A mummified body, wearing copper bracelets, some pottery and other artefacts dating back to the Indus Valley civilisation 3,000 years ago, have been found at a village in Baghpat district where the Archaeological Survey of India is conducting an excavation. The body, caked in mud and dirt collected over the centuries, was found at Sinoli village in Baghpat district and “could belong to the Sindhu period (or the Indus Valley era) about 3,000 years ago”, archaeologist Dharamveer Sharma said on Thursday.
It was wearing copper bracelets, and was most likely reduced to a skeleton, but that could only be determined after careful examination. Sharma, who is supervising the ASI dig, said the excavation was at the initial stages and they had so far come upon intricate pots and other items of pottery dating to the period.
He said the “shape and inscriptions” on the artefacts indicated that they could belong to the Sindhu period, though tests (like radio-carbon dating) had yet to be conducted. The find was expected to be of immense historical and academic significance, he added. The first items of pottery were found by one Dharampal while he was tilling his field in Sanoli village about a year ago after which the ASI decided to excavate the area.[ASI digs out 3000-yr-old mummified body]

During an excavation long time back in the Indus Valley, archaeologists discovered the skeletal remains of thirty eight individuals in a situation suggesting violence. Some were found in a well, and some had long cuts as if made from a sword. Others were discovered in the midst of collapsed wall and broken pottery. At that time the Aryan Invasion Theory was the craze and these massacres were attributed to Aryan nomads. Sir Motimer Wheeler also quoted hymns from Rig Veda that talk about the destruction of pura and the Aryans hatred towards the Dasyus who were identified with the Harappans.
Apparently the Aryan Invasion supporters were unable to match the date for invasion with the archaeologically established chronology. Subash Kak et. al [2] suggests that Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro were in decline or abandoned many centuries before the alleged invasion. (1500 B.C. to 1200 B.C.)
Anyway, couple of points about this story. (1) the age of 3000 years ago seems to be assigned without any carbon dating (2) Baghpat is near Delhi whereas the prominent Indus Valley sites were more in present day Pakistan, Rajasthan and Gujrat.
Update: Mummy found in UP, archaeologists startled: In this news, the mummy has been identified as that of a youth. The date has been moved back to 3500 B.C. Just like that, without any carbon dating, the date has been pushed back 2500 years by Uttar Pradesh Tourism Minister Kawkab Hameed.
Related Links: Harappans = Vedic People ?, Mehrgarh

The only time Kalinga gets mentioned in ancient history is during the episode where emperor Asoka had a change of heart following the bloody war. The standard line in history books is that Asoka became a Buddhist after the war and then embarked on a mission to globalize Buddhism.
In fact Asoka was associated with Buddhism much before the Kalinga war, according to Dipavamsa. In an early edict Asoka wrote, “I have been a lay Buddhist for more than two and half years, but for a year I did not exert myself well”. Also it is not clear why Asoka had a change of heart after the Kalinga war for he was involved with many wars. It is possible that there was no more territory to conquer and he used the opportunity to craft a pacifist policy which made it easier to manage people [8].
Another fact that does not get mentioned in history books is the association of Buddha with Kalinga. Huen Tsang, during his travels in in 6th century AD saw ten stupas which mentioned Buddha’s travel to Kalinga and now those stupas have been discovered in an archaeological excavation.

