The Department of Cultural Heritage and Tourism Management, Hazara University, Mansehra is currently conducting excavations at the Gandhara Grave Culture site of Gankorini-o-Take in District Chitral under the direction of Dr Ihsan Ali, Professor of Archaeology and currently Vice Chancellor Hazara University, Mansehra.
The site of Gankorini-o-Take is located about eight-km north of the Chitral Town, 210.7 km north of Peshawar, 268.4 km north-west of Islamabad, 283.4 km north east of Kabul and 339.8 km northwest of Samarqand, at a height of 1270 meters above the mean sea level, said a press release issued here on Tuesday.
Dr Israr-ud-Din and Inamullah Jan were the first to report the presence of a Gandhara Grave Culture site at Singoor in 1972. In fact, they excavated a single double storied grave at the site.
They reported nine earthen pots and a terracotta human figurine and had published a brief report about the excavations in 1979. Dr Abdur Rahman and Shakirullah also reported the site in 1997 and it said that they also excavated a grave here, but the report is not published.
In 1999, a joint expedition of the University of Peshawar, Pakistan and Bradford, United Kingdom, conducted a brief survey, under the Hindu Kush Expedition organised by the Universities of Peshawar, Pakistan and Glasgow, United Kingdom under the direction of Professor Dr Ihsan Ali. The team recorded 15 sites of the Gandhara Grave Culture in the area, including Singoor.
The Directorate of Archeology and Museums Govt of Pakistan excavated Gandhara Grave Culture Sites from 2003-06 at Parwak and Singoor villages. The excavations were conducted under the direction of Professor Ihsan Ali, Director, Directorate of Archaeology and Museums, Govt. of NWFP, Peshawar.
The present excavations are aimed to establish the cultural history of Chitral, to shed light on the Indo-Aryans Culture in the area and its relationship to other known sites, to trace the origin of the Kalasha people of Chitral and to collect materials for the Hazara University Museums. The study of the graves revealed, until now, two types of graves; single and multiple graves.
The burials are in typical Gandhara Grave Culture style and deceased were either in the in humation form or in crouched form with legs bent towards the chin Cremation and fractional burial were also revealed during the excavations.
All the excavated graves were rich in terms of sepulcher goods and included ceramics, weapons, jewellery, agricultural tools and worked stone pieces. The ceramic category includes bowls, ewers, cooking pots and spouted goblets. Arrowheads constitute the most abundant variety of the weapon have been found, lying around the bodies of the deceased.