Kunal, Haryana

Kunal is a pre-Harappan settlement located in Fatehabad district, Haryana, India. This Indus Valley Civilisation site was a village, in comparison to towns like Kalibangan and cities like Rakhigarhi of IVC.[1] This site is located on Sarasvati plain.[2]

Kunal
Archaeological site
Kunal
Kunal
Coordinates: 29°37.3′N 75°39.5′E
CountryIndia
ProvinceHaryana
Time zoneUTC+5.30 (Indian Standard Time)

Historical significance

This small settlement (1 hectare) yielded Hakra ware at entry level. Houses were built on an artificially elevated place.[3]

Earliest pre-Harappan

This site is recognised as earliest Pre-Harappan site,[2] with three successive phases of Pre-Harappan indigenous culture on the Saraswati river who also traded with Kalibanga and Lothal. The discovery of wikt:Regalis (royal items) excavated from this mound are the oldest of its kind in the Indian subcontinent, Central Asia and Iran.[4] Discoveries include woman's complete dress, tribal head attire, copper spearheads, steatite seals with geometrical patterns (indicating seal making in IVC first begun here), terracotta antiques, arrowheads, fish hooks, two crowns, bangles, silver beads, gold pendants and over 12,000 beads of semi precious stones including lapis lazuli.[4]

The first phase dating back to 5,000 years ago is the oldest habitation, which has large dwelling pits of 1.10 m depth and 2 m diameter, whose omnivorous inhabitants also used Chalcedony blades, fish hooks, pottery wheels, domesticated plants and animals.[4]

The second phase dwellings are made of moulded bricks.[4]

The third and final phase belongs to agriculturists who also reared domesticated animals and lived in houses containing living rooms, kitchens, toilets square and rectangular rooms built with bricks of standardised length-breadth-height ratio.[4]

Button seal

Discovery of a button seal during 1998-99 excavations by Archaeological Survey of India exhibit this culture's ancestry to the Rehman Dheri examples.[5] This seal contained a picture of two deer on one side and a geometrical pattern on other side, which is comparable to a specimen from Rehman-Dheri (Baluchistan), datable to c. 4000 BCE.[5]

Findings

Designs on pottery included pipal leaves (ficus religiosa) and humped bull[3] which were important motifs found on Mature Harappan seals. Bone tools, micro blades made of chalcedony,copper fish hooks and arrow heads were also found here.[3] Six steatite seals and one shell seal with geometric patterns were found.[3] These six seals were of square shape, made of grey stone and resembled typical Mature Harappan seals.[2] Also found at this site are copper rods, rings, bangle pieces, terracotta objects like bangles, balls, animal figurines,net-sinker, toy cart frames,disk and toys, stone balls, shell bangles etc.[5]

Hoards

Large Hoards of jewellery were found at this location, including two silver pieces called tiaras, gold ornaments, beads of semi precious stones etc.[3] Number of hoards found at this site included silver bangle, copper tools etc.[2]

Copper smelting

Excavations on south-west side of mound revealed copper furnaces with smelting material and copper ingots and slags were also found at this site.[5]

Rice

Rice (probably wild) is found from Kunal as well as from Balu, both in Haryana.[2]

See also
  • Indus Valley Civilization
  • List of Indus Valley Civilization sites
  • List of inventions and discoveries of the Indus Valley Civilization
  • Hydraulic engineering of the Indus Valley Civilization
  • History of Haryana
  • Banawali
  • Jognakhera
  • Balu, Haryana

References
  1. "In Haryana's Kunal village, a glimpse of life before Harappa".
  2. McIntosh, Jane R. (2008). The Ancient Indus Valley : New Perspectives. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO. pp. 68, 80, 82, 105, 113. ISBN 9781576079072.
  3. Singh, Upinder (2008). A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India : from the Stone Age to the 12th century. New Delhi: Pearson Education. pp. 109, 145–6. ISBN 9788131711200.
  4. Haryana Gazateer, Revennue Dept of Haryana, Capter-V.
  5. Archaeological Survey of, India (2004). "Excavations at Kunal,Haryana" (PDF). Indian Archaeology 1998-99 A Review: 11–12. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 May 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
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