The discovery of two more mounds in January at the
Harappan site of Rakhigarhi in Hisar district, Haryana, has led to
archaeologists establishing it as the biggest Harappan civilisation
site. Until now, specialists in the Harappan civilisation had argued
that Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan was the largest among the 2,000 Harappan
sites known to exist in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The
archaeological remains at Mohenjo-daro extend around 300 hectares.
Mohenjo-daro, Harappa and Ganweriwala (all in Pakistan) and Rakhigarhi
and Dholavira (both in India) are ranked as the first to the fifth
biggest Harappan sites.
“With the discovery of two
additional mounds, the total area of the Rakhigarhi site will be 350
hectares,” asserted Professor Vasant Shinde, Vice-Chancellor/Director,
Deccan College Post-Graduate & Research Institute, a deemed-to-be
university in Pune. The two mounds are in addition to the seven mounds
already discovered at Rakhigarhi, about 160 km from New Delhi. The
eighth and ninth mounds, spread over 25 hectares each, are situated to
the east and west of the main site. Villagers have destroyed much of
these two mounds for cultivation. A team of archaeology teachers and
students of the Deccan College discovered them when they surveyed the
site in January.
Dr. Shinde, a specialist in
Harappan civilisation and Director of the current excavation at
Rakhigarhi, called it “an important discovery.” He said: “Our discovery
makes Rakhigarhi the biggest Harappan site, bigger than Mohenjo-daro.
The two new mounds show that the Rakhigarhi site was quite extensive.
They have the same material as the main site. So they are part of the
main site. On the surface of mound nine, we noticed some burnt clay
clots and circular furnaces, indicating this was the industrial area of
the Harappan site of Rakhigarhi.”
Dr. Shinde had
earlier led the excavations done by the Deccan College at the Harappan
sites of Farmana, Girawad and Mitathal, all in Haryana.
On the surface of mound eight were found terracotta bangles, cakes, and
pottery pieces, typical of the Harappan civilisation, said Nilesh P.
Jadhav, Research Assistant, Department of Archaeology, Deccan College.
Artefacts found
From
January 10, the Deccan College team has excavated five trenches on the
slope of the mound four and another trench in the burial mound numbered
seven. The excavation in mound four has yielded a cornucopia of
artefacts, including a seal and a potsherd, both inscribed with the
Harappan script; potsherds painted with concentric circles, fish-net
designs, wavy patterns, floral designs and geometric designs; terracotta
animal figurines, cakes, hopscotches and shell bangles, all belonging
to the Mature Harappan phase of the civilisation. The five trenches have
revealed residential rooms, a bathroom with a soak jar, drainages, a
hearth, a platform etc … The residential rooms were built with mud
bricks. The complex revealed different structural phases, said Kanti
Pawar, assistant professor, Department of Archaeology, Deccan College.
Much of the Harappan site at Rakhigarhi lies buried under the
present-day village, with several hundreds of houses built on the
archaeological remains. The villagers’ main occupation is cultivation of
wheat and mustard, and rearing of buffaloes.
Making
cow dung cakes is a flourishing industry. There is rampant encroachment
on all the mounds despite the Archaeological Survey of India fencing
them. Amarendra Nath of the ASI had excavated the Rakhigarhi site from
1997 to 2000.
An important problem about the
Harappan civilisation is the origin of its culture, Dr. Shinde said. The
Harappan civilisation had three phases: the early Harappan from circa
3,500 BCE to circa 2,600 BCE, the mature Harappan which lasted from
circa 2,600 BCE to circa 2000 BCE, and the late Harappan from circa 2000
BCE to 1,600 BCE.
Dr. Shinde said: “It was earlier
thought that the origin of the early Harappan phase took place in Sind,
in present-day Pakistan, because many sites had not been discovered
then. In the last ten years, we have discovered many sites in this part
[Haryana] and there are at least five Harappan sites such as Kunal,
Bhirrana, Farmana, Girawad and Mitathal, which are producing early dates
and where the early Harappan phase could go back to 5000 BCE. We want
to confirm it. Rakhigarhi is an ideal candidate to believe that the
beginning of the Harappan civilisation took place in the Ghaggar basin
in Haryana and it gradually grew from here. If we get the confirmation,
it will be interesting because the origin would have taken place in the
Ghaggar basin in India and slowly moved to the Indus valley. That is one
of the important aims of our current excavation at Rakhigarhi.” thanks http://www.thehindu.com
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