Efforts to save Gilgit-Baltistan's priceless rock carvings

Islamabad: An effort has been launched to save nearly 50,000 rock carvings and inscriptions dating back to the Stone Age era in Gilgit-Baltistan region of northern Pakistan, following reports that many of them were facing defacement.

The inscriptions and carvings have either been defaced or are in danger of fading away because of exposure to nature’s vagaries, experts said.

Concerns about saving the priceless carvings and inscriptions will be raised at an international conference on ‘Rock art of northern Pakistan’ to be held at the University of Heidelberg in collaboration with Islamabad’s Quaid-i-Azam University.

According to Taxila Institute of Ancient Civilisations’ director Ashraf Khan, the inscriptions date back to three periods-? pre-historic, Buddhist and post-Buddhist.

“We hope that the conference would be able to grasp the attention of archaeologists around the world and they would take immediate measures for its preservation,” Khan told media.

Source: The News daily