A prime trade centre flourished in Narsingdi that maintained contacts with contemporary South Asian and Roman civilisations through waterways, archaeologists citing recent finds in Belabo upazila in Narsingdi said.

The March 21 excavation of country's oldest road, a fortified citadel and a raft of artefacts dating back to 450 BC in Wari village promised to redefine history of eastern India and embolden the theory of the Brahmaputra civilisation.

Examination of charcoal samples from the site in 2001 by Netherlands' Centrum voor Isotopen Onderzoek' also spoke of human habitation and industry in the area in 450 BC, dwarfing the ancient aura of Mahastangarh, which flourished 80 years later.

After finding rouletted and knobbed pottery from Wari and Bateshwar villages in 2000 and 2001, archaeologists suggested Buddhism dominated life in the urban centre.

FABLED ARTEFACTS

About three years ago, archaeologists found the pottery and other archaeological treasures in the two villages in Belabo lending colour to the conviction that the region was a cradle of the Brahmaputra civilisation.

The finds of the 18 by 16-metre road and a citadel fortified by bunkers in Wari village, reinforced the conviction this month.

Dr Sufi Mustafizur Rahman, associate professor of archaeology at Jahangirnagar University and leader of the excavation team, found a 600 by 600-metre area housing the citadel a few days after kicking off the current mission on March 4.

He believes the citadel formed the eastern limit of the Mauryan Empire. "I think the citadel ran very organised administrative activities with trade activities around it," he added.

"Discovery of the road will revolutionise the early archaeology of eastern India as a whole since no road was found in the Trans-Gangetic valley earlier," Prof Dilip Kumar Chakrabarti, who teaches archaeology at Cambridge University, told The Daily Star from Cambridge by phone.

"The carbon dating of previous finds here is enough proof of the age of the site. We don't need to test the age of the road anew," said Chakrabarti, who is involved with the Narsingdi quest since 1992 and currently helping Mustafizur's excavation team.

The finds dwarf Bangladesh's ancient hubs of Pundrabardhan in Bogra's Mahastangarh that dates back to 370 BC, the Buddhist seat of learning in Paharpur, Comilla of the 8th century and Buddhist centre of Mainamoti that flourished between 7th and 12th century.

ROAD ENCOURAGES DIGGERS

"Spotting an extended part, we began digging the site that exposed the 18 by 16-metre, 27-centimetre thick road," Mustafizur said, adding the road, Bangladesh's ancient, was made of crushed brick and potshots (black slipped ware) and cemented by brick dust.

"In the two-layered road, potshots were used as chief raw material," he said, adding in the distant past the material was used to build roads as it was available and harder than crushed bricks.

"The eastern end of the two-layered road gradually widened and stretched up to the eastern bunker (of the citadel). Two layers hint the road was either renovated or used after it was abandoned once."

Comparing the finds with Pundrabardhan citadel's, he said there were four entrances to Pundrabardhan citadel, but no road.

He said the Wari citadel floor was made of crushed bricks, dust and lime that resembled with early historic Indian and Horoppan practices.

The fortification was similar to those in Mahastangarh, Chandaraketugarh and Banhgarh (West Bengal), Shishupalgarh (Orissa).

A team of the Department of Archaeology that began excavation last year also dug up part of a brick wall in Wari.

Potshots, beads and punch-marked coins -- marks of early historic artefacts -- also ran abundant in the surrounding villages of Sonarutala, Rangartek, Algartek and Bateshwar.

The artefacts found in Wari and Bateshwar bear a testimony to the chronology of markers in early historic period, while chips, flakes and semi-precious stone beads indicate existence of manufacturing centres.

A few pieces of raw materials like jasper and quartz support the existence of production centres and hand-axes, spearheads, knives and smelted tiny parts of iron confirm the idea of furnace as well as of smelting centre there.

Commenting on the availability of Indo-Pacific monochrome glass beads, Mustafizur said the area might be Souanagoura as described by Alexandrian geographer Ptolemy in his Geographia.

EXCAVATION HOLDS KEY

Expressing similar views, Chakrabarty stressed massive excavation of the site of opulent past.

But Mustafizur finds the excavation prospects bleak because of fund crisis after the end of his Asiatic Society fellowship on April 9.

"It will take a long time to excavate the huge site," said Mustafizur, adding his university had the expertise and tools for the job.

Recognising the significance of the site, Dewan Delwar Hossain, director of the Department of Archaeology, said: "Encouraging local excavators, we will also invite foreign experts, if necessary, to uncover the mystery of Wari, Bateshwar villages."