Excavations at Lal Qila

This volume records valuable results obtained from the excavations at Lal Qila conducted from 1968 to 1972 by the Department of History, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, under the direction of Prof. R.C. Gaur. Lal Qila is a site which revealed for the first time the habitational remains of the OCP people. Following the Lal Qila excavation, two more habitational sites viz. Jodhpura (27°31' N Lat., 76°5' E long), in tehsll Kotputli on Jaipur-Delhi Highway excavated by Vijay Kumar and R.C. Agrawal, and Daulatpur (24°14' N Lat., 78°11' E. Long), in district Bulandshahar, excavated by the author have been found.

After the Atranjikhera excavations (1983) by the author, Lal Qila revealed for the first time, remains of at least eight floor levels with post-holes giving clue of rectangular and circular huts, many fire pits with charred bones, rich animal & plant remains, terracotta figurines and very rich pottery complex with painting, incised designs and graffiti marks. Other objects include two terracotta unique female figurines. The Thermoluminescent dating of the pottery sherds of the site done by - the Archaeological Research Laboratory, OXFORD, has placed the O.C.P. Culture at Lal Qila in the time-bracket of 2030 B.C. and 1730 B.C. having a mean date of 1880 B.C.

Hardly three km. away towards west in a mango grove, on the upper stream of Kali-Nadi, a unique Copper-Hoard was also found at Kiratpur. It yielded smallest anthropomorphic copper figurine and a piece of Celt having an engraved star-mark.

R.C. Gaur (b. 1929) is Professor of Archaeology and Ancient Indian History at the Aligarh Muslim University. As a field archaeologist he has excavated during the past thirty years many sites besides Atranjikehra and Lal Qila (Distt. Bulandshahar)-the two well known protohistoric sites. He has contributed immensely in the field of archaeology and has published a large number of papers in various National and International journals. It was at his initiative that the Post-graduate studies and Research-work were started at the Aligarh Muslim University. As a member of several academic bodies including the Indian Archaeological Society, Indian Society for Prehistoric and Quaternary studies, Numismatic Society of India and many other Learned Societies. He has travelled extensively, visiting archaeological sites and delivering lectures in Great Britain, Europe, Egypt, Middle Eastern Countries, the former Soviet Union and the USA. On behalf of the Government of India he visited Cyprus to explore the possibility of co-operation in the field of archaeology between the two countries. He is a Life Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland and International union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric sciences (C.I.P.S.H., U.N.E.S.C.0.),

Professor Gaur learned the latest techniques of Archaeology at the famous Institute of Archaeology at London, where he was a Visiting Fellow in the year 1971-72. While in London he there came in close contact with Sir Mortimer Wheeler. He organised the Seminar on Archaeology (P.G.W.) which has the distinction of being the first Seminar of the Centre of Advanced Study in History, A.M.U, Aligarh of which Prof. Gaur was the convener. Subsequently he edited and published its proceedings. He was elected General President of Indian Archaeological Society in the year 1988 of which the Annual Session was held at Shantiniketan (West Bengal) same year in December. At present he is a Senior Fellow of the ICHR and has been assigned the work of writing the Report on Fatehpur Sikri Excavations. His earlier Report on the Excavations at Atranjikhera has been well received by the Archaeologists of this country and abroad.

Since Prof. Lal published his well known paper 'A Deluge which Deluge ? yet another facet of the problem of the copper-hoard culture (American anthropologist Vol. 70 No. 5 October, 1968) the theory propounded in it was taken its final verdict on the problem. His theory later on was corroborated by Prof. Fakhruddin Ahmad, his then Head of his Department of Geology, A.M.U., Aligarh 'on the basis of his study on sediments of Atranjikhera. However, I was not convinced with Prof. Lal's theory. What sort of this deluge was which had destroyed every trace of the settlement of the OCP? Therefore, on my request Prof. Lal was kind enough to organise a team of exploration to examine most of the OCP sites, which included persons like Mrs. B.B. Lal, Prof. Fakhruddin Ahmed, Prof. V.K. Srivastava and Dr. S.M. Casshyap, all of the Department of Geology, A.M.U., Aligarh, Prof. R.S. Mittal of Roorkee Engineering University, late Sital Prasad Jain of the Archeological Survey of India, New Delhi, and myself the youngest member of the Learn. The team had all the support and encouragement of Prof. S. Mural Hams the then Head of the Department of History, and at present the Governor of West Bengal. He arranged all financial help for the team. The team explored a large number of the OCP sites in Districts Aligarh, Bulandshahar, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur. Everywhere, we met the same result what Lai had postulated earlier, I want to thank here Prof. V.K. Gaur who was then a Professor at Roorkee and at present the Secretary, Deptt. of Ocean Development, Govt. of India, New Delhi, for readily arranging for our stay at Roorkee University Guest House.

