Revisit to history riding the ruins of past

The long-believed geophysical composition of the country is set to undergo a redefining. The spotting of over a dozen archaeological sites in the last one and half decades evidently presents a fresh view of its past. The view is faint, and enveloped in the layers of haze created by a distant and misty past. The discoveries that have been dug out include a few previously unthought-of human settlements in this part of Bengal. The existence of these ruins was considered almost improbable, because the land is deltaic and alluvial with a swampy land surface. But the intermittent archaeological finds keep startling the field-level enthusiasts.

As viewed by the fanciful segments of people, all this is poised to bringing about a completely new look and character of the land. It may even lead to new geophysical, lifestyle-related and demographic realities of the past taking root. Like in many regions elsewhere, these developments are replete with far-reaching impacts on the land's past. A few such discoveries now wait to be fully unveiled like the Wari-Bateahwar site.The recently located archaeological spot in the Sundarbans is now considered a significant addition to the list of catalysts to a fresh interpretation of the land's history. It's not unlikely that it might prompt many to cast a radically unconventional insight into the country's earlier times. Some may also feel the urgency of making a reassessment of the land's history, if not rewriting it.

The episode began with the start of excavation work at the site of the obscure but now-famous site at Wari-Bateshwar in Narsingdi near Dhaka. Through a course of continued spotting and unearthing of medieval sites in different parts of the country, the archaeological expedition has now reached an unlikely area. The site comprises a large chunk of the mangrove forest of the Sundarbans. It lies along the coastal belt stretching from the far-east of the dense woodland. Already dubbed a vibrant human settlement from the medieval times, the archaeological spot is said to have been a trading centre in the main. Now falling under the district of Satkhira, the venue witnessed the roaring growth of a business and manufacture centre. The product was salt. The salt trade and manufacture zone once stretched from Katka point on the eastern end of the forest and ran through a few places in the Satkhira district. According to the archaeological teams, its coastal line stopped at Shyamnagar in the district. The vast area also covered the Indian part of the Sundarbans abutting its Bangladesh side.

It was inquisitive and untiring Bangladeshi and foreign archaeologists who first began searching for the site scattered along a long stretch on the coast of the Bay of Bengal. The facts about the existence of human settlements in the area came to light in 1998. The first-ever detection of the lost settlements, along with physical proof, was made by Isme Azam, an amateur archaeologist and wildlife activist specialising in tiger populations. The phenomenal event of hitting the ruins under coastal sand layers occurred seven years ago. Repeated attempts had earlier been made to survey the area presumed to have ruins beneath it. In the later years, the Directorate of Archaeology, the Department of Forests and Khulna University conducted extensive searches for signs of the ruins. They showed positive results. Finally, the experts at the Departments of Geology at Rajshahi University and at the University of Dhaka engaged in in-depth research on the geophysical composition of soil in the area. The attempts to search for the remnants of human settlements in the region continued to yield positive results. The detection and discovery of the salt-manufacture installations, thus, took place in a time-span of two decades. However, the involvement of three Malaysian universities and German researchers in the venture had also remarkably helped in the unearthing of the veritably lost human settlements.

Along with the latest developments around finding the almost incredible centre of salt manufacture, the country's archaeologist community has been rendered awestruck. They are credited with many earlier successful ventures to dig out the past of Bangladesh. But the discovery in the Sundarbans fills them with excitement. A few of them find it hard to reconcile to the fact that a salt trade and manufacture hub could prosper on the edge of a vast mangrove forest. This is a once-inaccessible forest where ferocious tigers, wild boars, reptiles, etc., roamed freely only a few decades back. That any community would feel inclined to set up a trade and manufacture centre, along with settlements complete with brick structures and finally a seaport, at such a place defies common logic. But relics found at the scene have proven it to be a startling reality.

The archaeologists' teams scouting the area on presumptions are now unanimous in their conclusion that the whole coastal area of the greater Sundarbans, including Patuakhali's Kuakata, hosted a thriving business hub. It centred on salt and existed 1000 to 1200 years ago. The area had in place scores of salt-producing points. Salt produced in the area used to be exported to East Asia and the European countries. Giving credence to the spectacular existence of the great South Asian salt hub, more archaeological finds are expected to surface in the large forest swathe. The existence of a now-lost seaport trading in refined salt in the area has been confirmed. Archaeologists have already found the remnants of large salt-making ovens, filters, drainage facility and related tools. Besides, to prove the existence of human settlements in the area, Pala-period massive bricks, fragments of different types of pottery items, clay pots of varied shapes, household objects, etc., continue to emerge from beneath the wind and tide-swept sand layers.

Coinciding with the amazing discovery on the Sundarbans coast, a geophysical fact has been put forward by a few archaeologists. In order to put to rest the disbelief expressed by many, they locate the Bay of Bengal of the past further inland, making it easier for the entrepreneurs to collect salt. Over the centuries, the coastal areas have shifted further to south. It led to the scarcity of crude salt, and finally to the closure of the salt-producing facilities and the displacement of the people dependent on salt manufacture. A section of experts ascribe the aberrant behaviour of nature and natural calamities, land subsidence and the forming of alluvial layers for the disappearance of the salt hub. In the following centuries, the increased density of the Sundarbans has wiped out the settlements and ports completely.

The discovery of Mahasthangarh in the northern district of Bogra in the 1930s had started changing the general concept of Bangladesh being essentially an agrarian land. The ruins of the ancient city of Mahasthangarh, grown since 3rd century BC, had contributed to the building of the land's urban image concentrated in some pockets. Some studies show how the country grew in earlier times on parallel lines of urban and rural cultures. The later discovery of Wari-Bateshwar port-town has enhanced the land's mixed character traced back to the BC era. Coupled with the existing archaeological sites showing urban and trade-related features, the recent Sundarbans findings do carry a message: this proverbially swampy and flood-prone land called Bangladesh once had large shares of an urban and trading past, one which now remains lost in the maze of latter-day myths. Archaeological discoveries have changed the course of history in many parts of the world. Bangladesh may be in for unexpected new turns in its past that began greying long ago.

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