CUTTACK: After a gap of 16 years, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) restarted the excavation of Barabati Fort at Cuttack on Monday.
On the day, a broken structural fragment was found. Built by the Ganga dynasty on the banks of the Mahanadi River, the fort was declared an ASI-protected monument in 1915 and excavation at the site began in 1989. The fort was last excavated in 2007. The digging work this time, ASI (Puri circle head) Dibishida Gadnayak said, is aimed at tracing the link between Odisha and Southeast Asian countries.
A trench has been created in the northeast direction of the remains of the pillared hall of the fort. During the excavation of the trench on the day, a broken part of a sculpture was found which could date back to the 13th to 14th century if the style of the fragment is taken into consideration, Gadnayak said. The trench appears to have two to three metres of deposits and the sculptural fragment was dug from the spot, he added.
Four areas in the fort have been identified for excavation. The previous excavations of the site were carried out to establish the cultural chronology of the fortified fort. In these digs, some of the important antiquity finds included a seated goddess, lion-head, lamp fragment, balls and pot fragments of stone, sling balls, fragments of animal figurines of terracotta and axe and a stylus made of iron. The pottery finds comprised storage jars, spouted vessels, lamps, knobbed lids, miniature pots, dishes and bowls, the final portion of a hukkah and pieces of Chinese porcelain.
During the 1989 excavation, the central mound area of the fort revealed the remains of a palace, a pavilion and foundation blocks made of rhodolite. Eighteen massive pillar bases, aligned in four rows at regular intervals, were exposed in the southern area.