An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v2.c47.67

v2.c47.67

The structure of this Pd were built variously of mud, mud brick, stone rubble in clay and burnt brick. A distinctive mud platform, apsidal in shape but of indeterminate use, was reinforced at the edge by three rows of slabs of trap. Mention may also be made of a massive tank measuring 10·36 m × 7·92 m built of burnt brick measuring 76× 76× 18 cm, presumably for storage of water, and a long channel of trapezoidal cross-section, traced to a length of 25·9 m with a right-angled bend, possibly for use in conjunction with an industrial workshop which needed a steady supply of water such as the iron industry. Ring-wells [14.15] of terracotta were adjuncts of the habitation and served as soakage wells in this and the subsequent Pd. While a large number of iron objects comprising arrowheads, spearheads, axes, spades, points, chisels, knives, horse-bits, sickles, door-rings, hooks, blades, clamps, sockets, choppers, latches, pivots, bars, tires, borers, rods, door chains and pans with handle indicate the popularity of the metal, the find of lumps of limonite as iron ore, quantities of slag [16.9.4], deposists of calcite and aragonite for use as a flux in the smelting of iron, the remains of an open-type heaped-up furnace for smelting the metal and a blacksmith's forge for the manufacture of finished goods, such as chisels, knives, axes, etc., is significant. A tile-roofed mud house served as a workshop for the manufacture of stone beads and bone arrowheads, found all over in very large numbers, from large chunks of animal bones. One of the arrowheads found in the neighbourhood was found stained with the blood of a bird, indicating the use.