General Setting

General Setting

The map above in Figure 2 shows the extent and location of the Beas settlements recorded by the PAS. All nineteen of the settlements were included in the Beas project. Not all sites are mounds and not all mounds are identically preserved. Nevertheless all of the settlements recorded on the map retain visible surface features and artifacts, though many of the sites have been partially destroyed by the encroachment of cultivation, building and other destructive activities. The site of Kusamsar, for example, was the largest settlement recorded by the PAS when they visited the area between 1992 and 1996. However, when we arrived in 1997 it had been totally demolished in order to construct a military outpost. While we had planned to prepare a contour map and establish the mound’s history and profiles, conduct a systematic sampling and collect surface materials, we were limited to identifying artifact categories left behind in back fill. There were abundant artifacts that were identical to ceramics and small finds from Periods 2 and 3 in the Harappa sequence. Another example is the Lodhran area, where tube wells had been introduced and lands granted to farmers for cultivation. At several of the sites, there were residues of past craft activities and traces of walls and other features. There also were examples of Indus wells that had survived tractor activities at several of these sites. The wells were constructed with the wedge-shaped baked bricks known from Harappa and other Indus settlements. In spite of the poor conditions of these sites, when surfaces were scraped, we were able to identify the outlines of buildings. The sites were mapped, collection units established and random samples of artifacts collected. This strategy was not always feasible. Below, we provide an example of how we modified our research methods, using Chak 90-12L, a site that had been subject to significant destruction in this paper, as an example. We also discuss the radiocarbon dates listed in Table 2, some of which are from poorly preserved settlements. Their relevance in that context is described in a section, Radiocarbon Determinations and the Beas Drainage, that outlines the significance of these dated sediments to the drainage of the Beas.

Our focus in the following discussion is on the three sites, Vainiwal, Chak 90-12L, and Lohoma Lal Tibba, located at the lower, middle and upper segment of the Beas course.