Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c11.157

c11.157

Ross’s work at the Rana Ghundai tell is an excellent example of what can be done by intelligent observation on such a site, without excavation in the ordinary sense of the word – work which might have been carried out on a dozen Baluchi sites, but has not been attempted so far. The Rana Ghundai mound is up to 40 feet high and is being actively dug away by the local villagers, who use the ash-laden soil from the ancient occupation levels as manure on their fields. This fate is one common to most tells near modern villages, and, though naturally it means the destruction of the site, it nevertheless does provide, in many instances, a complete cross-section of the mound and its strata. From the exposed more or less vertical surfaces it is possible to collect potsherds and other material representing human occupation and, by relating these to the levels from which they have been derived, build up a stratified sequence from bottom to top. By patient observation and collection over some years Ross was able to identify five main periods of occupation at Rana Ghundai, with sub-phases or building levels bringing the whole number of strata to nine, and, once this sequence was recognized, it was possible to match surface finds from other tells against this or that period on the key site.