An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v2.c44.264

v2.c44.264

**Rangpur** (22°26′; 71°55′), Dt Surendranagar, an extensive site on the Bhadar, where trial diggings were undertaken in 1935 by M.S. Vats (*ASI—AR 1934-5*). He declared that it was a site of the late period of Harappa culture [4.9] on the basis of certain pottery types and painted designs thereon and that ‘the mere fact that the Indus culture is by this discovery pushed so far s.-e. as Kathiawar is a matter of great importance’. Later on Ghurye, 1939, endorsed this view. However Dikshit after his excavation in 1947 felt that the remains were of a formative stage of a post-Harappa culture without any affinity with the Harappa (Dikshit, 1950). A large-scale excavation was undertaken by S.R. Rao of the ASI during 1953 to 1956 (Rao, 1962 and 1963) as a result of which he has classified the occupational deposit in four Pds with three Sub-pds in the Harappa culture, Pd II, with an earlier, Pd I, Microlithic [4.5], and even a Middle Palaeolithic [4.3] stage, the last encountered in the river section, with points, scrapers and blades of jasper. The sequential datings as given by him are as follows: Pd I: Microlithic unassociated with pottery, 3000 B.C.; Pd II A: Harappa 2000-1500 B.C.; Pd II B: late Harappa, 1500-1100 B.C.; Pd II C: transition phase of the Harappa, 1100-1000 B.C.; and Pd III: Lustrous Red Ware [11.9], 1000-800 B.C.