Wari-Bateshwar ruins

The site sprawls across Wari and Bateshwar, two adjacent villages in the Belabo Upazila of Narsingdi district, about 17 km north-west of the confluence of the rivers Old Brahmaputra and Meghna at the lower end of Sylhet basin. Borehole records show that the site lies on the remnants of a Pleistocene fluvial terrace about 15 metre above sea level and 6-8 metre above the current river level. The sediment consists of brownish red clay with interbedded sand layers, locally knows as Madhupur clay. The main stem of the Brahmaputra River shifted back and forth between the Brahmaputra-Jamuna and the Old Brahmaputra branches through history. Around 2500 BCE, avulsion of the main channel to the Brahmaputra-Jamuna branch gave rise to discontinuous peatlands throughout Sylhet basin. The evidence of early urban settlement on the peatlands at Wari-Bateshwar was found in stratigraphic layers dated ~1100 BCE. Human occupation continued for nearly a millennium until ~200 BCE, when the channel shifted back to the Old Brahmaputra branch. The resultant flooding possibly led to the abandonment of the Wari-Bateshwar urban center around 100 BCE. Eventually the 1762 Arakan earthquake again caused the main channel to shift to the Brahmaputra-Jamuna branch. ==Discovery==

Locals from Wari-Bateshwar have long been aware of the availability of archeological artifacts, especially silver punch-marked coins and semi-precious gemstone beads in the area. In the 1930s, Hanif Pathan, a local school teacher, started collecting these artifacts, and later inspired his son Habibulla Pathan (1939-2026) to continue the exploration. The father-son duo created a local museum called Bateshwar Sangrahashala to store and exhibit their collection. Habibulla Pathan published a number of newspaper articles and books describing the artifacts. Nevertheless, the site took a while to attract the attention of academics and archaeologists in Bangladesh. Excavation In December of 1933, while laborers were digging the soil in the village of Wari, they discovered a hoard of coins stored in a pot. Local schoolteacher Hanif Pathan collected 20–30 of those coins. These were the oldest silver coins of Bengal-India. Thus began the collection of archaeological artifacts from Wari-Bateshwar. In 1955, local laborers left behind two pieces of iron in the village of Bateshwar. These triangular and one-pointed, heavy iron objects were shown by Habibullah Pathan to his father, who was amazed. On January 30 of that year, Hanif Pathan published an article titled "Prehistoric Civilization in East Pakistan" in the Sunday edition of the daily Azad newspaper. After that, various archaeological artifacts continued to be discovered in that area from time to time. In March of 1956, a farmer from Wari village named Jaru Mia discovered a hoard of stamped silver coins while digging soil. That hoard contained at least about four thousand coins and weighed nine ser. Failing to understand the historical value of the coins, Jaru Mia sold them to a silversmith at the rate of eighty taka per ser. For just 720 taka, these invaluable historical items were melted down in the silversmith’s furnace and lost forever. During 1974–1975, Habibullah Pathan was an honorary collector for the Dhaka Museum. At that time, he donated a significant number of stamped coins, stone beads, iron axes, and spears to the museum for research purposes. He also donated 30 iron axes obtained from the village of Raingartek. Around 1988, Shahabuddin from the village of Wari unearthed a collection of 33 bronze vessels from underground. Later, he sold them to a scrap dealer for only 200 taka. In the year 2000, under the leadership of archaeologist Sufi Mostafizur Rahman, a team began excavation activities at Wari-Bateshwar. The excavation revealed a fortified citadel or royal fort with a dimension of 600 meters × 600 meters, surrounded by a 30-meter-wide moat. On the west and southwest sides of the fort, an additional 5.8-kilometer-long, 5-meter-wide, and 2–5-meter-high earthen wall was found, which is locally known as "Asam Raja’s Fort." In the following two decades, excavations were carried out at various times, through which 48 archaeological sites were identified around the fort. Among the structures of these satellite settlements are brick-built residences and a 160-meter-long road paved with lime-surki and pottery shards. == Discovered antiquities ==

Excavations at Wari-Bateshwar have uncovered a fortified city, port, roads, side roads, terracotta plaques, semi-precious stone and glass beads, coin hoards, and the oldest stamped silver coins of the subcontinent, dating back approximately two and a half thousand years. Experts in architecture have already begun research on a structure shaped like an inverted pyramid. The square-shaped Buddhist temple, measuring 10.6 meters by 10.6 meters, has walls 80 centimeters thick and a foundation base of one meter. The foundation of the clay masonry walls is laid in three tiers. On the north, south, and west sides of the main wall, at a distance of 70 centimeters, there are parallel walls, each 70 centimeters thick. Surrounding the main wall is a 70-centimeter-wide circumambulatory path paved with bricks. On the outer side of the circumambulatory path, parallel to the main wall, there is another wall 60 centimeters thick. However, on the eastern side, the distance between the main wall and the outer wall is 3.5 meters. On the eastern side, there is a circumambulatory path and a veranda. So far, two construction phases of the Buddhist temple have been identified. Although part of the brick-paved floor from the initial construction phase has been exposed, more time will be needed to identify other features. However, in the subsequent construction phase, a brick-paved altar was found in the southeast corner. In the excavation, a lotus with eight petals emerged in a mostly intact state. As the lotus is one of the eight auspicious symbols in Buddhism, its presence bestows the temple with the status and significance of a "Lotus Temple." The temple has been identified from Mandir Bhita in Shibpur Upazila. == History ==

