Saturday, June 26, 2010

Rehman Dheri –An archeological site dating back 4000 BC

Some 22 kilometers north of city of Dera Ismail Khan of Khyber Pakhtoonkwa province of Pakistan is an area spread over 22 hectares that stands 4.5 meters above the surroundings. The raised portion or “dheri” in local language is in fact the ruins of an 4000 BC old settlement, that can be taken as one of the oldest urbanized settlement of the South Asia. The once fortified town of about ten to fifteen thousand inhabitants shows sign of well laid out town planning.

Unlike other archeological sites of Taxila and Moenjodaro, nothing much is available at the site except thousands of broken utensil remains and stone. Rehman Dheri is considered to have been abandoned at the beginning of the mature Indus phase by the middle of the third millennium BC. The site was first explored in 1971. The site is located ideally on the major caravan trade routes between South Asia southern Afghanistan eastern Iran Baluchistan and central Asia. The city was fortified with massive defense system of mud bricks having bastions and watchtower all the artifacts from Rehman Dheri is an ivory square shaped seal depicted with two mountain goat and a few symbols one side and two scorpions a frog and few symbols on the other.




This generally unheard site remains obscured when talking of archeology and older civilizations of South Asia. The neglect on the part of the archeology department and the tourism concerns has made the site quite in the backdrop and tourists hardly know of even the name. Did you hear of the Rehman Dheri before?

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