The discovery includes 10 Ashoka stupas, a fort which housed the royal headquarters of the Kalinga State and remains of the Ashoka period dating back to the third Century B.C, say Dr. Rout and authorities of the institute.
Excavations have already been carried out at four of the stupas located at Tarapur, Deuli and Kayama in Jajpur, according to Debaraj Pradhan, director of the excavation project and secretary of the institute. Work will be taken up at the other stupas soon. The first discovery of an Ashoka stupa was made at nearby Langudi Hill.
`In the course of the excavation that started in December 2004, we unearthed square stupas made of latrine blocks, burnt bricks, railing pillars and cross-bars, Besides, pottery and terracotta remains of the Ashoka period have been discovered in these hills,” Mr. Pradhan said.
The discovery of several inscriptions at Radhanagar village and other corroborative evidence clearly proved that the place was Toshali, royal headquarters of Kalinga during the time of Ashoka. Although scholars tried to identify Toshali with Sisupalgarh near Bhubaneswar, no inscriptional evidence was found so far, Mr. Pradhan said.
Mr. Pradhan said the research and excavation might also lead to the discovery of the exact venue of the Kalinga war. Till now it was said the war was fought on the banks of the Daya on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar. But the current excavation and survey gave indications that the war might have been fought at Yudha Meruda, which comes under the Korei block near Dharmasala.[Stupas, inscription indicate Lord Buddha’s visit to Kalinga]

Burrial urns which were 2800 years old were discovered in Adichanallur in Tamil Nadu last year. These urns contained human bones and were decorated with a series of motifs. A three-tier burrial system was also discovered in which earlier generations were burried in urns at 10 ft depth and recent ones above them. Besides the motifs, the urns also had inscriptions based on Tamil-Brahmi.
Now the Archaeological Survey of India has located the habitational site of these people who were burried in urns.

Two things are confirmed, he said. First, the settlement was inside a fortified town. “The fortification wall has been traced. There is a regular alignment wall.” Second, the potters’ quarters have been found inside the fortification wall. Discovery of three potter’s kilns with ash, charcoal and broken pots showed wet pots/urns were baked with fire. Artefacts, including an iron knife, carnelian beads, terracotta beads, couex beads, bone implements and potsherds with graffiti have also come to light.
According to Mr. Satyamurthy, the urn-burial site could be dated “to about 1,000 B.C,” that is 3,000 years ago. “Contemporary to that, we have got the habitational site.”
The discovery of a fortification wall, that is a rampart, and three potter’s kilns confirmed that it was a habitational site. The fortification wall is packed inside with mud.
On the outside, it is packed with stones in an irregular manner.
The kilns have revealed holes to hold posts, thick coating of ash from burnt timber, “a lot of charcoal” and broken pots.
A smith’s shop was located in another trench and there were touchstones to make beads. In one place, about 100 beads made of couex (an organic material) were discovered for the first time.
The floors found in trenches were made of hard reddish clay and coated with cow dung. Ms. Gayathri said the fortification wall separated the industrial area from the habitational site.
Mr. Satyamurthy said: “It looks like a crowded town, which was busy. On the one side is the burial site. Within 500 metres, you have the kilns, which means life was active. It might have been an urban centre.” [Iron Age habitational site found at Adichanallur]

The article in The Hindu has photos of site and some artifacts that were retrieved from there.

In 2004, a Harappan site was found in the small town of Bagasara in Gujarat. This site which dates back to 2500 B.C was found to have a shell making workshop, fortifications, and knives with bone handles.

Shell bangles have been found before but not a workshop with a such a concentration of shells. The presence of the workshop reveals that the shells were cut and polished into fine bangles. Several heaps of sacred conch shells along with thousands of shell circles systematically cut from these shells have been discovered. Workshops of faience and lapidary stone beads have also been found.
The latest findings in an area of 120 meters by 120 meters in Bagasra, about 70 km away from Morbi, is the result of nine years of excavation by a team of 20 experts. The location close to the sea indicates that the people exported their wares somewhere. A six-meter thick fortification made out of mud, brick and stones enables one to reach the conclusion that the products made in the industry were well preserved. Outside the fortification were residential units.
While an entrance gate for communication between these two segments have been located at the southern wall of the fortification, another gate, maybe the one that led towards the sea, of the fortified area, is yet to be unearthed.

The French have been doing lot of excavation in Mehrgarh (in Balochistan), home of one of the oldest farming communities in the subcontinent that existed about 8000 years ago. Mehrgarh was abandoned by the time of emergence of the Indus Valley Civilization and now findings have surfaced which link these two.

