An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s14.t1.45

v1.c9.s14.t1.45

The smallest known settlement is the ash mound site at KANDHRA in the Tapti valley, measuring about one-third of a hectare whereas the largest is that of the Jorwe phase of DAIMABAD covering 30 hectares. DAIMABAD is the only known site which has provided some information about the pre-Malwa Chalcolithic cultures of the upper Deccan, in that the earliest Chalcolithic inhabitants of the SAVALDA culture here formed a well-settled agricultural community. They lived in trilateral mud-wall houses of a single, two and three rooms. The smallest single-room house or hut is 3·40 m in length and 1·60 m in width and the largest 7 m long and 5 m broad, the latter having three hearths inside and four in the courtyard, the flooring of the courtyard being also finely plastered. The floorings of all the houses are made of alternate layers of yellow silt and black clay and are finely plastered, occasionally decorated with freshwater shells. The people cultivated barley, lentil, common pea, grass pea, black gram, green gram, horsegram and hyacinth bean. Their other material equipment included copper/bronze rings, beads of carnelian and agate, microliths, tanged arrowheads of bone and stone mullers and querns [6.19].