Late Harappan Sites

i. Daimabad

• In Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra.
• Southernmost Harappan and Late Harappan site.
• Chalcolithic and Late Harappan phase found.
• Multiple periods:
  • Period I:- Savalda culture
  • Period II: Late Harappan culture
  • Period III:- Daimabad Culture
  • Period IV: Malwa culture
  • Period V: Jorwe culture
• Late Harappan:
  • Pottery:
    • Fine red ware with linear and geometric designs in black.
  • Seals with Harappan writing and inscribed potsherds.
  • Tools:
    • Microlithic blades,
    • stone and terracotta beads,
    • shell bangles,
    • gold beads,
    • terracotta measuring scale.
  • Copper smelted locally.
  • Agriculture: Millets, gram, and moong, horse gram.
• Daimabad culture:
  • Pottery: Black-on-buff/cream ware.
  • Copper-smelting furnace found.
  • Three different types of burials—
    • a pit burial,
    • urn burial, and
    • symbolic burial.
  • Agriculture: Millets, gram, and moong, horse gram, Hyacinth.

• Except one burial belonging to the late Harappan phase, all of them were of infants and young people.

ii. Navadatoli

• In west Nimar district, MP.
• Chalcolithic and Late Harappan Site.
• Navdatoli is the largest settlement of Malwa culture.
• Habitation:
  • Circular or rectangular shape.
  • Circular wattle-and-daub houses, post holes
  • Floors plastered with lime.
  • Ancient village inhabited through four stages.
• Chulhas and storage jars found in houses.
• Pottery:
  • BRW, grey ware with painted
• Domestication of animal
• Microliths

iii. Kayatha

• In Ujjain district, MP.
• Chalcolithic and late Harappan site.
• Pottery:
  • Fine, sturdy, wheel-made ware.
• Houses:
  • Made of mud and reed with mud-plastered floors.
• Bones of domesticated cattle and horses found.
• No grain remains.
• Artefacts:
  • Microliths made of locally available chalcedony.
  • Copper axes,  chisel, copper bangles etc.
  • Ornaments made of agate, steatite and carnelian beads.
  • Axes came from Ganeshwar.
• Abrupt break in occupation at Kayatha in about 1800 BCE. Later reoccupied in Ahar/Banas culture phase.

iv. Ahar

• On the banks of Ahar River of southeastern Rajasthan.
• Chalcolithic and Late Harappan site.
• Pottery:
  • BRW with linear and dotted designs.
  • Shapes:- bowls, bowls-on-stands, vases.
• Habitation:
  • Single, double and multi-roomed rectangular, square or circular houses.
  • Houses made of stones, mud bricks, the walls being plastered with mud.
• Subsistence pattern:
  • Cultivation- wheat and barley etc.
  • animal rearing and
  • hunting.
•  Trade links with the Harappans.

v. Gilund

• In Rajsamand district, Rajasthan.
• Chalcolithic and late Harappan site.
• Largest site of Ahar-Banas complex.

vi. Lothal

• In Ahmedabad district, Gujarat
• During pre harappan:  It was a small village.
• Centre of  harbour, cotton and rice-growing and bead-making industry.
• City divided into a citadel and a lower town.
• The constructions were made of fire dried bricks, lime and sand mortar. The remains of the city give evidence to
• A sophisticated drainage system.
• Important findings:
  • Dockyard,
  • Persian Gulf Seals,
  • Shell ornaments maker’s shop,
  • Bead maker’s shop,
  • Metal worker’s shop,
  • Fire altars,
  • terracotta figurine of house,
  • warehouse,
  • merchant house,
  • impression of cloth on some of the sealing,
  • twelve bathrooms in the citadel area.
  • An ivory scale:- smallest-known decimal divisions in Indus civilisation.
• connected to other cities through river route.
• A coastal trade route had existed linking sites such as Lothal and Dholavira to Sutkagan Dor on the Makran coast.

Later Harappan culture:

• Continued to be inhabited,
• Much smaller population
• Devoid of urban influences.
• Trade and resources of the city were almost gone,
• The people retained several Harappan ways in writing, pottery and utensils.

vii. Rangpur

• On Saurashtra peninsula, Gujarat.
• Mature and late Harappan phase.
• Also post-Harappan site.
• Acacia wood used in construction.
• Artefacts:
  • Dishes
  • BRW and high-necked jars.
  • Evidence of shell working
  • Plant remains:- Bajra, rice and Millet were found.

viii. Rojdi

• In Rajkot district, Gujarat.
• Mature Harappan, Late Harappan, and Palaeolithic site.
• Houses:
  • Built on stone foundations.
  • No bricks were found.
• Pottery:
  • Hard, red-ware.
• Graffiti and Script:
  • Graffiti with signs from the Indus script, such as jar sign.
  • A short Harappan inscription on pots.
• Copper or bronze flat axes were found.

ix. Bet Dwarka

• In Gujarat.
• Remains of a submerged port-city, including fortification walls and stone anchors, perhaps going back to c. 1500 BCE.
• A late Harappan seal with Harappan writing.
• A three-headed animal motif similar to that found on certain Persian Gulf seals which suggests continuation of trade with Persian Gulf.
• Elements of Harappan urbanism:
  • cities, script, seals, specialized crafts, and long-distance trade declined in the late Harappan phase, but did not completely disappear. Some of the late Harappan sites such as Bet Dwarka can be described as urban.

x. Desalpur

• In Kutch district, Gujarat.