Most of the ruins at Mehrgarh are buried under alluvium deposits, though some structures could be seen eroding on the surface. Currently, the excavated remains at the site comprise a complex of large compartmental mud-brick structures.
Function of these subdivided units, built of hand-formed plano-convex mud bricks, is still not clear but it is thought that many were used probably for storage, rather than residential, purposes. A couple of mounds also contain formal cemeteries, parts of which have been excavated.
Although Mehrgarh was abandoned by the time of the emergence of the literate urbanized phase of the Indus civilization around Moenjodaro, Harapa, etc., its development illustrates the development of the civilization’s subsistence patterns, as well as its craft and trade.
Mr Jarrige said that many beautiful ceramics had been found at the site in Balochistan and were believed to be of the era as early as eighth millennium BC. The French archaeologist said that studies suggested that the findings at Mehrgarh linked this area to the Indus civilization.
There are indications that bones were used in making tools for farming, textile, and there are also evidences of the use of cotton even in that period. Mr Jarrige pointed out that the skeletons found at the site indicated that the height of people of that era was larger than that of the later period.
He said that the architecture at that time was well developed. Rice was the staple food for those people and there were also indications of trade activities. [8,000-year-old civilization in Mehrgarh proved via IndiaArchaeology]

When the urns containing human skeletons were discovered in Adichanallur in Tamil Nadu, they were initially dated to 800 BC. Now one of the urns has been dated to 500 BC and what makes this interesting is the script which was present in the urn.

The claim on the date of the script and the assertion that it is in Tamil-Brahmi will be subjected to the scrutiny of scholars in the field.
The term `Tamil-Brahmi’ is used when the script is in Brahmi but the language is Tamil. The Brahmi script was predominantly used for Prakrit from the Mauryan (Asokan) period. The Brahmi script was brought to the Tamil country in the third century B.C. by the Jain and Buddhist monks during the post-Asokan period.
According to Iravatham Mahadevan, one of the foremost authorities on the Tamil-Brahmi script: “The Brahmi script reached Upper South India (Andhra-Karnataka regions) and the Tamil country at about the same time during the 3rd century B.C. in the wake of southern spread of Jainism and
Buddhism.” In his magnum opus, Early Tamil epigraphy, From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D., Mr. Mahadevan says that “the earliest Tamil inscriptions in the Tamil-Brahmi script may be dated from about the end of 3rd century or early 2nd century B.C. on palaeographic grounds and stratigraphic evidence of inscribed pottery. The earliest inscriptions in the Tamil country written in the Tamil-Brahmi script are almost exclusively in the Tamil language.” [`Rudimentary Tamil-Brahmi script’ unearthed at Adichanallur]

Tamil Brahmi scripts have been found in the caves of Jain monks in Tamil Nadu and they were dated to 3rd century BC, thus working with the theory that Buddhist and Jain monks could have bought the Brahmi script to the south. But if the date of around 500 BC is accurate, it means that the script reached Tamil Nadu during the time of Buddha itself and not much later

The shore temple at Mahabalipuram survived the tsunami this time. Apparently there were six other temples and they were all swallowed by the sea. It seems the ancient Tamil city of Poompuhar was also taken by the sea about 1500 years back.

Poompuhar was the capital of the Chola rulers, a Tamil dynasty with a recorded history going back to the second century B.C. It was a place where silk merchants and grain traders set sail for the Far East, Greece and Egypt, archaeologists say.
The town had special enclaves for foreign visitors and the king’s soldiers. In the streets, languages could be heard from around the world. It was dotted with temples, a sign of a prosperous Hindu kingdom.
But the ancient city now lies under water about three kilometers (two miles) offshore. All that remains are a few temples and the modern town, which consists of about 2,000 fishing families.
Undersea excavations and studies by historians show that Poompuhar grew into a big town during the reign of Karikal Cholan, the second-century Chola king who established trade ties with China, Arabia and the Roman Empire.
Remnants of brick buildings, water reservoirs, a boat jetty and Roman coins have been found during undersea excavations. [Was ancient Indian town swallowed by tsunami?]

