An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v2.c31.50

v2.c31.50

The structural remains of this phase were of mud brick and mud walls. Mud bricks were used for walls and a grave. A mud brick wall was fragmentarily represented, the size of one of the bricks being 30 cm in length and 8 cm in thickness; two fragmentary bricks were found bonded together by mortar of black clay in between. These and other brick fragments found in a mass appeared to represent the debris of a collapsed mud-brick wall. A mud-brick-lined grave with an extended human skeleton was found within the occupational deposit. The bottom of the pit, ovaloid in shape, was made in two successive stages. In the first stage mud brickbats, occasional pebbles and clayey earth ware rammed, over which a layer of clayey earth mixed with lime gravel and burnt clay lumps was spread and rammed, whereafter it was plastered. Along the sides of the pit were then aligned full-sized mud bricks one edge as also mud brickbats leaving sufficient space for the corpse to rest on the plastered bottom in an extended position with the head towards n. but tilted to the left. The body was covered with a fibrous material like hemp, the fibres of which were found sticking to the skeleton. The grave was then covered with earth mixed with a number of brickbats into a tumulus and a stone placed at the point where the head was resting. The sizes of the full mud bricks used in the grave were: 32 × 16 × 8 cm and 28 × 14 × 7 cm, both the sizes being in the ratio of 4 : 2 : 1. The mud bricks were found preserved only along the head: the rest of the grave pit was disturbed by later pits.