• A small mature Harappan and late Harappan phase. No early Harappan phase.

• very large fortification:- constructed of stones with mud filling inside.

• BRW pottery.
• The occupation continued during post-Harappan period.

(xvi) Chanhudaro

• In Sindh, Pakistan.
• A small Harappan site.
• A Mature and Late Harappan only.
• No fortification.
• Mud-brick platforms.
• Streets covered drains made of burnt bricks.
• Pottery kilns.
• Centre of craft activity:
  • Carnelian, agate, amethyst, and crystal as well as finished and unfinished beads.
  • A bead factory, mostly made of steatite.
  • Seal making, shell working, and the making of stone weights.

xi. Amri

• (Less imp Late Harappan site. It is mainly pre-Harappan and Harappan Site)
• In Sindh, Pakistan on the bank of the Indus.
• Early Harappan, mature Harappan.
• Mud-brick, stone structures.
• Artefacts:
  • chert blades, stone balls,
  • bone tools,
  • fragments of copper and bronze.
• Cellular compartments used for storing grain.
• Pottery:
  • Wheel-made wares
  • painted designs, mostly geometric.
  • monochrome or polychrome.

xii. Chanhudaro

• In Sindh, Pakistan.
• A small Harappan site.
• A Mature and Late Harappan only.
• No fortification.
• Mud-brick platforms.
• Streets covered drains made of burnt bricks.
• Pottery kilns.
• Centre of craft activity:
  • Carnelian, agate, amethyst, and crystal as well as finished and unfinished beads.
  • A bead factory, mostly made of steatite.
  • Seal making, shell working, and the making of stone weights.

xiii. Jhukar

• In Sindh, Pakistan.
• Regional form of late Harappan culture.
• Pottery shows some continuity with mature Harappan.
• Urban feature disappeared.
• Artefacts:
  • Stone weight and female figurines became rare.
  • Circular stamp seal with geometry design but no indus script.
  • Decline in long distance trade.

xiv. Kudwaha

• (Not so imp.)

xv. Mitathal

• In Bhiwani district, Haryana.
• Village type late Harappan site.
• House of mud brick and kitchen found with chulha.
• Coins of Kushana

xvi. Alamgirpur

• In Meerut district, UP.
• Easternmost Harappan site
• Mature and Late Harappan site.
• No early Harappan level.
• Burnt bricks, copper objects found in late Harappan period.
• PGW preceded by a late Harappan level.
• Break in occupation between Late Harappan and PGW.

xvii. Bhagwanpura

• In Kurukshetra district, Haryana.
• Late Harappan phase shows craft activity:- clay tablets and sherds with graffiti.
• Overlap between the late Harappan and PGW.
• A large, 13-room house made of baked bricks.
• Artefacts- stone, bone, and terracotta.
• No evidence of iron artefacts.

xviii. Ropar

• In Rupnagar district, Punjab.
• IVC, PGW and NBPW.
• No early Harappan level.
• Transition from village to town in period c. 600–200 BCE, and yielded NBPW and punch-marked and copper coins.
• A seal with an inscription in Brahmi.
• Houses made of stone, mud-brick and burnt brick.
• Iron workshop and agate beads in NBPW.

xix. Harappa

• In Punjab, Pakistan on bank of Ravi River.
• Early, mature and late Harappan phase found.
• First site of IVC to be discovered.
• Urban culture sustained by surplus agricultural production and commerce.
• Trade with Sumer in southern Mesopotamia.
• Differentiated living quarters, flat-roofed brick houses, and fortified administrative or religious centers.
• City followed grid planning.
• Row of six granaries found.
• Burials:
  • Only place having evidenced of coffin burial.
  • Evidenced of fractional burial and coffin burial.
  • Grave goods
  • Cemetery-H of alien people.
• Citadel and fortified city.
• Seal, stone figurines (torso of naked male and female figure in dancing pose)
• Bronze smelting

xx. Gumla

• Located in Gomal valley, Pakistan.
• At Kot Diji and Gumla, a burnt deposit between early Harappan and mature Harappan levels suggests a major fire.
• Agriculture flourished.

xxi. Mundigak

• In Kandhar province, Afghanistan.
• Neolithic, chalcolithic, Harappan site.
• Painted pottery– scared fig leaves, tiger like animal etc.
• Hump bulls, Human figurine, shaft hole axes, terracotta drains etc. found.
• Harappan period:
  • Palace, temple, city wall.

xxii. Akhnoor / Manda

• In Akhnoor district, J&K on the bank of Chenab.
• Mature and Late Harappan.
• Northern most Harappan site.
• Harappan and Late Harappan site.
• BRW, red ware and grey ware.
• Artefacts:
  • Bangles,
  • potshards with Harappan writings and
  • bone arrow heads.
• Artefacts of Kushana period:- Pottery, terracotta figurines, bone arrow heads, iron daggers and copper rods.
• Source of timber for IVC sites.
• Akhnoor fort built by Raja Alam Singh in 1802.