Bhirrana

Template:Infobox ancient site Bhirrana, also Bhirdana and Birhana, (Hindi: भिरड़ाना; IAST: Bhirḍāna) is an archaeological site, located in a small village in Fatehabad District, in the Indian state of Haryana. Its history stretches back to pre-Indus Valley Civilisation times, as revealed by archaeological discoveries, dating to the 8th-7th millennium BCE.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn The site is one of the many sites seen along the channels of the seasonal Ghaggar river,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn thought by some to be the Rigvedic Saraswati river.Template:Sfn

Location

The site is situated about Template:Cvt to the northwest of New Delhi on the New Delhi-Fazilka national highway and about 14 km northeast of the district headquarters on the Bhuna road in the Fatehabad district, North of Bhirrana, off the Shekhupur road. The site is one of the many sites seen along the paleo-channels of channels of the seasonal Ghaggar River which flows in modern Haryana from Nahan to Sirsa.

The mound measures Template:Cvt north-south and Template:Cvt east-west and rises to a height of Template:Cvt from the surrounding area of flat alluvial sottar plain.

Excavations

The Excavation Branch-I, Nagpur of the Archaeological Survey of India excavated this site for three field seasons during 2003–04, 2004–05 and 2005–06. Several publications have been written on it by Rao et al.

Dating

Rao, who excavated Bhirrana, claims to have found pre-Harappan Hakra Ware in its oldest layers, dated at the 8th-7th millennium BCE.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Efn He proposes older datings for Bhirrana compared to the conventional Harappan datings,Template:Efn yet sticks to the Harappan terminology.Template:Sfn This proposal is supported by Sarkar et al. (2016), co-authored by Rao, who also refer to a proposal by Possehl, and various radiocarbon dates from other sites, though giving 800 BCE as the enddate for the Mature Harappan phase:Template:SfnTemplate:Efn Template:Harvnb, and as summarized by Template:Harvnb, compares as follows with the conventional datings, and Shaffer (Eras).Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Date	Culture (Rao 2005)	Period (Dikshit 2013)	Phase (Sarkar 2016)	Conventional date (HP)	Harappan Phase	Conventional date (Era)	Era
7500-6000 BCE	Period IA: Hakra Wares Culture	Pre-Harappan Hakra Period (Neolithic)	Pre-Harappan	7000-3300 BCE	Pre-Harappan	c.7000-c.4500 BCE	Early Food Producing Era
6000-4500 BCE	Period IB: Early Harappan	Transitional Period	Early Harappan
4500-3000 BCE	Period IIA: Early Mature Harappan	Early Harappan Period	Early Mature Harappan			c.4500-2600 BCE	Regionalisation Era
				3300-2600 BCE	Early Harappan
3000-1800 BCE	Period IIB: Mature Harappan	Mature Harappan Period	Mature Harappan
				2600-1900 BCE	Mature Harappan	2600-1900 BCE	Integration Era
1800-1600 BCE (1800-800 BCE)Template:SfnTemplate:Efn	Late Harappan Period	Late Harappan Period		1900-1300 BCE	Late Harappan	1900-1300	Localisation Era

Cultures

According to Rao, the excavation has revealed these cultural periods; Period IA: Hakra Wares Culture, Period IB: Early Harappan Culture, Period IIA: Early Mature Harappan and Period IIB: Mature Harappan Culture.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn According to the Archaeological Survey of India, the excavation has revealed the remains of the Harappan culture right from its nascent stage, i.e., Hakra Wares Culture (antedating the Known Early Harappan Culture in the subcontinent, also known as Kalibangan-I.) to a full-fledged Mature Harappan city.Template:Efn

Period IA: Hakra Wares Culture

Prior to the excavation of Bhirrana, no Hakra Wares culture, predating the Early Harappan had been exposed in any Indian site. According to the ASI, for the first time, the remains of this culture have been exposed at Bhirrana. This culture is characterised by structures in the form of subterranean dwelling pits, cut into the natural soil. The walls and floor of these pits were plastered with the yellowish alluvium of the Saraswati valley. The artefacts of this period comprised a copper bangle, a copper arrowhead, bangles of terracotta, beads of carnelian, lapis lazuli and steatite, bone point, stone saddle and quern.Template:Sfn The pottery repertoire is very rich and the diagnostic wares of this period included Mud Applique Wares, Incised (Deep and Light), Tan/Chocolate Slipped Wares, Brown-on-Buff Wares, Bichrome Wares (Paintings on the exterior with black and white pigments), Black-on-Red Ware and plain red wares.

Period IB: Early Harappan Culture

The entire site was occupied during this period. The settlement was an open air one with no fortification. The houses were built of mud bricks of buff colour in the ratio of 3:2:1. The pottery of this period shows all the six fabrics of Kalibangan - I along with many of the Hakra Wares of the earlier period. The artifacts of this period include a seal of quarter-foil shape made of shell, arrowheads, bangles and rings of copper, beads of carnelian, jasper, lapis lazuli, steatite, shell and terracotta, pendents, bull figurines, rattles, wheels, gamesmen, and marbles of terracotta, bangles of terracotta and faience, bone objects, sling balls, marbles and pounders of sandstone.

