Early Historic Settlements at Shetrunji River in India

The book is the detailed study of the settlement archaeology of the lower Shetrunji river basin and coastal part of Bhavnagar district of Saurashtra in Gujarat during the Early Historic period. The Early Historic period of Gujarat in general and Saurashtra in particular was marked by a growth of large and small size towns such as Amreli, Akota and Valabhipur. The main theme of the present volume is the Early Historic settlements which were located in the lower part of the Shetrunji river basin, i.e. in and around Padri and Hathab. The archaeological importance of Bhavnagar district was established by the some importance discoveries in the field of prehistoric, protohistoric and early historic archaeology. The Shetrunji river basin and coastal part of Bhavnagar district in Saurashtra played an important role during the early historic period (2nd century B.C. 2nd century A.D.) as is evident from the excavations at Padri, Talaja Taluka, Bhavnagar District, Saurashtra. The site of Padri is located in the lower Shetrunji river basin and systematically excavated by Prof. Vasant Shinde. The site has yielded three-fold cultural sequence, Early Harappan (3000 B.C. 2600 B.C.), Mature Harappan (2500 B.C.-1900 B.C.) and early Historic period (2nd century B.C. 2nd century A.D.). However, no systematic survey was undertaken in this area. An extensive survey was carried out by the present author along the coast and in the both sides of the lower part of Shetrunj river basin, Bhavnagar district in Gujarat on foot during the seasons of 1996-98. A total numbers of twenty-two early historic as well as Harappan settlements were discovered in the course of explorations in this region. The book contains a detailed study of the development of settlement pattern in global perspectives. A detailed analysis of the pottery and other objects of the systematic excavated site of Padri are available in the book. Besides, the book contains the material cultures of the newly discovered sites. The site has yielded quite a number of terracotta objects such as discs, human and animal figurines, wheels, ear-studs, boat-shaped motifs, toy pots and circular tablet with Brahmi inscription. This suggests that the peoples in this region knew several games and amused themselves in various ways. The tortoise-shaped Roman copper lamp that has been found at the site shows contact with the Western World in this region during the Early Historic Period. On the basis of occurrence of fishing hooks and others agricultural implements at the site it is assumed that fishing and agricultural activities must have played an important role in their subsistence pattern. The important contribution of this work is that the data from the excavation at Padri was used for dating precisely the Early Historic sites in this region. Besides, an attempt has been made for the first time to study the pattern of early historic settlements, function of each settlement and interaction between the various settlements.