No inscription or written record was found in this site. Although stratigraphic evidence points to earlier urban settlement, radiometric dating of the artifacts places the peak active period of the Wari-Bateshwar urban center in the mid-1st millennium BC. It is postulated by Sufi Mostafizur Rahman, the leader of the first excavation team, that Wari-Bateshwar is the ancient emporium or trading post "Sounagora" mentioned by Ptolemy in Geographia. Two types of punch-marked coins were found in the site—Pre-Mauryan Janapada series regional coins (600-400 BCE) and Mauryan imperial series coins (500-200 BCE). The regional coins bear a set of four symbols on one side and either a blank or a minute symbol on the reverse side. Symbols include boat, lobster, fish in hook or scorpion, cross leaf etc. that are uncommon in contemporary coins found in the other regions of India. It is postulated that these coins were used as local currency in the Vanga Kingdom and are distinct from the coins used in Anga, found in Chandraketugarh in West Bengal, India. Wari-Bateshwar yielded a very large variety of semi-precious stone bids, which is unprecedented in Indian archaeology of the period. From the village of Sonarutala, two dedicatory mounds—one stone and one terracotta—have been discovered. From their construction techniques and the technology of firing, it is inferred that these were used during the Chalcolithic period. In Pandu Raja’s mound in West Bengal, communities of the Chalcolithic era (1600 BCE–1400 BCE) built pottery in gray, reddish, and black colors stamped with impressions of rice husks. The tradition of mixing paddy or rice husks with clay to make bricks and pottery has been a longstanding cultural hallmark of this region. ==Culture==

Despite the lack of inscription or written records, symbols on the discovered artifacts shed light on the cultural elements of the Wari-Bateshwar society. The punch-marked coins bear the solar and six-armed symbols, mountain with three arches surmounted by a crescent, Nandipada or taurine symbol and various animal motifs and geometric figures. On the other hand, Nandipada and Swastika symbols are found on stone querns. These symbols indicate the presence of "Hinduism" in the Wari-Bateshwar society. Archaeobotanical study of carbonized seed and seed fragments reveals the predominance of rice agriculture. The subspecies cultivated was japonica rather than Indica, the more dominant cultivar in contemporary South India. Other crops included barley, oat, a small numbers of summer millets, a wide variety of summer and winter pulses, cotton, sesame and mustard. The abundance of cotton seed fragments indicate an important role of textile production in the Wari-Bateshwar economy. == Collection, preservation, and exhibition ==

No arrangements have been made to exhibit the various archaeological artifacts recovered from the excavation of Wari-Bateshwar in any museum. Some artifacts are under the custody of the Department of Archaeology of Bangladesh, and some are under the custody of the Heritage Exploration and Research Center. However, Hanif Pathan, on his own initiative, established a family museum named Bateshwar Antiquities Collection and Library in his residence. It is currently overseen by his son, Md. Habibullah Pathan. It houses a three-thousand-year-old iron axe, artifacts from the Neolithic Age dating back four to five thousand years, bronze bangles from the Chalcolithic Age dating back three to four thousand years, terracotta spheres used in warfare, beads made of stones of various colors, stamped silver coins from the pre-Christian era, historical journals compiled over time, mementos, and a collection of several thousand rare books. == Wari-Bateshwar Fort City Open-Air Museum ==

At the initiative of the archaeological research center Heritage Exploration, the Wari-Bateshwar Fort City Open-Air Museum was inaugurated on February 24, 2018, in the Wari archaeological village. At the inauguration, the Executive Director of Heritage Exploration, Dr. Sufi Mustafizur Rahman, stated that this type of archaeological museum is the first of its kind in Bangladesh. In this Wari-Bateshwar Fort City Open-Air Museum, models of artifacts, replicas, original artifacts, photographs of artifacts, descriptions, and analyses are on display. ==Gallery==

Image:Habibulla Pathan, An archaeological things collector of Wari -Bateshwar ruins, Bangladesh .jpg|Habibulla Pathan, at his personal archaeological museum and library at Bateshwar, Narsingdi. Image:Archeologists taking measurement for a new dig 0102.jpg|Taking measurement for a new dig. Image:A student at Wari-Boteshwar Excavation.jpg|A student of the Archaeology department has just got an artefact (pottery). Image:Signboard of "Wari-Bateshwar Fort-City Open Museum" , Narsingdi.jpg|Signboard of "Wari-Bateshwar Fort-City Open air Museum", Narsingdi (August 2019) Image:Photo of "Wari-Bateshwar Fort-City Open Museum" , Narsingdi.jpg|Photo of "Wari-Bateshwar Fort-City Open air Museum", Narsingdi (August 2019) ==See also==