KURNOOL: A Group of 15 villagers employed under the MNREGA scheme stumbled upon on a 'treasure trove' of metallic weights, suspected to be used in the construction of forts and walls in the past, at Chanugondla village in Dhone mandal, on Wednesday.
Those who got the ancient plates took them home, prompting the revenue officials and police to search the residences of workers for the artifacts. So far, they have recovered plates weighing 24 kilograms.
Villagers were digging water pits in survey number 260 when they found an earthen pot containing the metallic plates. Unconfirmed reports said villagers took away a huge cache of silver coins that were in the pot.
Dhone Tahsildar Narendranath Reddy on Thursday said the workers found the metallic weights after digging to a depth of one metre. "We have recovered 98 plates," he said, adding that local goldsmiths who examined the plates confirmed them as lead.
He dismissed reports that silver coins were found. House searches were still being carried out to find the remaining plates. The tahsildar said the Treasure Trove Act would come into play if any object of archeological importance was found.
He said the recovered objects have been secured in the treasury and so has the spot from where the metallic plates were found. The archeological department has been alerted.