NEW DELHI -- The curtain came down on the nearly five-month long excavation of Babri Mosque site carried out by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in Ayodhya in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh to ascertain if a temple had existed there, local press reported on Friday.

According to the *** Hindu*** , a New Delhi-based English daily, the digging, carried out by a team of ASI experts following the Allahabad High Court's directive, lasted about 160 days throwing up 1,350 big and small articles, reliable sources said.

The ASI team is busy examining the articles discovered during the excavation, the sources said, adding that no article to ascertain the existence of temple was found until the final day of digging.