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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.
Fig : 15 - Sites of 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
Eternal India