ABDUL WALI KHAN UNIVERSITY MARDAN
The 1st Season of Excavations at Koi Tangay, Mian Khan Katlang, Mardan ended up with unbelievable discoveries
The staff of University Museum of Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan started archaeological excavations on 2nd May, 2014 at the site of Koi Tangay Kandaray located in the Mian Khan Village of Teshil Katlang in the District Mardan under the directorship of Prof. Dr. Ihsan Ali (Archaeologist/Vice Chancellor), aiming to find out the cultural profile of the area and to unearth hidden treasures that will be displayed at AWKUM Museum. It was also aimed to train the students and researchers on various field techniques. The excavation team included Mr. Abid-ur-Rehman (Field Director), Mr. Muhammad Ashfaq (Field Officer) and Mr. Javed Ali (Field Assistant) accompanied by Mr. Amir Zeb and Riaz Khan (Senior Master's Students of the Tourism Department, AWKUM).
The Mian Khan village itself is very well known to the world in terms of archaeological and historical importance. In 1962, the Late Prof. Ahmad Hasan Dani's excavation at Sanghao Cave located in the Mian Khan Village revealed the earliest evidence of mankind in the whole Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province dating back to 40,000 years ago. It means that this village is the oldest in the whole province, so keeping in view the historical importance of the area, we started excavations and in our 1st season progress we reached up to Indo-Greeks level (190 BC). The chronology we developed so far is, the top level is Mughal followed by Hindu Shahi's then Sythians, Kushans and lastly the Indo-Greeks where Demetrious Coin was found. Among recovered antiquities a total of 238 coins, the largest stucco Buddhisattva toe and ΒΌ pieces of his head ever found in whole Pakistan recovered from this excavation. Headless sculpture, pieces of stone panels, ear ring, finger ring, potsherds, bones and iron objects have been found. The chemical analysis of all coins and other metal objects are under examination of the department of Chemistry, AWKUM. This process will allow us to create a strong hypothesis for final report as well as it will open new ways for researchers to look into the material evidence and evaluate the past. The 2nd season of this excavation will commence soon after Eid-ul-Fitr of this year. Interested students, researchers and scholars are requested to join us in the coming season to witness the joy of past through material evidence. |
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