Kalibangan: Recent Excavations

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Kalibangan, situated on the left bank of the Ghaggar (anciently known as the Sarasvati) in Rajasthan is one of the well know Indus Valley settlements. The site was first discovered by A. Ghosh in 1950s and later excavated for nine field seasons (1960-1969) by the Archaeological Survey of India under the leadership of B B Lal & B K Thappar. It is a two period site, with a Sothi-Siswal or the antecedent/ early Harappan and a mature Harappan occupation. The sothi siswal settlement was the name given to one of the 4 pre Harappan phases of development and these settlements were mainly concentrated in the today extinct rivers of Saraswati and Drishadvati. Period I. The Sothi-Siswal settlement or the pre Harappan settlement was well fortified. The first phase of the wall was made of mud bricks and laid to a thickness of approx 1.90m. A second phase of construction brought this thickness to approximately 3 – 4m, varying from place to place. The inner and outer faces of the ‘fortifications’ were plastered with mud. Only one entrance in the North West corner was excavated; other entrances were probably obscured by the later Harappans. Direct evidence for cultivation was found in the form of a preserved ploughed field, about 100m to the south of the Period I settlement dating back to circa 2800 BC. It consisted of alternating grid pattern furrows and hummocks in the earth. Even today, similar ploughing is used in the Rajasthani agricultural practice for two simultaneous crops in this region, esp. of mustard and gram. The most distinctive trait of the early harappan period is however the pottery, first identified at Sothi. Most of the pottery of the Harappan period was a continuation of earlier motifs of the Pre-Harappan period. The pre-Harappan pottery is comparatively thinner and not so well baked than the pottery found in the Mature stage where it was much more
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