An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c19.s3.2

v1.c19.s3.2

Since 1948 considerable work on the problems of the ash mounds on systematic lines has been carried out notably by Allchin, 1963, Mujumdar-Rajaguru, 1966, Sundara, 1971, Rami Reddy, 1972, and Paddayya, 1973. Till now 64 localities (48 in Karnataka, 13 in Dt Anantapur, and three in Dt Mahbubnagar, both in Andhra Pradesh), are known to have remains of ash mounds, a few of them having two mounds each, for example KUDACHI, Dt Belgaum, BUDIHAL, Dt Gulbarga etc. The excavations by the first two and the last two, respectively at UTNUR, KUPGAL, PALAVOY, and KODEKAL reveal that they consist of two thick layers of scoriaceous ash and alternately one or two layers of 'white-flecked make-up with hard burnt surface' or dark-brown soil or variegated banded ashy layer as floor containing stray Neolithic [11.1.5] and Megalithic [11.15.3] pottery, together overlying sometimes on a prepared ashy floor or Neolithic [4.6.9] habitational debris. In the upper Krishna region there appears to be only one layer of scoriaceous slaggy ash overlying the Chalcolithic [4.14.8] habitational debris.