Twenty pieces of gold and silver ornaments, believed to be at least 150 years old, were found by two residents of Suchan village in Sirsa district of Haryana.

The ornaments were hidden in a wall sometime around 1850-60, Rajesh Purohit, in-charge and curator of Shri Krishna Museum, Kurukshetra, said.

Purohit said that the period to which the ornaments belonged had been ascertained from the bricks of the wall where they were found hidden.

However, the ornaments could actually date from an earlier era.

The wall had kucha bricks on its inner side and pucca ones on the outer side so as to make the house more comfortable for living as electricity was not available at that time for air conditioning, he said.

The bricks had the English letter 'S' inscribed on them, which could be related to Sirsa, he said.

Purohit said the ornaments were found when two residents of the village, Harmeet Singh and Rajinder Singh, began demolishing their old house to construct a new one.

They first informed the village sarpanch about the ornaments and thereafter, they handed over these ornaments to the deputy commissioner.

At present, the 20 ornaments are at the local Liladhar Dhukhi Memorial Museum and are valued at several lakh rupees.