At a glance
- Name: Kalibangan means 'black bangles', after the black bangle pieces found in the mound.
- First to report: Amalananda Ghosh recognised it as Harappan in the early 1950s (1952 in the RBSE book); B.B. Lal and B.K. Thapar dug it later. L.P. Tessitori had noted the mound earlier (1917-19).
- District: Hanumangarh today; the ASI's reports of the 1960s name Ganganagar district.
Facts
| Place | Pilibangan tehsil, Hanumangarh district; left bank of the Ghaggar, the ancient Saraswati |
|---|---|
| Excavated | By the ASI in nine seasons from 1960-61 to 1969-70: B.B. Lal began in 1960-61 and B.K. Thapar continued in 1961-62. The RBSE book gives 1961-62 for the start. The report on the pre-Harappan period came out in 2003 (ASI Memoir 98), and the first part on the Harappan period in 2015 (Memoir 110) |
| Two periods | Period I pre-Harappan, Period II Harappan |
What was found
- Ploughed field of the pre-Harappan period, read as two crops grown together in one field.
- Toy carts and a mud-brick wall around the pre-Harappan settlement.
- Fire altars: a row in the citadel and fire-places in houses of the lower town.
- Seals: Harappan seals and a cylinder seal.
- Houses of mud-brick; burnt brick mainly in drains and wells; one house drain was of wood.
- A cemetery with three kinds of burial; a child's skull with six holes.
- Pottery: red, painted with black lines, sometimes with white.
Remember: often mixed up
- Field or altarsthe ploughed field is pre-Harappan · the fire altars are Harappan.
- Kalibangan or Rang MahalRang Mahal (Sri Ganganagar) is a later site, dug by a Swedish team in 1952-54.
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