Abstract
Recent archaeological investigations conducted in the tributaries of the Middle Mahanadi Valley region of Odisha have brought to light evidence for large-scale bead manufacturing workshop sites, i.e. Badmal Asurgarh and Bhutiapali belonging to the Early Historic period. Most interestingly, while the Badmal site is a fortified settlement, the latter site is an extensive open-air bead workshop site. Significantly, both the sites brought to light evidence for gemstone bead manufacturing activities during the Early Historic period. Preliminary studies and limited excavations conducted at both the sites appear to suggest their significant role in the Early Historic trade and exchange network in the Middle Mahanadi Valley riparian system and probably beyond. The present paper outlines the results of our preliminary archaeological investigation conducted at both the nature of sites.
Highlights
The middle Mahanadi valley lies between the Northern Uplands and the South-Western Hilly Regions of Odisha Highlands and stretches from the Hirakud Dam Reservoir to about the Tikaraparha Gorge (Singh, 1971: 754–775)
With a view to tracing the extension of such sites recently further exploration was conducted in the Harihar stream and adjacent area in the middle Mahanadi valley, which resulted in the discovery of another open air stone bead manufacturing site near the village Bhutiapali (Figure 2)
Since a detailed technotypological analysis of the recovered beads and the associated numerous fragments of bead roughouts/preforms, and stages of manufacturing process from both the sites are under way, in the following pages we intend to provide an account of our archaeological investigation conducted at the sites of Badmal Asurgarh and Bhutiapali
Summary
Historic Gemstone Bead Workshops at the Badmal Asurgarh and Bhutiapali in the Middle Mahanadi Valley Region, Odisha, India. Recent archaeological investigations conducted in the tributaries of the Middle Mahanadi Valley region of Odisha have brought to light evidence for large-scale bead manufacturing workshop sites, i.e. Badmal Asurgarh and Bhutiapali belonging to the Early Historic period. While the Badmal site is a fortified settlement, the latter site is an extensive open-air bead workshop site. Both the sites brought to light evidence for gemstone bead manufacturing activities during the Early Historic period. Preliminary studies and limited excavations conducted at both the sites appear to suggest their significant role in the Early Historic trade and exchange network in the Middle Mahanadi Valley riparian system and probably beyond. The present paper outlines the results of our preliminary archaeological investigation conducted at both the nature of sites
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