An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s6.t2.5

v1.c9.s6.t2.5

In the other and somewhat subsequent stage as seen on the Malwa plateau amidst KAYATHA culture habitation, it is classified by its excavators led by Wakankar into Betwa valley culture and Narmada valley culture. Two more component areas of the Kayatha culture, respectively called the Avanti valley culture in c. Malwa and Daśapura-Aparārka culture, did not yield any Neolithic remains. The sites in the Betwa valley are ERAN, BASODA, BESNAGAR, AMAKHEDA, PIPALIA, LORKA, NAYAKHEDA and NANDURA, while those of the Narmada valley are MAHESWAR, NAVDATOLI, PIPALDA, BADADA, CHIKALDA and KHEDI. [Many of these sites have been classified as Chalcolithic (4.14.5), from the occurrence of copper/bronze in their earliest levels.] The Neolithic elements in the former are a sturdy grey ware sometimes painted, Neolithic tools and microliths. Their specific relationship with the Malwa ware [11.10]) is not yet satisfactorily established but they are broadly classifiable as pertaining to Pd II (*c.* 1965-1675 B.C.), while the Narmada culture sites have yielded the remains of round and rectangular houses, Neolithic celts and microliths. The Neolithic tools of the region comprise pestles, querns, etc., including one example of a typical shoe-last celt among the tools, trap being the raw material. It may be recalled that the shoe-last type of celts occur in the s. Neolithic culture [4.6.10] also in good numbers. But as the excavator legitimately claims: ‘there is no doubt that the Malwa plateau surrounded by hilly tracts was populated by Mesolithic and Neolithic communities in the Chalcolithic period. Neolithic remains have been found at Kabra Pahar, Chitrakut, Vidisha [Besnagar], Bhopal and Navdatoli. A bone scraper of the Indian Neolithic tradition was found at Kayatha.