Indus Valley Civilization
The Kalibangan pre-historic site was discovered by Luigi Pio Tessitori, an Italian Indologist (1887–1919). He was doing some research in ancient Indian texts and was surprised by the character of ruins in that area. He sought help from Sir John Marshall of the Archaeological Survey of India. At that time the ASI was conducting excavations at Harappa, but they were unaware of the significance of the ruins. In fact, Tessitori was the first person to recognize that the ruins were 'Prehistoric' and pre-Early Harappan Phase
This Early Harappan phase (also called Proto-Harappan Phase) at Kalibangan belongs to the Sothi-Siswal culture (see also Sothi site). Traces of pre-Harappan culture have been found only at the lower levels of the western mound. According to archaeological evidence, the Indus Valley culture existed at the site from the proto-Harappan age (3500 BC – 2500 BC) to the Harappan age (2500 BC – 1750 BC). This earlier phase is labelled Kalibangan-I (KLB-I) or Period-I. Similarity of pottery relates Kalibangan-I with the Sothi-Siswal culture because a lot of this pottery was later discovered at Sothi village in North Western India. There are also links in Kalibangan to the Kot Diji culture (related to Sothi-Siswal).Fort and houses
Earliest ploughed field
B. B. Lal, former DG of ASI writes, "Kalibangan in Rajasthan has given the evidence of the earliest () ploughed agricultural fieldPhotographs of it are available in an article by B. B. Lal at https://web.archive.org/web/20040514210125/http://www.geocities.com/ifihhome/articles/bbl002.html ever revealed through an excavation.".B. B. Lal, ''India 1947–1997: New Light on the Indus Civilization'' It has been found south east of the pre-Harappan settlement, outside the fort. "Kalibangan excavations in present western Rajasthan shows a ploughed field, the first site of this nature in the world. It shows a grid pattern of furrows, placed about 30 cm apart running east-west and other spaced about 190 cm apart running north-south, a pattern remarkably similar to the one practiced even now.". Even today, similar ploughing is used for two simultaneous crops in this region, esp. of mustard and gram. In order to preserve it, this excavated ploughed field area was refilled after excavation and the area was marked by concrete pillar posts.'Six fabrics of Kalibangan' pottery
Early Harappan Phase pottery found at Kalibangan has been classified to make a datum line for ceramic studies in theOther finds
Among the other finds of this Period are: small blades ofEarliest earthquakes and end of Phase-I
B. B. Lal, former DG of ASI writes,"Kalibangan in Rajasthan ... has also shown that there occurred an earthquake around 2600 BC, which brought to an end the Early Indus settlement at the site.". This is perhaps the earliest archaeologically recorded earthquake. At least three pre-historic earthquakes affecting the Indus Valley Civilization at Dholavira in Khadir have been identified during 2900–1800 BC. KLB-I phase has left 1.6 meters of continuous deposits during five distinct structural strata, the last of which was destroyed perhaps by an earthquake and the site was abandoned around 2600 BCE, soon to be settled again by Harappans.Harappan Phase
Fire altars
Lower town
"Well-regulated streets (were) oriented almost invariably along with the cardinal directions, thus forming a grid-iron pattern. (At Kalibangan) even the widths of these streets were in a set ratio, i.e. if the narrowest lane was one unit in width, the other streets were twice, thrice and so on. (...) Such a town-planning was unknown in contemporaryThe lower town was 239 meters east to west, but north–south extent cannot be determined. 8 main roads have been recognized, 5 north–south and 3 east–west. Few more east–west roads are expected to be buried within the unexcavated remains. Second east–west road ran in a curved outline to meet the first at the north-eastern end (towards the river), where a gateway was provided. This road was an anomaly in the grid-pattern of straight roads. There were many lanes connected to specific housing complexes. Roads and lanes had widths in accurately determined proportions, like in other Harappan cities, ranging from 7.2 meters for main roads to 1.8 meters for narrow lanes. Fender posts were installed at street corners to prevent accidents. In second structural level, roads were laid with mud tiles. Drains from houses emptied into pits ( soakage jars) beneath the roads. Some central authority must be there to plan and regulate all this.West Asia West Asia (also called Western Asia or Southwest Asia) is the westernmost region of Asia. As defined by most academics, UN bodies and other institutions, the subregion consists of Anatolia, the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Mesopotamia, the Armenian ....".
