An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s18.t3.11

v1.c9.s18.t3.11

The earliest ware in the historical period which is associated with iron in the post-Chalcolithic period is the PGW, which has so far been reported from UJJAIN and BESNAGAR. At the former site it was encountered in the deposits which formed the rampart around this famous city, whereas at BESNAGAR it was recovered in the upper levels of Pd I designated as Chalcolithic [4.14.5]. While no details are available for BESNAGAR, UJJAIN of the PGW period seems to have been a well-fortified city on the bank of the river Sipra. [The presence of a few PGW sherds in the core of the mud rampart need not necessarily show its PGW date and may only indicate the existence of a PGW settlement near by from where clay was collected for heaping up the rampart.] The rampart of yellow and black clay, with several openings to serve as entrances, and with a moat about 25 m wide and 6 m deep, was parallelogrammatic in shape with a maximum extant height of about 13 m and basal width of about 60 m. It was reinforced on the side of the river by a framework of neatly cut wooden logs about 25·4 cm square and 5·1 m in length. The limited occurrence of the PGW in Madhya Pradesh does not allow a picture of the life of the people, but Ujjain has given evidence of cow-sacrifice, production of terracotta human and animal figurines, remains of stone and burnt-brick structures, iron artefacts and bone styli [20.5]. No details of the material culture associated with the PGW are available from BESNAGAR. The PGW at UJJAIN has been dated to 750 to 500 B.C