A team of archaeologists from Archaeological Survey Of India has excavated structures at Vangchhia, in the Champai district of Mizoram that they believe are from an older civilization which might have once existed there, The North East Today reported.
The city of Vangchhia is near Myanmar border and is mainly a land of rolling hills and dense forests. The excavation was conducted after the director general of ASI visited the site in November 2015 with the objective to study the structures that have floral, animal and human depictions on them.
Vangchhia is the only only ASI protected location in Mizoram.
The site held the key to hitherto-unknown facts about Mizoram and the northeast, Sujeet Nayan, the assistant superintending archaeologist at ASI Delhi and director of the excavation at Vangchhia, told Northeast Live. He also told the newspaper that it might be one of the most significant finds in recent times.
The archaeological team recorded more than 50 structures at Vangchhia and will come back again for further studies. Fragments of charcoal were collected to send to laboratories for experiment and scientific analysis and carbon dating.
“We were exploring what lay beneath the bushes and thick foliage. The entire site could hold traces of a lost city or a greater lost civilization. It is amazing to stumble upon so many things. We need more time and research to reach a final conclusion,” said Nayan.
They visited burial sites that looked like water pavilions and terraces that were reminiscent of palatial buildings. The retaining walls or terraces were made of big stones and the average height of each terrace ranged from 10 to 25 feet.
They explored eight terraces out of the nine and believe that the terraces might have served as burial sites, but that can’t be verified yet. The team also found evidence of what looks like a water pavilion, something that has similarities with Mughal structures.