Prehistory and Protohistory in India and Pakistan c8.s8: Birbhanpur
Prehistory and Protohistory in India and Pakistan c8.s8
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Birbhanpur
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The site of Birbhanpur is near the Durgapur railway station on the bank of the Damodar river in Burdwan District, West Bengal.³⁷ It was discovered³⁸ by Shri LAL and excavated on a very small scale during 1954 and 1957. "The site is fairly extensive, beginning from about a furlong north of Birbhanpur, it continues beyond the railway line on the north. On the east it is roughly bounded by the road between the Durgapur railway-station and Birbhanpur and it continues well into the jungle of Sal tree (Shorea robusta) on the west."³⁷ᵃ
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³⁷ LAL, B. B., A.I., No. 14, (1958), pp. 1-48.
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37a Many more sites exist in the Kunoor and Ajay valleys which run through the Burdwan and Birbhum Districts (See Fig. 115 A). The topography is identical. The writer had an occasion to see some of these owing to the kindness of Shri P. C. DASGUPTA, Director of Archaeology, West Bengal.
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³⁸ It appears that this is the same site which was previously discovered by N. G. MAJUMDAR in 1937: A.S.I.A.R., 1937.
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Site *(See Fig. 57)*
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The site is situated on one of the middle terraces of the Damodar river. Over the basal decayed sandstone is a thick layer of mottled silty sand, believed to be weathering *in situ* of the underlying rock. The latter—sandy silt is capped by lateritic gravel and stone fragments in a silty matrix which became consolidated. The top of this layer is uneven. It probably formed the land surface over which the microlithic man lived. For the microliths were mainly found at this level and in the over lying earth mixed with quartz and haematite. This layer in its turn is covered by sandy light brown earth.
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It has been inferred that the microlithic man lived on an uneven surface consisting of many humps and depressions. The excavations were so small that it was not possible to get any plan of the house of this period. But a large number of post-holes were observed. It is possible that the plan would be circular in outline. Of course, the evidence for post-holes is very negligible.
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Tools *(See Fig. 58)*
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Because of the non-occurrence of the trapeze³⁹ and the triangle Birbhanpr microlithic industry is regarded as non-geometric. It includes:
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³⁹ One surface specimen tentatively described as triangle and trapeze is really a lunate.
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(i) Irregular, free-flaked cores.
(ii) Fluted cores
(iii) Blades
(iv) Lunates
(v) Points
(vi) Borers
(vii) Scrapers (viii) Burins.
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The material is mostly milky quartz, though occasionally crystal, chert, chalcedony, quartzite and fossil wood are used.
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Dr. B. B. LAL's geochronological studies indicate that the climate when the microlithic people occupied the site must have been comparatively dry and mild, after the last wet phase during which the laterite weathered, and dense forest existed in the region. This mild climatic phase was followed by a period of increasing aridity, and violent wind activity so that the habitation layers were covered with wind-blown sand.⁴⁰
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⁴⁰ This and the great antiquity of the tool bearing layer has been proved by further geochronological studies, *A.I.* No. 17, 1961, p. 45.
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Singrauli Basin—Mirzapur
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The whole of the Kaimur range south of the Ganges is in a sense the extension of the highlands and forests of Bundelkhand and Baghelkhand. Here CARLLEYLE, COCKBURN, RIVETT-CARNC had discovered microliths and other stone implements in 1880s.⁴¹ These and other subsequent finds by GORDON⁴²
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⁴¹ BROWN, JOHN ALLEN, in *J.A.I.*, Vol. XVIII, 1889, pp. 135-36 and SMITH, VINCENT in *I.A.*, Vol. XXXV, 1906, pp. 185-95.
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⁴² GORDON, *Man*, 1938, p. 22.
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BIRBHANPUR 1957: TRENCH BBP-1, SECTION
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BIRBHANPUR 1957: TRENCH BBP-1, SECTION
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SCALE OF METRES
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SCALE OF FEET
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FIG. 4
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FIG. 57.
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and others have been from the surface and from cave floors. Without a proper excavation, not much use can be made of these reports. Hence a brief reference is made to a comparatively recent work⁴² in the Singrauli Basin in the district of Mirzapur. Here the microliths occur about four feet below the Upper Alluvium along the southern bank of Balia Nadi near Kota. It is predominantly of limpid quartz which is easily available in the vicinity. "It is non-geometric denoted by parallel-sided blades, lunates and points. Only a few tools are either finished or retouched." It may be a degenerate, late Upper Palaeolithic blade industry, ascribable to an early Mesolithic period, when a gradual dryness came over the area after the end of the Palaeolithic period.
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⁴² KRISHNASWAMI, V. D. and SOUNDARARAJAN, K. V., in A.I., No. 7, 1951, p. 50.
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Of particular interest is a paragraph in CARLLEYLE'S notes quoted by SMITH.⁴³
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⁴³ SMITH, op. cit., p. 187.
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"I also excavated several prehistoric tumuli or grave-mounds, in the valleys of the Vindhya range. In these mounds I found whole skeletons, but in such a friable condition that not a single entire bone could be got out. I also discovered rude earthenware vessels and fragments of pottery in the same mounds along with small stone implements and numerous flakes. Among the smaller stone implements found in the mounds there were several of exactly the same peculiar forms and types as those found in the caves, leading to the conclusion that the men buried in the mounds were of the same race as the men of the caves. In six different mounds which I excavated I did not find a single bit of metal of any kind."
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This shows how promising the whole region is for understanding the Mesolithic and other Stone Age cultures and what little work has been done in the last 80 years to solve these!