BBC Online :
Archaeologists in India are examining claims that remains of people dug up from a disused well in the northern state of Punjab belong to soldiers who revolted against the British in 1857.
A Sikh temple said villagers in Ajnala had exhumed the remains of 282 soldiers who were executed by the British.
But historians and archaeologists say it is too early to come to that conclusion.
In India the mutiny is often described as the first war of independence.
Hindu and Muslim soldiers rebelled against the British East India Company in 1857 over fears that gun cartridges were greased with animal fat forbidden by their religions.
The British ruled India for 200 years until the country’s independence in 1947.
Amarjit Singh Sarkaria, the chief of a local gurdwara (Sikh temple) in Ajnala in Amritsar district, told reporters that villagers had excavated a well that was located in the shrine and recovered the remains of 282 mutineers. The remains included skulls, teeth and coins, he said.
Archaeologists have reached the shrine and are examining the remains, Navjot Singh Randhawa, chief of Punjab’s archaeological department, told the BBC.
He said “40 to 50” human skulls had been found in the excavated well, along with skeletons, coins and medals “that seem to date back to the Victorian period”.
It is not clear whether experts will rely on radio carbon dating to assess the remains.
