National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) would inspect the excavation being carried out at archaeological site in village Kunal of district Fatehabad, where artifacts pre-dating the Harappan Civilisation have been recovered.
The inspection would likely to be done in October this year, said Haryana Archaeology and Museums Minister, Ram Bilas Sharma, who visited the site a day before.
Apart from this, the Haryana Government is considering to establish international-level museums at Kunal and Rakhigarhi, he said.
The Minister said that the recovery of artifacts estimated to be 6,000-years-old strongly indicated that the civilisation that had flourished in Kunal was in fact the oldest civilisation in the world. The Harappan Civilisation, considered so far to be the oldest civilisation, flourished about 3,500 years ago, said Sharma.
He said that the artifacts recovered included ornaments and pots, apart from spherical structures. These would be displayed in the museum of the Department, he added.
Earlier this year, Haryana Archaeology and Museums Department had signed a memorandum with the Indian Archaeological Society and National Museum, New Delhi to undertake archaeological excavation at Kunal.
Kunal is located in Tehsil Raita in district Fatehabad on the banks of now dried up river course of ancient mighty river Saraswati. The core area of the settlement is three-four acres though site expands to nine acres.
The excavation was first conducted by late JS Khatri and M Acharya under Haryana State Archaeology Department during the year 1985-86. The previous excavations have provided significant traits of early Harappan culture in our subcontinent at Kunal for the very first time in the history of Harappan studies. This Early Harappan time (3500-2500 BC) that is the Period ‘I’ is divided by Period ‘IA’ (3500-2850 BC), Period ‘IB’ (2850-2600 BC) and Period ‘IC’ (2600-2500 BC) which is followed by Mature Harappan Period ‘II’ (2500-1900 BC).