World-renowned for its work on excavations that unearthed major milestones in the history of the Indus Valley Civilization, Pune’s Deccan College is now staring at extinction close to its home. Due to lack of space and funds, it is struggling to preserve the precious antiquities from the excavated sites including Harappa.
Of the millions of specimens excavated by its archaeologists since the 1940s, many are now only kept in plastic bags and tossed around the 200-year-old institute’s campus.
Over the years, samples have been collected from more than 100 sites across the country, including animal skeletal remains, plant remains such as leaves and roots, bones, teeth, pottery, food grains, pearls, shells, axes, iron ore Includes prehistoric tools such as tools. Rocks, terracotta and glass ornaments and clay samples.
Among the oldest are stone tools dating back 1.2 to 1.3 million years, which have been excavated from Isampur in Karnataka. DNA samples and skeletal remains of Harappans, believed to be about 4,500 years old, are also included in the collection.
Many are kept in Ziploc bags or gunny bags. Some bone and skeletal remains are also kept in the open on the floor or table, in plastic trays and doorless cupboards. There is no temperature control for protection.
As part of the National Mission on Monuments and Antiquities (NMMA) launched in 2007, about 60-70% of the antiquities and specimens owned by the institute – formally known as Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute – was documented. It is the rest that the college is concerned about.
According to a report by NMMA, there is no comprehensive information available about India’s built heritage and sites and archaeological wealth. The Archaeological Survey of India protects 3,659 built heritage sites while an additional 3,500 are protected by the respective state governments. The NMMA report states that a large amount of antiquities have been seized in museums, institutions, universities as well as godowns of government officials.
Deccan College officials claim that in recent decades, funding from the Maharashtra government has been shrinking.
Phone calls to Uday Samant, Minister, Higher and Technical Education, and the director of the department remained unanswered.
About 250 students are pursuing Master’s, M.Phil and Doctorate studies in the Department of Archeology. Higher and Technical Education Department and UGC are to provide substantial amount as maintenance grant.
Recently, Deccan College officials met the state government and UGC officials and some solutions are being worked out.
Major Indus Valley sites that experts from Deccan College have worked on include Rakhigarhi, Farmana, Mitathal and Girwar in Haryana; Kuntasi, Pastor and Dholavira in Gujarat; and Bikaner in Rajasthan, apart from sites in the South, Northeast and Deccan Plateau.
“Whenever a researcher wants an object, he has to look between the bags. Students also struggle to gain access, which is important to generate interest in them for further research,” said the Vice Chancellor Professor Pramod Pandey says
Besides the Archaeological Museum, the institute has one on Maratha history. The Pune Municipal Corporation supports the Archaeological Museum, but officials said it lacks both infrastructure and adequate personnel.
“There is a great need for more space,” says Professor Vasant Shinde, one of the most renowned Indus Valley experts at Deccan College. “There should be a proper repository to hold both documented and undocumented material, and they should be kept in order and available for use by researchers at all times,” he says.
In comparison, major archeological institutions around the world keep the specimens wrapped in cotton and protected with chemicals. They are arranged either chronologically, or according to the sites of origin, or alphabetically (in the Deccan College, they are placed according to the excavation sites). Some specimens require conditioned and temperature controlled environments due to their nature.
Particularly vulnerable are plant and animal skeletons and fish bones, which can deteriorate if not stored properly or if exposed to moisture or moisture during monsoons.
“In a few years, even the preserved objects kept inside the museum will have to be checked for their condition,” says Shinde.
There is also an urgent need for separate repositories for particular streams, says PD Sabale, head of the Department of Ancient Indian History and Culture and Archaeology. “At present, archaeology-botany, archaeology-zoology share samples among others. They can get mixed up, resulting in them being permanently lost.”
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