It was after this venture that I started marching for new sites which may give some clue of the OCP habitation. Lai Qila excavations are dm result of the same. While the existence of the OCP and the PGW has been known to us earlier, the B & RW period between the OCP and the PGW periods here come to light for the first time at Atranjikhera. At this site several new features about the O.C.P. such as the painting, indeed designs and dip became known to us. However Lal Qila is so far the only OCP site which has yielded a rich ceramic complex and several other cultural equipments.

I have no words to express my gratitude to Professor Hasan for giving me all possible facilities and encouragement to conduct the Excavations at Lal Qila. I am also beholden to Prof. B.B. Lal who visited the site many a time during the, course of the Excavations to see the progress and the results of the excavations. Every time he gave me some important 'tips' for the excavations. I also express my thanks to Shri B.M. Pande, Director, School of Archaeology, ASI, for providing me some valuable informations regarding the protohistoric cultures.

The pattern of this report is more or less like that of Excavation-report of Atranjikhera. The appendices include technical reports contributed by expert scientists including Mr. O.P. Agarwal and his colleagues at National Research Laboratory for the Conservation of Cultural Property, Lucknow, Dr. (Mrs.) D.R. Shah of M.S. University Baroda and Dr. Salahuddin, then of the Deccan College, Pune, now in the Deptt. of History, A.M.U., Aligarh, Dr. Pranab Kumar Chattopadhyay of Training Department, Alloy Steel Plant, Durgapur, Dr. Sen of Zoological Survey of India, Calcutta, Dr. D.P. Agarwal and V.K. Nautiyal of Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad and Mr. R.C. Dey of Geological Survey of India, Lucknow, Dr. Rajni Kant Gaur, Director, Geological Survey of India, Lucknow for sending a copy of Dr. Dey's article. I am grateful to all of them, for without their contribution and help the present report could have remained bereft of its present scientific nature.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my all well wishers, friends and colleagues who have helped me different ways in the field operation as well as in the preparation of this report. I want to express my gratitude to Prof. Irfan Habib, Co-ordinator, Centre of Advanced Study in History, A.M.U. Aligarh, and at present the Chairman of the ICHR, New Delhi for providing all necessary help in writing the report. I am also thankful to Prof. S.P. Gupta and Dr. B.L. Bhadani of the Department of History, AMU, for their help in getting this report published.

In the preparation of this report. I have received co-operation from my colleagues particularly Dr. Makkhan Lal, the Deputy Director of the Archaeological-Section for helping me in various ways. I also wish to thank Mr. Nasir Hussain Zaidi, Mr. M.A. Alvi, Mr. Syed Husam Haider, Mr. Mohd Abid and Mr. Mohd Taskeen Ahmad for helping me in the field operations and other allied works.

All the drawing plates were prepared single-handed by Mr. Anis Alvi and maps by Mr. Zahoor Ali Khan, the cartographer of the Centre of Advanced Study in History. Mr. Husam Haider also helped me in sorting out the antiquities for the report. Mr. Mujtaba Hussain prepared most of the photoplates, while a few were made by Mr. Saeedul Hasan. Mr. Mohd. Abid has prepared contour map and the drawings of all the sections. My sincere thanks to all of them.

My thanks are also due to Mr. Md. Mokhtar Alam, one of my research scholar, for supervising the typing work. I am grateful to Mr. Intekhabur Rehman, a research scholar in the Depot. of Psychology, for helping me in preparing the Bibliography. I also wt to thank Mr. O.P. Srivastava, my another research scholar, for his help. I am also thankful to Km. Poopam Bala for the patient and careful proof reading.

I will be too formal to thank the members of my own family including my M. Kamla Gaur, my brothers H.C. Gaur & P.C. Gaur, and their spouses - Uma an Neelam, Amitabh, Siddharatha and Sujata my sons and daughter, Mrs. Smita and Vibha my daughters-in-law for showing their keen interest in the early publication of this report.

I would like to thank the typist of Me office of the History Department, AMU, for typing the script neatly and carefully. I am grateful to the authorities of Mrs. Publication Scheme Jaipur, including the computer programmer and printer particularly S.S. Natani, its Managing Director and his son Sapan Khandelwal for printing and publishing this volume in an attractive form.