An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v2.c29.86

v2.c29.86

Bahadrabad (29°55'; 78°02'), Dt Saharanpur, 12 km w. of the Ganga canal headworks at Hardwar. While a diversion channel was being excavated here for siting a hydro-electric power-house, the discovery of some sherds of red ware and later of a hoard of copper objects was reported by the excavating contractor from deep down the earth. The hoard contained several rings, flat celts, a shouldered celt and a hooked spearhead. It was clear that this was one of the so-called Copper Hoards of the Ganga Valley [4.11] of uncertain authorship and cultural moorings. Despite loss of valuable direct evidence, several trenches at right angles to the channel on both the sides were laid in 1952 by the writer on behalf of the ASI. After cutting through a thickness of 5·7 m of alternating sterile layers of sand and pebbles was found an occupational layer, hardly 60 cm thick yielding a good amount of red ware but no copper object. Immediately above the natural soil on the s. flank of the channel lay some quartzite flake tools and waste flakes. Obviously these tools had no connection with the pottery and lay there before the arrival of the pottery-using people. According to Krishnaswami, 1953, this industry ‘belongs to a flake-tool complex assignable to two broad facies: (i) cleaver-chopper made on a mammoth lunate reminiscent of a microlithic lunate; and (ii) a jagged wavy-edged scraper formed by a different technique as revealed in the Early to Late Sohan [4.2] industry.’