Chandigarh, March. 2 (PTI): A Harappan site with painted grey ware artifacts has been discovered near a village in Rohtak district in Haryana.

The site with painted grey ware remains dating back to the Mahabharata period has been discovered at village Girawad on the Madina-Samargopalpur road, in Rohtak district, Haryana Minister of State for Archives, Archaeology and Museums Meena Mandal said here today.

She said the site was found on February 19, this year by a research scholar Vivek Dangi, under a team led by deputy director J S Khatri. The team proceeded from Meham towards Madina and discovered the site at village Girawad.

Mandal said the site was spread over an area of 25 acres and rose about 1.5 metres in height from the ground.

"Material culture available from the site indicates that the economy of Girawad was based on agriculture. Boundary wall, early Harappan pottery, furnaces and other antiquities found during surface explorations are sufficient evidence to prove its antiquity to that of early Harappan times," she said.

Mandal said that as many as 45 early-Harappan and Harappan sites had so far been discovered on the ancient river bed of Drishadvati and its tributaries in Meham Block itself.

"It means that this area was thickly inhabited during Harappan times. The discovery of large number of Harappan and painted grey ware sites in the Satluj-Yamuna divide would help the archaeologist in providing evidences to complete the missing links of the Indian history," she said.

Mandal said a vast stretch of present day Haryana where the now dried Saraswati river flowed presented remnants of Harappan civilisation.