Unearthing Beikthano’s western wall: Forgotten site nears rediscovery

 

IT is close to unearthing the forgotten western wall of Beikthano, an ancient city, said the Ministry of Religious and Culture, Bagan Branch’s director U Kyaw Myo Win.

Researchers have been carrying out excavations many times to discover the ancient city, and a brick row containing about ten layers of brick was found at the shore of old Yanpel Creek in a previous excavation. However, Excavations at Beikthano by Sayagyi U Aung Thaw, written in English, didn’t feature it, U Kyaw Myo Win wrote on his Facebook account.

“Excavations have resumed in ancient Beikthano city after stopping in around 1993. In late excavations, KKG, which was previously used for excavated field number, is no longer used and replaced with BTO, an acronym of the ancient city name, and the project was restarted from BTO 1. Sixty-nine mounds were completed throughout the excavation project and in excavation from BTO 11 to BTO 21 in 2003, we led the excavation of 6 mounds from BTO 15 to BTO 19 and BTO 35 to BTO 38 in 2011,” he wrote.

In their research, he initiated a geographic information system (GIS) as a coordinated approach to data compilation and carried out a feasibility study on the western wall, he said.

“During research, we taught young excavation team members GIS, RS and GPS technologies. Now, we are close to unearthing the ancient city of Beikthano’s western wall, which was forgotten. The next generations, who previously teamed up with me, have continued the discovery. Along the area which is feasible to have the western wall, 5 test pits and four excavated areas, and we already have concrete shreds of evidence to prove the existence of the wall,” he wrote.

A gate at the northern wall of Beikthano was also discovered, and new technologies have shown that there was a lake that is believed to be larger many times than the existing one at the west of the city, he said.

MT/ZS

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