The Banaras Hindu University (BHU) recently examined 22 boxes stored with it for around 70 years, to find more than 10,000 artefacts, including painted black pottery believed to be 3,000 years old. The artefacts were excavated from Rajghat, one of the oldest known settlements in the Varanasi region, between 1957 and 1969.Earlier in August, experts had opened a box containing a human skeleton recovered from the same site.What can the artefacts reveal about Varanasi, one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world And why are the boxes being examined now?To understand why the Rajghat excavation matters, it is important to go back to the history of archaeological excavations in Varanasi.Where is Rajghat and why is it significant for the history of Varanasi?Rajghat today refers to a neighbourhood located in eastern Varanasi. But the Rajghat archaeological site more specifically refers to the ancient settlement located in the northeastern outskirts of the city, near the confluence of the rivers Ganga and Varana.Archaeologist and former professor of archaeology at BHU, Vidula Jaiswal, explained that Rajghat is identified as the capital of the Kashi Janapada. Janapadas were territorial kingdoms or political units that emerged in ancient India, particularly during the later Vedic period. Some of these janapadas grew into larger, more powerful kingdoms known as mahajanapadas by the 6th century BCE. Early Buddhist and Jain texts mention Kashi as one of 16 mahajanpadas in the Indo-Gangetic plain.The region of Kashi, more popularly known as Varanasi, is dotted with several ancient settlements. A number of them have been excavated in the last few decades, which includes Aktha, Ramnagar, Sarnath and Rajghat.Story continues below this ad The 10,000 artefacts include sculptures, ancient coins, tools, stamp seals and objects made of copper, ivory and bone. (Image: Special Arrangement)Jaiswal, who has led excavations at eight sites in the region, concluded that while Sarnath emerged as a pilgrimage site, Rajghat developed as the main urban centre. The remaining settlements, which are dated to be several centuries older, were peripheral, rural regions of Kashi.When was Rajghat excavated and what did the excavations reveal?The settlement at Rajghat first came to archaeological attention in 1940, when a railway contractor reported finding archaeological remains while excavating earth for the extension and remodelling of Kashi Railway Station. The archaeologist Krishna Deva then took up trial excavation of the site on behalf of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in October-November of the year.Consequently, excavations were carried out at three mounds at Rajghat in 1957 by A K Narain and his colleagues from BHU’s Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology. Conducted in four phases over 12 years, the excavations unearthed a large number of significant artefacts. The lowest, and therefore oldest, layer of the settlement yielded pre-Northern Black Polished Ware (pre-NBPW), a type of pottery associated with an earlier phase of the Iron Age. Based on this evidence, the origins of the settlement at Rajghat were dated to around 800 BCE. An ivory die and other artefacts. (Special Arrangement)Several years later, in the early 2000s, Jaiswal and archaeologist B R Mani re-excavated Rajghat to verify the dating of its oldest layer. “We just dug the lower levels of the site, starting from the Kushana period (1st century BCE to 3rd century CE), and kept going further down,” Jaiswal said. Scientific analysis of the artefacts recovered from these layers subsequently confirmed the date of the settlement’s oldest layer as around 800 BCE.Story continues below this adAmong the artefacts recovered from the site are hundreds of seals and sealings. Professor Prasad Ahirwar, head of the department at BHU, said that the seals are the most important artefacts from Rajghat. “Many of them carry Greek inscriptions. Several of them carry names of the administrative units and their officials,” he said. That apart, ivory and iron objects, punch-marked coins, and terracotta figurines have also been found.The significance of these finds, said Ahirwar, is in tracing the development of human civilisation in the subcontinent.Jaiswal said the antiquity of Varanasi is well established in mythological and religious texts. When she first excavated Rajghat, one of the questions was whether the archaeological evidence from the region corresponded with these textual traditions. But, she cautioned, mythology and archaeology operate on very different bases.Also in Explained | Tracing Ashoka in Ujjain: What fresh dig at Vaishya Tekri ‘stupa’ can and cannot reveal“When a site has to be established as important, there is a tendency to describe it as pracheen (ancient),” she said. “We must remember that the connection between Varanasi, Shiva and the Ganga is a product of late medieval texts.”Story continues below this adArchaeology, meanwhile, dates a settlement based on its material remains. Jaiswal said remains from Rajghat and other sites in Varanasi can be dated to as far back as 1800 BCE. The considerable gap between these archaeological dates and the period of the textual traditions, she argued, needs to be kept in mind when reconstructing the history of Varanasi.Why is BHU documenting the artefacts now?The recent documentation of the Rajghat artefacts, said Ahirwar, is part of the centenary celebrations of his department at BHU. The idea was to preserve all the past work that the department has done over the last 100 years, and lay them out in the public domain for future generations of researchers. “There are also plans for developing a museum in future,” Ahirwar said.The documentation, which started from January this year, has already recorded about 4,000 artefacts. Ahirwar believes that there are close to 10,000 objects from Rajghat alone.He also pointed out that the Rajghat excavation reports are already in the public domain and the artefacts have been available to researchers all these years. Some researchers have also studied the material. However, this is the first concerted and organised effort to document all the findings.Story continues below this adThe human skeleton is the only artefact that has been opened for the first time. “When Professor Narain excavated it in the 1960s, we did not have the technology to analyse human remains,” said Ahirwar. With advances in techniques such as DNA sampling and analysis, he believes the skeleton could now yield more information about the age, ancestry and lifestyle of the people who lived in the region in antiquity.