later there was this big scandal about archeological findings. My investment has been blocked … Only God knows from where they have brought all this rubble and called it heritage.’ What he forgets to state is the simple fact that he started construction work on August 1; some four months after the official notification which rendered his activity illegal.
The anomaly, though not of a technical nature, in this particular episode relates to a Joint Survey Map of Lakhian Jo Daro drawn on March 5, 2007, which actually cleared the said D-7 plot as not being a potential area to be excavated or explored. Signed by Dr Nilofar Shaikh, who has been the site’s project director as well, the clearance is, indeed, somewhat surprising, but the notification does supersede the survey and the illegality of D-7, as such, is not under debate anymore.
Secretary of Antiquities Dr Kaleemullah Lashari, who has a post-doctoral fellowship in Historical Research, says the government had already offered the industrialist concerned a replacement plot of land, but ‘we can’t help it if he is asking for the moon.’
As things stand today, industrialization is not the only threat to the site. There is a brick kiln functioning in the middle of this five-tier archaeological wonder. Besides, heavy-duty machinery can also be seen digging up the area for sand and clay that is used for earth-filling purposes in other areas of Sukkur city. Children use it as a playground and it is a thoroughfare for the passersby. This is hardly a description of scientific work being done at an archaeological site.
Project Director Dr Ghulam Mustafa Shar, a somewhat excited professional who keeps moving from one trench to the other, says he cannot rule out the possibility of artifacts getting lost or stolen because the site has no fence around it and there is no police presence to deter adventurists.
Neglected for so long, Lakhian Jo Daro is still looking for its John Marshall or Mortimer Wheeler, who unearthed Moenjodaro back in the 1930s and 1950s. But what it needs even more and rather urgently is the political will, which, though difficult in these recessionary times, is vital for such projects.
Located some 40 kilometers north of Kot Diji and about 120 kilometers southwest of Moenjodaro, LJD has been known to archeologists of Shah Abdul Latif University (SALU), Khairpur, since the early 1980s, and to local, provincial and federal officials as well as to international experts since 1988. As pointed out by on-site officials, the fact that the remains were unearthed in an area that had been allotted by the Sindh administration for industrial activity seems to be the prime reason for the refusal of official machinery to declare it a heritage site for as long a period as 20 years, during which time factories were built over the ruins.
Some Italian experts, who had visited the area during the mid-90s, took away some organic material from Lakhian Jo Daro and had the relevant C-14 Carbon Dating done at the Centrum voor IsotopenOnderzook (Center for Isotope Research) at the Dutch University of Groningen. The official report dated the samples to be about 3,960 (+/-140) years old.
The report – located only in the personal files of Prof. Mukhtar Qazi, who was the project director in the mid-90s, relates to only the uppermost crust that was scratched at the time. Now that the dunes have been reduced to the level of natural soil in parts of the site – spread over six kilometers east-west and two kilometers north-south – many more findings have been made and parallels can be easily drawn with the period of Moenjodaro.
Dr Nilofar Shaikh, one of the senior archaeologists of the country who is also the SALU vice-chancellor, says relative studies hold much more worth than actual laboratory procedures and the areas excavated thus far has thrown up innumerable parallels with earlier and established findings all along the Rohri Hills – from Kot Diji to Bhando Qubo.
Despite the Absolute Chronology confirmation, all the Relative Chronology studies done by trained, professional and experienced archeologists, and the recovery of artifacts in their hundreds, it was not until March 27, 2007 that the government finally granted the site protection under the Antiquity Act.
At least a part of the area that has been given protection under the notification, however, stands buried under the concrete foundations of industrial concerns. Nobody is quite sure how the excavation work would proceed under the circumstances. Industrialists like Haji Wazeer Ali Memon, Sibghatullah and Sami Memon, who have their flour mills in the vicinity have so far faced no moves from the officials concerned and hope that things would be smooth in the days to come as well.
They can probably relax because they had their infrastructure up and running well before the 2007 notification, but their colleague Shakil Mukhtar has not been as fortunate. Work on his plot of land, D-7, has been stopped and he has a lot to say about the whole activity.
His words reflect sheer frustration. ‘After I had the work started, certain people came to me asking for money. On refusal, they threatened me with consequences, and just days later there was this big scandal about archeological findings. My investment has been blocked … Only God knows from where they have brought all this rubble and called it heritage.’ What he forgets to state is the simple fact that he started construction work on August 1; some four months after the official notification which rendered his activity illegal.
The anomaly, though not of a technical nature, in this particular episode relates to a Joint Survey Map of Lakhian Jo Daro drawn on March 5, 2007, which actually cleared the said D-7 plot as not being a potential area to be excavated or explored. Signed by Dr Nilofar Shaikh, who has been the site’s project director as well, the clearance is, indeed, somewhat surprising, but the notification does supersede the survey and the illegality of D-7, as such, is not under debate anymore.
Secretary of Antiquities Dr Kaleemullah Lashari, who has a post-doctoral fellowship in Historical Research, says the government had already offered the industrialist concerned a replacement plot of land, but ‘we can’t help it if he is asking for the moon.’
As things stand today, industrialization is not the only threat to the site. There is a brick kiln functioning in the middle of this five-tier archaeological wonder. Besides, heavy-duty machinery can also be seen digging up the area for sand and clay that is used for earth-filling purposes in other areas of Sukkur city. Children use it as a playground and it is a thoroughfare for the passersby. This is hardly a description of scientific work being done at an archaeological site.
Project Director Dr Ghulam Mustafa Shar, a somewhat excited professional who keeps moving from one trench to the other, says he cannot rule out the possibility of artifacts getting lost or stolen because the site has no fence around it and there is no police presence to deter adventurists.
Neglected for so long, Lakhian Jo Daro is still looking for its John Marshall or Mortimer Wheeler, who unearthed Moenjodaro back in the 1930s and 1950s. But what it needs even more and rather urgently is the political will, which, though difficult in these recessionary times, is vital for such projects.
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