An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s6.t2.13

v1.c9.s6.t2.13

In W. Bengal the number of sites is about two dozens but the material is scanty and the finds are mostly from the surface. In Dt Darjeeling the Kalimpong area has yielded a number of stone celts (Walsch, 1904). A solitary polished stone axe at BANGARH in Dt W. Dinajpur has been attributed to pre-Śuṅga levels (Goswami, 1948). A few stone celts have been collected from POTANDA and BHIMGARH in Dt Birbhum. There is also mention of the find of a single stone axe from Raniganj in Dt Birbhum. In Dt Burdwan NADIHA has yielded a few stone axes, while from another site, PANDU RAJAR DHIBI, have been unearthed quite a number of stone celts. BAN ASURIA, KACHINDA, KANKRADARA and BARKOLA, all in Dt Bankura, are also tool-yielding sites. In Dt Purulia tools have been collected from the surface at three sites—MATHA forest, SARGO and CHIADAH. A concentration of Neolithic sites is found in the n.-w. part of Dt Midnapur, the important of them being ORGONDA, KUKRAKHOPI, BAGRIDHI, CHIRUGADA, DHUILAPUR, ENTHELA (Ghosh, 1961, 1962), LALGARH (Sen, 1948) and GARBETA. In the same Dt Neolithic celts have been unearthed in excavation at TAMLUK in the deltaic region. Two more sites are also known in the deltaic part of West Bengal: HARINARAYANPUR in Dt 24-Parganas, has been considered as an important tool-bearing site, though the materials are surface finds; a tool also comes from an unknown site in Dt Howrah. To complete the picture, mention may be made of an example from Bangladesh: ‘a piece of fossil wood, pointed, elongated, one side flat, truncated butt, beautifully polished’ was found at Sitakund in Dt Chittagong (Coggin Brown, 1917). It has been reported that from the Chittagong area four more specimens of the same type, two of them on fossil wood, one on limestone and the last on chert, are preserved in the British Museum (Dani, 1960).