Archeology find puts Iron Age back by 400 years

Archaeological excavations at the Raja Nal Ka Tila, or King Nal's Mound, has revealed presence of iron as far back as 3200 BC, conclusively indicating that the Iron Age began at least 400 years before hitherto believed.

Sources at the Uttar Pradesh Archaeological Department, which has been carrying out extensive exploration of the area from the 1980s, said the conclusion on the beginning of the Iron Age was reached after studying stratigraphical, circumstantial and comparative evidence.

A sample has also been carbon dated to 3200 BC by the Birbal Sahni Institute of Paleobotany in the Uttar Pradesh state capital of Lucknow. This date is the earliest in the mid-Ganga valley and one of the earliest in the Indian subcontinent, the sources said.

Raj Nal Ka Tila, situated in a picturesque rocky tract of the Vijaygarh-Naugarh region of Uttar Pradesh, had been recently made familiar to television viewers through the serial Chandrakanta. The region is not only famous for the valour of the Rajput princes, with ballads about battles and love tales, but also for its treatment of cultural heritage.

According to folklore, Naal Ka Tila was the capital of Raja Nal, the king who had to leave is kingdom following a curse but was reunited with his beloved consort Damayanti after undergoing all sorts of travails in the forests.

A similar fate befell his subjects at a later date. They were forced to migrate to Varansi due to the repeated havoc created by the floods in the Karmanas river. Nal Ka Tila is said to be even more ancient than Varanasi.

The Shiva Linga, which is still being worshipped at the Naleshwar-Mahadeva temple, was installed by King Nal himself, according to legends.

Archaeolgists, on the basis of the finds consisting of stone artifacts and ceramics, unearthed around the temple and the gullies worn out by rain up to Talla village, surmised the presence of reolothic chalcolithic remains at the site.

A paper about its significance was submitted at the 3rd World Archaeological Congress in Delhi in 1994. Subsequently more excavations were carried out in the area from March to May last year.

Sources said during the diggings, the uppermost layers revealed polished pottery (NBP ware) besides bone arrow heads and stone anvils.

Iron was found at the second level, about 1.50 metres below the first shards of painted black and red ware, gray ware and a few cord impressed ware were also located. The pottery included button base goblet, conical base pots, dishes and storage jars. Post holes of nuts, wattle and daubs and remains of hearths have also been found.

Deposits found at the lowest level is marked by the absence of iron, a different type of black and red ware, a umber of bowls and water vases. The remains of a hut has also been found along with bones and botanical remains.

Sources said thus, Raja Nal Ka Tila has yield deposits of three cultural phases. The earliest is devoid of any metal and on comparative basis it could be placed in the Neolithic-Chalcolithic phase, tentatively dated between 3500 BC and 3200 BC.

The comparable deposits of north Vindhyas and mid-Ganga valley to that of the second cultural phase at Nal Ka Tila have generally been placed in the Chalcolithic phase dated between 3500-3200 BC and 2800 BC.

The team that carried out the excavation comprised Rakesh Tewari, Rakesh Kumar Srivastava and Dr K K Singh of the archaeology department. Palaeobotanical remains were collected and studied by Dr K S Saraswat and his student Anil Kumar Pokharia.

Carbon dating was done by Dr G Rajagoplan, director, Institute of Birbal Sahni Palaeobotany, Lucknow.

UNI