*******************************************************
*********************************************************************
Old Civlisation found in Bengal
Kolkata (29 March, '08): Archaeologists have stumbled upon traces of an ancient civilisation in bengal dating back nearly 20,000 years. About 200 small stone tools,knives and needle like microliths among others were excavated at a small village in Murshidabad district of West Bengal. "The discovery indicates that an ancient civilisation existed in this part and the stone tools, besides agate, quartz, chert and chacedony were found to be used by a hunting tool-producing community in the pre-historic period," state archaeology department superintendent Amal Roy said from the excavation site. Roy added that some fossilised fish fins and seeds were also found in the excavation site, spread over a 1000 metre area on cultivable land along Santhalpara. Roy said that 2-3 metres of digging through the yellowish soil yielded in to discovery of the stone tools. State archaeologists caaried out the excavation with the guidance of Geo-archaeologists S.N.Rajguru and B.C.Deodare of Deccan College, Pune."The finds have been closely examined and found to be beyond the Holocene period (Over 10,000 year old)," he added.As per archaeologists, findings of the excavation gives broad hint towards existence of ancient civilisation in this area.
****************************************************************************
*************************************************************************************