Professor Shah Sufi Mustafizur Rahman speaks at Chhayanat. Photo Courtesy: Sayed Asif Mahmud(left); Excavation at Wari-Bateshwar. File Photo

The history of human race is about 24,00,000 years old, but it was not until 10,000 years back that humans started making settlements. As the pre-historic people mostly lived in stone-caves, it is commonly thought that there cannot possibly be any trace of humans from that period in Bangladesh. But archaeological excavation of the Wari-Bateshwar site in Narsingdi district indicates just the opposite. Wari-Bateshwar, two neighbouring sites on the Pleistocene flat surface of the eastern Madhupur tract proves the existence of an ancient fort-city (dating back to the year 450 BC) on the bank of the river Buriganga.
Chhayanat arranged a lecture on Wari-Bateshwar at the Chhayanat Sanskriti Bhaban on August 15. Professor Shah Sufi Mustafizur Rahman, Department of Archaeology, Jahangirnagar University, who is leading the excavation at the site since 2000, was the speaker at the event.
Dr. Sanjida Khatun, president of Chhhayanat, welcomed the audience and introduced Professor Shah Sufi Mustafizur Rahman and his team. A one-minute silence was observed in honour of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
The lecture was aided with an interesting slide show, which included maps and photographs of the site, artefacts, archaeological discoveries and different processes of excavation and survey. Professor Rahman explained how the excavation began and how important the discovery is to our history. It is being speculated that Wari-Bateshwar is indeed "Sounagora", a centre of trade described by Ptolemy.
"The excavation owes a lot to the local schoolteacher Hanif Pathan who initially played a major role in generating public interest in the sites in 1930. Later, his son Habibullah Pathan, an amateur archaeologist, furthered the mission with his writings. But it wasn't until 2000 that any formal excavation began at the sites. Several organisations including The Daily Star came forward to promote it, as the process is time-consuming, costly and difficult," said Professor Rahman.
"Traces of the civilisation we found at Wari-Bateshwar are astonishingly advanced. Instead of living in stone caves, here the people invented a system, which is known as "pit-dwelling" -- an important discovery of the excavation. The system indicates to the Chalcolithic era. Instead of tools made of stones, a kind of fossil wood was used. Artefacts, beads and household items made of clay and ceramic further ensure the authenticity of the excavation. We could not exactly trace the year of the artefacts but samples have been sent to the Institute of Archaeology, London University for "Carbon-14" test (a method to identify the time)," he added.
The lecture included descriptions of different perspectives of the excavation and its historical-archaeological significance. A question-answer session followed the lecture.