It was long believed that the Harappan Civilisation was exclusive to the western provinces of the Indian subcontinent and areas surrounding the Indus River Valley. With limited excavations largely restricted to the valley, barely half of the civilisation was uncovered until 1947. But years after Independence, meticulous research identified more Harappan archaeological sites. By the 1960s, discovered sites extended to Balochistan’s Makran coast, with Sutkagan Dor marking the civilisation’s western limit. But everyone was surprised when it was found that the Harappan civilisation also extended to the banks of the Yamuna River in India, with Uttar Pradesh’s Alamgirpur markings its easternmost boundary.
Initially, scholars were quick to label Alamgirpur as a Late Harappan site – belonging to the last phase of the Harappan civilisation – which conveniently echoed the long-standing theory of eastward (towards the Ganga River) migration of the Harappans. Of course, in the absence of scientific dates, their assumption was based on material culture retrieved from the initial excavation in 1958. However, new dates from the site, ranging from 2600 to 2200 BCE, questioned the established timeline of Harappan presence in the Ganga-Yamuna Doab.
According to archaeologist George.F. Dales (1966), during the Late Harappan phase, roughly dated from c.1900 to 1500 BCE, “sophisticated Harappan traits were watered down by its mingling with local cultures until … diluted to the point of non-existence.” If Alamgirpur is a Late Harappan site, what should we make of such early dates? Does this mean that at sites like Alamgirpur, the watering down of Harappan traits began as early as c.2600-2200 BCE, when its western counterparts were flourishing?
Such a shift in timeline breaks the established linearity of cultures. If a site like Alamgirpur, which was labelled a Late Harappan settlement and was a product of the eastward migration of Harappans (dated at c.19000 BCE), is now dated parallel to the urban phase known as Mature Harappan, then it changes the historicity of the site and of the civilisation.
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Is Alamgirpur a Late Harappan site?
Over a century of research has gone into creating a timeline of this mighty civilisation, which is roughly divided into three phases – Early Harappan, also known as the Regionalisation Era (c.3500-2600 BCE); Mature Harappan, also known as the Integration Era (from 2600-2000/1900 BCE), and Late Harappan (1900-1500 BCE), also known as the Localisation Era. The Late Harappan phase defines the process of diluting Harappan traits with local cultures, as observed by Dales above. In other words, the decline of the Harappan civilisation was slow. Sophisticated Harappan traits such as planned cities, developed and complex trade matrices (domestic and external), organised craft specialisation, and art forms slowly disappeared.
To study the material consequence of the slow disappearance of Harappan traits into local cultures, sites like Alamgirpur were taken up for investigation.
Locally known as Parasuram-ka-Khera, the archaeological site at Alamgirpur is located roughly 45 kilometres from Delhi on the left bank of Hindon River, a tributary of the Ganga, in the upper Ganga-Yamuna Doab in UP’s Meerut. The modern habitation is located on an elevated mound adjacent to the area that was investigated.
In May 1958, the Regional Camp Committee of the Bharat Sewak Samaj excavated a long trench at Alamgirpur. This excavation unearthed some pottery, beads and other objects later analysed by YD Sharma of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Subsequently, Sharma decided to re-excavate the site, which revealed a four-fold cultural sequence where the earliest excavated culture yielded Harappan-affiliated objects such as a dish-on-stand, goblet with pointed base, cylindrical vase, etc. The painted motifs included simple bands, intersecting circles, plants, and a peacock usually found on typical Harappan ware. This opened a new possibility – the location of a station of Harappan culture within the Ganga-Yamuna doab.
During this excavation, a crushed pile of thick platters and troughs was found in a large pit. Some of them bore short incised inscriptions consisting of two symbols, probably potter’s marks. Cloth impressions on a trough made for some other fascinating finds from this period. No structure, other than some traces of baked bricks, was found in this layer.
This excavation successfully placed Alamgirpur on the eastern edge of the Harappan Civilisation, which also meant that this site is chronologically late compared to sites in the Indus Valley, Gujarat or on the banks of Ghaggar-Hakra. This followed a narrative suggesting that Harappans were eastward bound by c.2000 BCE (for many reasons). Lack of scientific dates from Alamgirpur based an entire premise on pottery and other material remains until the site was reinvestigated.
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Re-excavation of Alamgirpur
RN Singh of Banaras Hindu University, in collaboration with Cameron A. Petrie of the University of Cambridge, a team from Pune’s Deccan College and the Directorate of UP State Archaeology, Lucknow, re-excavated Alamgirpur in 2008 with a comprehensive approach.
The complete cultural sequence revealed during this reinvestigation was similar to the sequence revealed in 1959’s excavation:
– Harappan (Period IA and IB)
– Painted Grey Ware
– Early Historical
– Medieval
However, during Sharma’s excavation, a break was noted between Period I, affiliated with Harappan culture, and Period II, represented by Painted Grey Ware. This break was based on variation in sediments. However, this notion was disproved in the 2008 excavation. The geoarchaeological study by Singh, Petrie and their team suggests no stratigraphic gap between Harappan and Painted Grey Ware levels. However, an overlap between the Harappan culture and Painted Grey Ware culture in Period IB, found at sites like Bhagwanpura in Haryana, was noted during the excavation.
Another noteworthy discovery from this excavation was that, during Period IA, its first inhabitants used Harappan pottery along with local Ochre Coloured Pottery or OCP. The OCP culture existed concurrently with the Mature Harappan culture and is the indigenous Chalcolithic–Copper Age culture of the Ganga-Yamuna Doab. The scientific dates from this layer ranged from 2600-2200 BCE.
The multidisciplinary approach applied while studying archaeological evidence from Alamgirpur helped reconstruct not just the history of the site but also the entire region. Moreover, the study conducted on fuel exploitation (Singh, R.N. et al. 2013) suggested that even though the site was located in an open grassland environment where people had access to some wood resources, forms of fuel other than wood were also exploited. Analysis of archaeo-botanical data also gave enough clues about the agro-based subsistence economy of Harappan settlers.
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Contradictory evidence
The presence of Harappan ceramics along with OCP in Period IA, along with dates pushing back antiquity to c.2600-2200 BCE, traditionally does not fall in the Late Harappan phase category, which is said to have begun around 1900 BCE. Did Harappans start moving much before deurbanisation started? And why did they lack Harappan traits such as town planning if they started migrating earlier? The structures excavated at Alamgirpur are simple, with thatched roofs based on wooden posts – a clear marker of deurbanisation.
Such contradictory evidence is also found from sites in UP’s Hulas and Sinauli (excavated in 2005-06). Both sites are labelled as Late Harappan but were dated to c.2400 BCE to 1900 BCE. At Hulas, the excavator also mentioned the presence of local indigenous culture along with Harappan pottery dated much before the timeline set for the Late Harappan period. So was the case with Sinauli, where, in 2005-06, burials were relatively dated to 2100 BCE, and excavators mentioned the presence of both OCP/Copper Hoard and Harappan cultures at the site. In what ratio, though, is another question altogether.
Alamgirpur is a thoroughly excavated site where analysis has been conducted through a multidisciplinary approach, but early dates have opened a Pandora’s box. Is it still wise to label this site as Late Harappan, or should we look beyond the Harappan occupation of the area and maybe pay more attention to local/indigenous cultures? Only more excavations and studies will tell.
Disha Ahluwalia is an archaeologist and junior research fellow at the Indian Council Of Historical Research. She tweets @ahluwaliadisha. Views are personal.
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)