Eternal India Encyclopedia

encyclopedia Eternal India

ARCHAEOLOGY

The decline Recurring floods especially those in 2000 B.C. and 1900 B.C. destroyed a major part of the town and the dock whereupon the ruler and some sections of the population left the town to safer places. Trade and commerce declined and in the absence of a demand for deluxe wares, the pottery is found to be of inferior quality in the post-1900 B.C. period. The flood in 1900 B.C. was almost a deluge razing all buildings to the ground and completely sealing the dock with debris. People ran for life. Except a few potters, bone and shell workers and bead-makers none re- turned. The survivors lived in jerry-built houses with impro- vised baths and hardly any sanitary facilities.

Small Sailing boats, (fig: 14) could bring limited raw material needed to keep the few surviving facilities people. The culture of this Period (B) is -what is designated as Late Harappa Culture.

Kalibangan (29° 5'N; 74° 05’E) Kalibangan is in Ganganagar District of Rajasthan lying on the left bank of the dried- up bed of the ancient Sarasvati (Ghaggar). It was discovered by A. Ghosh in 1950. As a re- sult of a systematic survey of the ancient bed of the Sarasvati, he was able to identify' 20 sites of Harappa Cul- ture. Among the two mounds at Kalibangan the lower mound be- longs to the pre-Har- appa (Period I) and the upper one to the Mature Harappa (Period II) culture. The pre-Har- appan settlement which was fortified from the beginning is 250 metres north-south and 180m east-west. (B.B. Lai, B.K. Thapar).

Two phases of con- struction of the mud

Fig : 15 - Sites of Harappa Culture