Housing
The city was fortified. Like town planning, housing also followed the common pattern of other Harappan cities. Due to grid-pattern of town planning like a chess board, all houses opened out to at least two or three roads or lanes. Each house had a courtyard and 6–7 rooms on three sides, with a well in some houses. One house had stairs for going to the roof. Houses were built of 10 X 20 X 30 cm adobe bricks (same as those used in second structural phase of fort wall). Burnt bricks were used in drains, wells, bathing platforms and door-sills, besides fire-altar. Floors of rooms were built of thrashed fine mud, sometimes laid with mud bricks or terracotta cakes. One house had floors built of burnt tiles decorated with geometrical designs. Kalibangan 1953 A. Ghosh Situated in Rajasthan on the Bank of Ghaggar 1. Shows both Pre Harappan and Harappan phase 2. Evidence of furrowed land 3. Evidence of camel bones 4. Many houses had their own well 5. Kalibangan stand for black bangles 6. Evidence of wooden furrowTerracota
Some early Kalibangan pottery has a close resemblance to the pottery of the Hakra ware in Cholistan, to other Early Harappan pottery from the Indus Valley Civilization and the pottery of the Integration Era. Functionally, pottery can be classified into household pots, religious and burial purposes. Structurally, we have classes like plain and decorated wares. Some pots had Harappan inscriptions (undeciphered) on them. The best terracotta figure from Kalibangan is that a charging bull which is considered to signify the "realistic and powerful folk art of Harappan Age".Elements of Indian Archaeology, p.117. The city is known for the numerous terracotta bangles found here.Seals
A number of seals have been found dating to this phase. Most noteworthy is a cylindrical seal, depicting a female figure between two male figures, fighting or threatening with spears. There is also a mixed person bull observing. They are of rectangular shape.Other finds
A cylindrical graduated measuring rod and a clay ball with human figures are other notable finds. Peas and chickpeas were also found.Burial systems
End of civilization
Robert Raikes has argued that Kalibangan was abandoned because the river dried up. Prof. B. B. Lal (retd. Director General of Archaeological Survey of India) supports this view by asserting: "Radiocarbon dates indicate that the Mature Harappan settlement at Kalibangan had to be abandoned sometime around 2650 BCE. And, as the hydrological evidence indicates, this abandonment took place on account of the drying up of the Sarasvati ( Ghaggar). This latter part is duly established by the work of Raikes, an Italian hydrologist, and of his Indian collaborators".cf. The Homeland of Indo-European Languages and Culture: Some ThoughtsModern Kalibangan
Kalibangan name translates to "black bangles" ("Kālā", in Punjabi, means black and "bangan" means bangles). A few miles downstream is the railway station and township named Pilibangā, which means ''Yellow Bangles''. ASI set up an ''Archaeological Museum'' at Kālibangan in 1983 to store the excavated materials here during 1961–69. In one gallery, Pre-Harappan finds are displayed, while Harappan finds are displayed in the other two galleries.Gallery
Exposed Kalibangan ruins during the excavation of 1952–53 conducted by Archaeological Survey of India.See also
*Notes
