73 Harappan era burials unearthed near Delhi

New Delhi: At least 73 burials have been unearthed just 60km from the Indian capital, pointing to the largest Harappan cemetery found till date. The excavations could clear many gaps in history, archaeologists said on Wednesday.

The remains of the civilisation have been found in a 20-hectare-site at Farmana, in Haryana's Rohtak district, in the Meham region. Archaeologists from three universities have been at work for three seasons - three-odd months each season - excavating the site that could turn out to be a breakthrough in the study of the Harappan civilisation.

"We have found some 73 burials at the site at Farmana. This could possibly the largest such site. Harappan cemeteries are very rare and that too in such huge numbers," Osaga Uesugi, professor at the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature in Kyoto, Japan told IANS.

The Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Kyoto, as one of the partners of the project, has financed it and provided technical expertise while the Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak and Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute, Pune under the aegis of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) are the local collaborators for the project.

"We have uncovered an entire town plan. The skeletal remains seem to be in the 2500BC to 2000BC period - this is when the civilisation prospered the most," said Vasant Shinde, professor of the department of archaeology in the Pune institute.

Shinde, who is also the director of the excavation project here, told IANS that the findings could resolve gaps and myths in history.

The evidence of seven burials was discovered last year and should the work continue into another season, experts feel Farmana may throw up the evidence of a larger number of burials than even Harappa, the Pakistani Punjab town from which the civilisation of the Indus valley (3300 BC-1300 BC) takes its name.