A day after heavy machinery razed a cellar-level structure suspected to be historic on police department’s land in old city, archaeologists found shreds of pottery and a copper coin up on inspection.
The police administration, however, insists the site is not archaeologically significant.
“A copper coin and shreds of pottery, possibly of the Asaf Jahi era, were found during the joint inspection with the police,” said Gopal Rao, Archaeological Survey of India’s in-charge for Charminar.
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The inspection was taken up on Tuesday at Chellapura, after the police administration came under fire for pulling down a structure without ascertaining its archaeological or historic value when prima facie it appeared to be a heritage structure.
After Tuesday’s inspection, a report will be prepared by Dr. Rao for ASI to decide if a full excavation at the site is warranted. The police officials, however, are set to go ahead with preparing ground for construction of police barracks. “We inspected the site to determine if there is a channel or tunnel, but could not find any. We will go ahead with the work as nothing of significant archaeological value was found,’ South Zone Deputy Commissioner of Police V. Satyanarayana said.
Police still deny the site being archaeologically significant