Calkins, PB; Alam M. "India". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 31 December 2008. Lal, BB (2002). "The Homeland of Indo-European Languages and Culture: Some Thoughts". Purātattva. Indian Archaeological Society. pp. 1–5. McIntosh, Jane (2008) The Ancient Indus Calley : New Perspectives. ABC-CLIO. p. 77 Lal, BB (2003). Excavations at Kalibangan, the Early Harappans, 1960–1969. Archaeological Survey of India. pp. 17, 98. Kulke, Herman (2004). History of India. Routledge. p. 25. cf. Finding Forgotten Cities. Shri Krishna Ojha, Elements of Indian Archaeology, p. 115. this is the wording of the official website of ASI : http://asi.nic.in/asi_exca_imp_rajasthan.asp Archived 21 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine Tejas Garge (2010), Sothi-Siswal Ceramic Assemblage: A Reappraisal. Ancient Asia. 2, pp. 15–40. doi:10.5334/aa.10203 Elements of Indian Archaeology, p. 116. Photographs of it are available in an article by B. B. Lal at https://web.archive.org/web/20040514210125/http://www.geocities.com/ifihhome/articles/bbl002.html B. B. Lal, India 1947–1997: New Light on the Indus Civilization Puratattva, 4:1–3 cf. The Indus Basin History of Irrigation, Drainage and Flood Management Elements of Indian Archaeology, p. 117-118. official website of ASI : http://asi.nic.in/asi_exca_imp_rajasthan.asp Archived 21 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Elements of Indian Archaeology, p. 117. This book gave exactly the same information, in almost same wording, which was later used in ASI website, hence unpublished excavation reports were source of both these accounts. B.B. Lal 1984. The earliest Datable Earthquake in India, Science Age (October 1984), Bombay: Nehru Centre Lal, B. B., The earliest datable earthquake in India. Frontiers of the Indus Civilization Elements of Indian Archaeology, p. 119-120. "Excavation Sites in Rajasthan – Archaeological Survey of India". Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 30 August 2007. Bryant, Edwin (2001). The quest for the origins of Vedic culture the Indo-Aryan migration debate. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 160. . The Earliest Civilization of South Asia, p. 97 Elements of Indian Archaeology, p. 120-121. Kulke, Herman (2004). History of India. Routledge. p. 25. Kulke, Herman (2004). History of India. Routledge. p. 25. Elements of Indian Archaeology, p. 121. B.B. Lal 2002, The Sarasvati flows on Elements of Indian Archaeology, p. 117. McIntosh, Jane.(2008) The Ancient Indus Valley: New Perspectives. ABC-CLIO. p. 114 Elements of Indian Archaeology, p. 123. Kalibangan: Death from Natural Causes, by Raikes Kulke, Herman (2004). History of India. Routledge. p. 25. cf. The Homeland of Indo-European Languages and Culture: Some Thoughts "Harappa." Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/place/India/Harappa. Harappa, www.harappa.com/blog/kalibangan.References
*B.B. Lal, Jagat Pati Joshi, B.K. Thapar and Madhu Bala: ''Excavations at Kalibangan: The Early Harappans (1960–1969)''; New Delhi, Archaeological Survey of India, Jan 2003, 1st ed., xiv, 340 p. emoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, No. 98. ''Contents of this authoritative report'': Foreword. Preface. 1. The setting/B.K. Thapar. 2. Discovery and previous work/B.K. Thapar. 3. Summary of results/Jagat Pati Joshi. 4. Chronology of the early Harappan settlement/B.B. Lal. 5. The early Harappan culture-complex of Kalibangan in its wider setting/B.B. Lal. 6. Stratigraphy/Jagat Pati Joshi. 7. Structures/Jagat Pati Joshi. 8. The agricultural field/B.B. Lal. 9. The end of the early Harappan settlement at Kalibangan/B.B. Lal. 10. The pottery/Madhu Bala. 11. Minor antiquities/Madhu Bala. 12. Graffiti/Madhu Bala. 13. Technical reports: A. Scientific analysis of early Harappan pottery/B.N. Tandon. B. Report on metal specimens/B.B. Lal. C. Identification of animal remains/S. Banerjee, R.N. Mukherjee and B. Nath. D. Identification of plants and seeds/ Vishnu Mittre and R. Savithri. *Nayanjot Lahiri, ''Finding Forgotten Cities : How the Indus Civilization was Discovered'', Seagull Books, Aug 2006, 410 pages, 1-905422-18-0 *Lal, B. B., The earliest datable earthquake in India. Science Age, 1984, 8, 8–9. *Lal, B. B., ''India 1947–1997: New Light on the Indus Civilization'' (New