Rakhigarhi Museum In Haryana To Display Centuries-Old Artefacts

One of the most important Harappan civilisation sites will soon have an onsite museum. A museum dedicated to Harappan culture is coming up at Rakhigarhi village in Hisar district, Haryana. It is scheduled to open in December. The museum, according to state officials, will be the largest of its kind, with artefacts stretching back 5,000 years to the Indus Valley Civilisation.

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has submitted a proposal to the state government for the museum and its development, and the tourism department has been instructed to hold a tender in order to hire an agency to establish and administer the museum. Rakhigarhi is an ancient site located roughly 150 km from Delhi. The Indian government classified it as an iconic site in 2020.  

Rakhi Shahpur and Rakhi Khas (formerly known as Rakhigarhi village) are built on hillocks or mounds that the Global Heritage Fund named one of the ten most endangered monuments in Asia in 2012. The two villages are pre-Indus Valley civilisation sites from 6500 BCE. The ASI, the central and state governments inked an agreement in 2022 to build the Rakhigarhi Museum and Interpretation Centre. The ASI began excavating near Rakhigarhi village in 1963. It uncovered 56 skeletons at the site till 1998 two of them were women who lived around 7,000 years ago. These were housed at the Hisar Archaeology office, which is located near Jhajpul. There are several other sites around India that date back to the Indus Valley civilisation 

Rupnagar, Punjab

For instance, the ancient town of Rupnagar (formerly known as Rupar or Ropar) was one of the first sites of the Harappa and Indus Valley civilisations. The site is located along the Ghaggar-Hakra beds. The city has an archaeological museum, which opened to the public in 1998. The museum displays the archaeological remains of the excavated site. One can find various unique artifacts relating to the lifestyle of early inhabitants, such as burnt clay, terracotta products, trading goods, copper instruments, pottery items, and ornaments. The Archaeological Museum in Rupnagar has exhibits of many findings of the Indus Valley civilisation, including pots, skeletons, coins, toys, ornaments, tools, etc. of those times.

Lothal, Gujarat 

Lothal is located between the Sabarmati River and its tributary Bhogavo in the Saurashtra region. The sea is, today, over 19 km away from Lothal, but at one time, boats from the Gulf of Cambay could have sailed right up to the spot. Exploration of the Sabarmati Valley in the mid-1950s led to the discovery of Lothal and several other Harappan sites, thereby adding a new province to the extent of the Indus civilisation, which extended from present-day northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and northwest India. The civilisation flourished in the basins of the River Indus and the now dried-up River Saraswati. The excavation was carried out at Lothal between 1955 and 1962, after which the site, as well as the site museum, were set up for tourists.

Cover photo credit Depositphotos

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