Period IIA: Early Mature Harappan Culture

This period is marked by transformation in the city lay-out. The entire settlement was encompassed within a fortification wall. The twin units of the town planning; Citadel and Lower Town came into vogue. The mud brick structures were aligned with a slight deviation from the true north. The streets, lanes and by-lanes were oriented in similar fashion. The pottery assemblage shows a mixed bag of Early Harappan and Mature Harappan forms. The artifacts of the period included beads of semi-precious stones (including two caches of beads kept in two miniature pots), bangles of copper, shell, terracotta and faience; fishhook, chisel, arrowhead of copper; terracotta animal figurines and a host of miscellaneous artifacts.

Period IIB: Mature Harappan Culture

The last period of occupation at the site belongs to the Mature Harappan period with all the characteristic features of a well-developed Harappan city. The important artifacts of the period consisted of Seals of steatite, bangles of copper, terracotta, faience and shell, inscribed celts of copper, bone objects, terracotta spoked wheels, animal figurines of terracotta, beads of lapis lazuli, carnelian, agate, faience, steatite, terracotta and stone objects. A replica of the famous "Dancing Girl" from Mohenjodaro is found engraved on a potsherd in the form of a graffiti.Template:Sfn The massive fortification wallTemplate:Sfn of the town was made of mud bricks. The houses were made of mud bricks (sun-baked bricks). Wide linear roads can be seen separating the houses. A circular structure of baked earth is probably a "tandoor"- a community kitchen still seen in rural India. Presence of the baked bricks is seen used in the main drain provided on the width of the northern arm of the fortification wall to flush out the waste water from the houses.

Dancing girl graffiti

Pottery graffiti at Bhirrana show "mermaid" type deities and dancing girls; the latter have a posture similar to Mohenjo-daro's bronze "dancing girls" that the archaeologist L.S. Rao stated that "it appears that the craftsman of Bhirrana had first-hand knowledge of the former."Template:Sfn These deities or dancing girls may represent apsaras, or water nymphs, associated with water rites once widespread in the Indus Valley civilisation.Template:Sfn

Other findings

Other significant findings included terracotta wheels with painted spokes. People used to live in shallow mud plastered pit dwellings and pits were also used for industrial activity or sacrifices.Template:Sfn Multi-roomed houses were exposed at this site, one house with ten rooms and another with three rooms. Another house had a kitchen, court yards, chullah [i.e., chulha, cooking stoves] in the kitchen; beside the chullah, charred grains were also found.Template:Sfn

According to Rao, all phases of Indus Valley Civilisation are represented in this site.

See also

• Indus Valley Civilization related

• • List of Indus Valley Civilization sites
    • Bhirrana, 4 phases of IVC with earliest dated to 8th-7th millennium BCE
    • Kalibanga, an IVC town and fort with several phases starting from Early harappan phase
    • Rakhigarhi, one of the largest IVC city with 4 phases of IVC with earliest dated to 8th-7th millennium BCE
    • Kunal, cultural ancestor of Rehman Dheri

• • List of inventions and discoveries of the Indus Valley Civilization
    • Hydraulic engineering of the Indus Valley Civilization
    • Sanitation of the Indus Valley Civilisation

• • Periodisation of the Indus Valley Civilisation

• • Pottery in the Indian subcontinent
    • Bara culture, subtype of Late-Harappan Phase
    • Cemetery H culture (2000-1400 BC), early Indo-Aryan pottery at IVC sites later evolved into Painted Grey Ware culture of Vedic period
    • Black and red ware, belonging to neolithic and Early-Harappan phases
    • Sothi-Siswal culture, subtype of Early-Harappan Phase

• • Rakhigarhi Indus Valley Civilisation Museum

• History of Haryana
  • List of Monuments of National Importance in Haryana
  • List of State Protected Monuments in Haryana

Sources

Printed sources

• [{{{url}}} Ancient Pakistan - an Archaeological History].
• [{{{url}}} The Archaeology of South Asia: From the Indus to Asoka, c.6500 BCE–200 CE]. Cambridge University Press.
• The Rise of Indian Civilization: Recent Archaeological Evidence from the Plains of 'Lost' River Saraswati and Radio-Metric Dates. Bulletin of the Deccan College Research Institute({Template:Date).
• Origin of Early Harappan Cultures in the Sarasvati Valley: Recent Archaeological Evidence and Radiometric Dates.
• Inter-regional Interaction and Urbanism in the Ancient Indus Valley: A Geologic Provenience Study of Harappa's Rock and Mineral Assemblage{{#if:Law (II)|, Law (II)}(2008). ISBN 9780549628798
• The Indus Fish Swam in the Great Bath: A New Solution to an Old Riddle. Bulletin of the Indus Research Centre({Template:Year).
• Kashmir Neolithic and Early Harappan : A Linkage.
• [{{{url}}} Sirinimal Lakdusinghe Felicitation Volume]. Neptune.
• New light on the excavation of Harappan settlement at Bhirrana.
• Oxygen isotope in archaeological bioapatites from India: Implications to climate change and decline of Bronze Age Harappan civilization. Scientific Reports({Template:Year).
• [{{{url}}} Chronologies in Old World Archaeology (3rd Edition)]. University of Chicago Press.
• A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India : from the Stone Age to the 12th century{{#if:Singh|, Singh}. Pearson Education(2008). ISBN 9788131711200
• Counter-intuitive influence of Himalayan river morphodynamics on Indus Civilisation urban settlements. Nature Communications({Template:Year).

Further reading

• The Tribune, 2 January 2004
• Puratattva, The Bulletin of the Archaeological Society of India No. 34, 35 and 36;
• Man and Environment xxxi

External links

• Graffiti of dancing girl

Template:Indus Valley Civilization Template:Haryana Template:Fatehabad District