Some marine archaeology was done at Poompuhar or more correctly at Kaveripoompattinam as the ancient city was known. Evidence was found that it was a big port during 3rd century BC. Due to lack to funds archaeology in this area was stopped.
Related Link: More on Dwaraka

In the middle of this year some urns dating to about 800 BC were found in Adichanallur near Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu. Now some burrial urns from the period 3 BC to 3 AD have been found in Palani in Tamil Nadu.

The mouth of the urns was facing east. When contacted, A. Periasamy, curator, government museum at Palani said such urns, belonging to 3 B.C. and 3 AD, were widely used in Dindigul, Madurai, Thirunelveli and Coimbatore districts. Villagers described the vessel as `Pandu’ kuzhi.

“We excavated a large-size burial urn at Othaiyur in Dindigul taluk and displayed it in the museum”. Sometimes, urn would contain small pots, precious stones, coins and small knives. He would excavate the area after obtaining clearance from the district administration. [Two burial urns unearthed near Palani]

The site also has a picture of the urn

Balochistan in Pakistan is the home of Mehrgarh, one of the earliest known farming settlements in the subcontinent. The earliest settlement is as old as 7000 BC, the time when humans had changed from hunter gatherers to farmers.

During the excavations, the archaeologists discovered clay female figurines associated with fertility rites, and believed to have been worshipped by the natives. Similar figurines have surfaced in other archaeological sites in the province. Several of these statues are carved with necklaces, and have their hands on their breast or waist. Some have children on their laps.

The people of that era used to wear woollen or cotton clothes. Some of the deities had their braid on their back and shoulders. Most of the male statues wore turbans, which is still in vogue in Balochistan. While the opinion of several archaeologists that several of the statuettes discovered at the site might have been children

Sudharshan Seneviratne a leading Sri Lankan expert says that the rise and fall of Buddhism in India was linked to trade and fortunes of the mercantile community. According to him, Buddhism was an urban phenomena and it owes its spread to the movement of the merchants all over the India. So for example Buddhist sites came up in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu due to the expansion of trade to the Mediterranean.

“The Buddhist temple was not merely a place of worship. It brought into contact foreign merchants and local groups. It funnelled resources and endowed wealth for investment by acting as a bank where merchants and guilds deposited money. The temples used to lend money for interest and the interest was used to maintain the temples,” he said.[Buddhism linked with traders in South India: Lankan scholar]

He also mentions that Buddhism was a movement against brahminical hegemony but later, around 4 AD, there was a revival of Brahminism and he claims that it was because kings started seeking the Kshatriya status and that could only be conferred by Brahmins.
But many scholars do not agree with this black and white distinction between Buddhism and Brahminism as enemies.

The notion of continious rebirths and the challenge of escaping from their endless cycle were common to both orthodox teachings derived from the Upanishads and to the Buddha’s teaching. Buddhism was not a belief system, not a rival faith to the post-Vedic cults and practices which prevailed under brahminical direction, but more a complementary discipline[John Keay, India, a History]

Abraham Eraly in his book The Gem in the Lotus writes that the early disciples of the Buddha were people from the upper crust of the urban society such as Brahmins, Kshatriyas and wealthy merchants. Even though Buddhism did not recognize any status claimed by birth, he never challenged the caste system. Eraly says that Buddhism was not a movement against the established order, but instead its concerns were of a different plane altogether.
Buddha was against Brahminism in certain ways. For one the Buddha never could accept the fact that people could claim sanctity because of birth and because they could recite the Vedas. He also could not accept their blind belief in the Vedas while he advocated on experiencing the truth individually. Buddhisms insistence on non-ritualistic sect, definitely affected the livelihood of Brahmins, but it never resulted in any serious confrontation between them. Buddhism never considered Brahmins as their real opponents, but their rivalry was more with other sectarians like Jains and Ajivikas.