Delhi: Aryan Books International, 1998) *Lal, B. B., ''The Earliest Civilization of South Asia'' (New Delhi : Aryan Books International, 1997) *Madhu Bala 1997. Some Unique Antiquities and Pottery from Kalibangan, in Facets of Indian Civilization Recent Perspectives, Essays in Honour of Professor B.B. Lal, (Jagat Pati Joshi Ed.), pp. 103–106. New Delhi: Aryan Books International. *Sharma, A.K. 1970. Kalibangan Human Skeletal Remains: an Osteo-Archaeological Approach, Journal of the Oriental Research institute XIX: 109–113. *Thapar, B.K. 1975. Kalibangan: a Harappan Metropolis Beyond the Indus Valley, Expedition XVII(2): 13–19. *Thapar, B.K. 1972. New Traits of the Indus Civilization at Kalibangan: an Appraisal, in South Asian Archaeology 1971 (Norman Hammond Ed.), pp. 85–104. Park Ridge: Noyes Press. *''The Indus Basin History of Irrigation, Drainage and Flood Management'', Edited by H. Fahlbusch, Bart Schultz and C.D. Thatte, February 2004, *''Elements of Indian Archaeology'' (Bharatiya Puratatva, in Hindi) by Shri Krishna Ojha, published by Research Publications in Social Sciences, 2/44 Ansari Riad, Daryaganj, New Delhi-2. (The fifth chapter summarizes the excavation report of Kalibangan in 11 pages). *Robert Raikes, Kalibangan: Death from Natural Causes, Antiquity, XLII,286–291,1968 *Lal, B. B., The Homeland of Indo-European Languages and Culture: Some Thoughts, Paper presented at a seminar organized by the Indian Council for Historical Research on the same theme in Delhi on 7–9 January 2002. *B.B. Lal. ''Frontiers of the Indus Civilization''.1984:57–58 *S.R. Rao. ''The Aryans in Indus Civilization''.1993:175 *Madison: Wisconsin Archaeological Reports 2. Bhan, Suraj 1973. The Sequence and Spread of Protohistoric Cultures in the Upper Sarasvati Basin, Radiocarbon and Indian Archaeology (D.P. Agrawal and A. Ghosh Eds.), pp. 252–263. Bombay: Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. *Gupta, S.P. 1997. The Origins of the Indus-Sarasvati Civilization, in The Facets of Indian Civilization (J.P. Joshi, Chief Editor), pp. 129–141. New Delhi: Aryan Books International. *Gupta, S.P. 1982. The Late Harappan: a Study in Cultural Dynamics, in Harappan Civilization ( Gregory L. Possehl Ed.), pp. 51–59. New Delhi: Oxford-IBH. *Gupta, S.P. 1997. The Indus-Sarasvati Civilization. New Hegde, K.T.M., K.K. Bhan and V.H. Sonawane 1984–85. *Misra V.N. 1993. Indus Civilization and the Rigvedic Sarasvati, in South Asian Archaeology 1991 (A. Parpola and P. Koskikallio Eds.), pp. 511–525. Helsinki: Soumalainen Tiedeakatemia. Mughal, M.R. 1981. New Archaeological Evidence from Bahawalpur, in Indus Civilization: New Perspectives (Ahmad Hasan Dani Ed.), pp. 32–42. Islamabad: Quaid-i-Azam University. *Sharma, A.K. 1970. Kalibangan Human Skeletal Remains: an Osteo-Archaeological Approach, Journal of the Oriental Research institute XIX: 109–113. *Sharma, A.K. 1993. The Harappan Horse was Buried under Dunes of..., ''Puratattva'' (Bulletin of the Indian Archaeological Society, No. 23, 1992–93, pp. 30–34. *Singh, Bhagwan 1995. The Vedic Harappans. New Delhi: Aditya Prakshan. *Mughal, M.R. 1997. Ancient Cholistan. Lahore: Feroz and Sons. * https://www.harappa.com/blog/kalibangan *https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/89/Kalibangan_Harappan_seals.jpg/440px-Kalibangan_Harappan_seals.jpg *"Luigi Pio Tessitori." Società Indologica "Luigi Pio Tessitori": Luigi Pio Tessitori, www.tessitori.org/Luigi-Pio-Tessitori.73.0.html. *"Luigi Pio Tessitori." Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 23 Sept. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Pio_Tessitori. {{Authority control Pre-Indus Valley civilisation sites Hanumangarh district Former populated places in India Cities and towns in Hanumangarh district Archaeological sites in Rajasthan Indus Valley Civilisation sites