Artefact discovered at Umerkot Fort

[Edevelop]

UMERKOT: Initiation of exploration and conservation work within the historically important Umerkot Fort led to an early discovery of a two-foot-long and nine-inch-wide stone slab with an image of a horse-rider and a woman on Tuesday.

The artefact seems to be centuries old but there was no one present there to establish or at least guess its age as the pre-conservation work is being carried out by ordinary labourers, though under the supervision of the fort curator, Ghulam Hussain Burdi.

Mr Burdi told Dawn that the work had been started under the Sindh government’s initiative to protect and preserve historical sites in the province. An amount of Rs10 million had recently been allocated for the project, he recalled.

“The discovered artefact has immediately been sent to a museum for research on it,” he said, adding that further exploration work could lead to more discoveries.

He said that the other sites in Umerkot district planned to be preserved and conserved under the fresh initiative included the Tando Fazul and Lakhyan monuments.

Mr Burdi believed that a big treasure of historical importance was buried in the Umerkot Fort and could be discovered by expert hands and supervised by renowned historians.

He said that the walls of the fort were decaying with bricks of their certain portions having fallen down.

Encroachers were occupying parts of the fort’s land and had to be removed, he added.Mr Burdi could not guess which era the newly discovered artefact belonged to.

All he could say was that the inscription below the hand-carved image seemed to be in the Hindi, Gujrati or Gurmukhi language.

“This seems to be a gravestone traditionally placed on the grave or tomb of a prominent personality,” he said, adding that such images and inscriptions could be found on similar artefacts discovered at Jain temples of Tharparkar district.

Artefact discovered at Umerkot Fort - Pakistan - DAWN.COM

 

[FaujHistorian]

He seems to be carrying a broad sword (or cricket bat )

Their caps are interesting. They point to our northern areas (or even mongolian horse riders).

Will be interesting to see the results of carbon dating.

 

[Water Car Engineer]

Hero stone it seems.

Hero stone - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Indischer]

Hero stone it seems.

Hero stone - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Of particular interest would be such Hero-stones found in Gujarat. The similarities are closest with the stones here and the one found at Umerkot.

 

[FaujHistorian]

Doesn't look like the two hero stone pics.

The style is different.

My interest is to find similar cap designs.

 

[Water Car Engineer]

The pointed cap is very interesting.

What's also interesting is the indigenous heavy broad sword (not curved talwar). And the female's heavy bangles on her feet and wrists. Rider also seems to have a stirrup.

I wanna say this is before medieval period.

The style is different.

Each regions hero stones are different. Hero stone is a generic term.

 

[Psycho Pakistani]

Doesn't look like the two hero stone pics.

The style is different.

My interest is to find similar cap designs.

The pointed caps were a signature of Scythian soldiers, I believe the statue in umerkot depicts some Scythian soldiers with their upwardly pointed caps

Scythians

 

[Multani]

scythian soldiers

they were also expert horsemen

 

[Chak Bamu]

If one disregards the caps, one finds local features.

The woman is welcoming the rider with a Namaste gesture. Its as though the rider is returning from an expidition or something. That suggests a local scene.

I am intrigued by what the rider holds in his left hands, apart from the reins. It is too small to be a shield. It can not by an umbrella type thing either. What could it be? A trophy of sorts?

Also I notice an absence of anything related to archery.

I do not know how a stone could be carbon dated. The evidence would have to be circumstantial. The quality of carving does not suggest that it is a valued item imported from any long distance. The nearest source of the stone could be a clue in this case.

 

[FaujHistorian]

woman has her arms folded around her tummy. Not nmaste.

left hand has either a big hammer or a small shield.

 

[Psycho Pakistani]

woman has her arms folded around her tummy. Not nmaste.

Thanks, I was also confused a bit because it was not looking like namaste gesture, have to admire your ability to look deeper and indeed it looks like the woman is standing with her hands folded around her belly, definitely no signs of any namaste gesture.

 

[FaujHistorian]

Thanks, I was also confused a bit because it was not looking like namaste gesture, have to admire your ability to look deeper and indeed it looks like the woman is standing with her hands folded around her belly, definitely no signs of any namaste gesture.

Thanks. This looks like a "family picture" of a tribal chief and his wife posed with full regalia.

Human desire to preserve happy moments can lead us to carve stones, or create 10 Meg pixel image.

Somethings never change.

 

[Psycho Pakistani]

Another important reason why I believe this might be a remanent scythian soldier apart from pointed hat is the woman who is also wearing pointed hat which was a kind of combat uniform for scythians/sakas. It is well known from the historical resources that scythian women used to fight along side their male counterpart just as good as males, the notion of amazons also come from scythians.

A romantic depiction of scythian amazon woman, look at the pointed hat

Indo-scythian kingdom at its peak in 2nd century BC

Umerkot lies exactly where one of the stronghold of indo-scythians was located namely Minnagara.

Umerkot on pakistani map

 

[Water Car Engineer]

^^^^

The women is also wearing heavy bangles. Which isnt a Scythian thing, but a local one.

 

[Psycho Pakistani]

^^^^

The women is also wearing heavy bangles. Which isnt a Scythian thing, but a local one.

Adopting some local traditions is not unheard of in any culture for foreign settlers.