The Personality of India: Pre- and Proto-historic Foundation of India and Pakistan c13.s3.t1.20

c13.s3.t1.20

At present there is no means of getting any absolute chronology for this site since there is no stratigraphic superposition. But the evidence from other excavations has thrown some light on the possible limits. The excavations of Ranganathrao at Rangpur² have revealed the existence of a crude microlithic industry in a gravel lens below the natural soil on which the Proto-historic Harappan people settled. How earlier does it begin, cannot be stated now. The second limit is provided by the excavations at Baroda³ and Timbarva.⁴ At Baroda there was a clean barren layer between the Microlithic and the Early Historic phases. At Timbarva, this Early Historic phase of Baroda stratigraphically overlies, without a break, a still earlier period characterized by the presence of N.B.P. Since we have microlithic sites all round this place, the Microlithic phase could not be later than 400 B.C., a date assigned to the beginning of the early historic phase at Timbarva. This will be the lower limit, while the upper limit is provided by Rangpur.