Archaeologists find artifacts in Dangwada in Madhya Pradesh as far back as 3500 B.C.

Dangwada's yield (from top): A pot and an incense holder of the Chalcolithic period; coins of various periods and images of Vishnu

Three years ago excited archaeologists made one of their biggest hauls in Dangwada, 30 km west of Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh. Recently, at the very same spot, the earth has again yielded coins, pottery and fresh evidence of houses that push civilisation as far back as 3500 B.C., many years further than earlier excavations had done.

The Excavation Department of Vikram University and the Madhya Pradesh Directorate of Archaeology are jointly working on the site. The operation is headed by Dr V.S. Vakankar, a well-known archaeologist.

Age does not seem to have deterred the 63-year-old Vakankar, who first visited the hillock 17 years ago. Says he: "I came here because a friend told me that there were pottery pieces scattered all over the place."

The hillock which is on the bank of the river Chambal, is a "habitational deposit". The term means that it is a site on which settlements have succeeded one another over the centuries. A mud house can survive up to 200 years. When it collapses, the ground level rises to make way for another habitation.

With time, the level of the ground keeps rising and when excavators begin digging, layer upon layer of civilisations are unearthed, the oldest being hidden at the deepest level. The Dangwada hillock rises about 60 ft above the surrounding plains.

Says Vakankar: "The place is quite remarkable in the amount of evidence it has to yield." The campsite is surrounded by piles of broken pottery lying in neatly classified mounds.

Fresh Evidence: An extremely large number of coins have also been unearthed here - about 2,000 in number and made primarily of copper. The oldest are believed to be around 2,600 years old before which period a barter system existed.

Vakankar and a colleague: Intriguing theories
The interest in the site is increased by the archaeologists' claim that they have evidence of houses from the Chalcolithic period, that is, from the copper and stone ages. This would make them well over 3,000 years old.

Nothing remains of the houses, of course, except indications of where the walls and floor once were. Between 2200 B.C. and 2000 B.C. - in Malwa, during the Kayatha culture - the floors were prepared with considerable labour.

They were made of yellow silt, sand, river gravel, limestone and pottery pieces on which were further layers of sand and yellow silt. Finally dung was applied.

A few centuries later, by the time of the Ahar culture (2000 B.C. to 1700 B.C.). sloping roofs with rice husk had come into vogue. These changed later to flat mud roofs and it is interesting that since then very little has changed. The only difference is that in rural Malwa today, the houses' dimensions are larger and iron is used.

Vakankar also claims the discovery of a "temple complex" which he dates back 3,500 years, a temple that he says is much older than the earliest one known before this - of the second century B.C. In the yagna shala (sacrificial house) were found burnt sticks in a fire altar, figurines of three deities and tiny terracotta lamps.

In a family temple which was part of a house, the team discovered three mother goddesses (in a conical shape) and the figure of a bull, ringed by 14 bowls for offerings. An apsidal temple also belonged to this period although only a platform remains of it.

All this was in addition to the Yagna shala of the second century B.C. which was found in the first part of the excavation and had yielded pots with carbonised grains of rice, barley, moong and urad.

Important Discoveries: The finds in pottery and tools are significant as well. Of the Kayatha culture are copper axes and stone heads. Pottery was made on the turning wheel and some of the shapes bear resemblance to those of Harappan culture but there are designs that Vakankar says are even pre-Harappan.

Vakankar also makes the important claim that his team has found a 3,500-year-old mould that was used for making copper heads for axes. Says he: "This is the first time ever that such an ancient mould has been found."

Of the Ahar period, stone plinths and terracotta bulls have been discovered. After this culture appear beads made of stone and soapstone.

Of the period between 1000 B.C. and 600 B.C., however, nothing has been found, as if for 400 years civilisation had vanished. This is also true of other sites in Malwa. In what is perhaps his most controversial statement. Vakankar attempts to explain the gap in time.

He says that a slim white streak in the excavations explains everything. "There was a devastating flood," he claims, "which destroyed everything. There are also references to such a catastrophe in our epics and in Buddhist literature, referring to just this period.

This streak in the earth has been made by sand following a rise in the level of water." But whether this will be accepted as a popular theory will be known only after leading archaeologists have fully debated Vakankar's contention.

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