early historic beads from recent excavations in odisha
TRANSCRIPT
Early Historic Beads from Recent Excavations in Odisha
Sikhasree Ray1, Tilok Thakuria2 and Santanu Vaidya3 1. Archaeological Survey of India, 3rd Floor, G. T. B. Complex, T. T. Nagar, Bhopal,
Madhya Pradesh, India (Email: [email protected]) 2. Department of History and Archaeology, North Eastern Hill University, Tura
Campus, Chandmari, Meghalaya‐794002 (Email: [email protected]) 3. Department of Archaeology, Deccan College Post‐Graduate and Research Institute,
Yerawada, Pune 411006, Maharashtra, India (Email: [email protected])
Received: 13 August 2014; Accepted: 09 September 2014; Revised: 15 October 2014 Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology 2 (2014): 802‐809
Abstract: Beads used as an ornament are known from the upper Paleolithic period made out of ostrich egg shells dating back to 35,000 B.P. In the subsequent period it continues to be used and is extensively used as ornament and for ornamentation. The excavations in Odisha have revealed beads of various shapes, sizes and raw materials like semi precious stone, terracotta, glass and organic. The present paper will focus on the beads found from excavation of two major sites in Odisha i.e. Sisupalgarh and Manikpatna. In this paper an attempt is made to see whether the beads were locally made or they were procured in the process of trade and commerce from outside the region. It is because raw materials used for the manufacture of these beads are not locally available.
Keywords: Upper Paleolithic, Early Historic, Bead, Odisha, Excavation, Sisupalgarh, Manikpatna
Introduction Beads in general are used as ornament as well as for ornamentation. It is used as the personal ornament like necklace. In the same time it is also used for ornamentation like for making ribbon, girdle, and decorate the border of the cloth or for embroidery of the cloth. Apart from the beautification of the body, these beads in the archaeological context give a lot of information about the contemporary society. It helps to define economic dynamics and also provides an insight into the social organization of a particular period. Sometimes it represents the status and characteristic feature or personality of the wearer. The bead manufacturing in the ancient time helps us to understand the technological evolution and craft development of a bygone society. It also helps us to understand trade, market related activities and manufacturing processes held in the ancient time.
Beads are regarded to be the probable the earliest ornament used by the human beings. As per the evidence bead are the earliest ornament discovered from the Indian context
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as well. The antiquity of beads in India goes back to the upper Paleolithic period. It was found at Patne, an upper Paleolithic site in Maharashtra in the form of the bead made out of Ostrich egg shells (Sali 1980, 1989). Subsequently, the beads were made out of shell (Sonawane 2002), bone (Misra 2002 a, Pal 2002, Gupta 2002), antler (Sharma et al 1980), Clay (Sharma et al 1980), and stone (Sankhalia 1965, Misra 1973, Misra 2002 a, Misra 2002 b). The evidence of bead made out of semi‐precious stone, clay, organic material like bone and shell continued to appear in many excavated Neolithic sites in India with much regional variations (Niharika 1993, Prasad 1974). The various sites of Indus culture introduced a variety of bead manufacturing methods and techniques. Subsequently, the bead production and its use continued during the Neolithic and Chalcolithic period. Early Iron and megalithic culture has evidenced beads of different material in large number both from habitation and burials. The excavations at some of the important Early Historic sites like Hastinapur, Kausambi, Bhokardhan, Prakash, Nevasa, Ter, Ahichhatra, Ujjaini, Sravasti, Vashali, Maski revealed large number beads of different materials in remarkable quantity. Beads from these sites throw light on the artistic patterns, preference of raw materials, their shapes, nature and expertise of the craft (Deo 2000:5). The remarkable quantity of beads discovered from various sites, its wider distribution and excellent workmanship denote the cultural significance of this object in the ancient times.
However, the beads coming from various the archaeological context as a refuse, accidental loss, as a horded, stored for distribution or from manufacturing centers have different story to divulge. The evidences of bead as ornament or as embellishment are found from various excavations which are pertaining to different cultural sequence. Reference to these beads could also be noted from the ancient literature. The ancient sculptures also provide information on the adornment of beads. However the beads found from the archaeological excavations gives reliable evidence that helps us having a clear idea about various aspects related to their manufacturing processes, preference of raw material, the size and shapes preferred in a particular period and that too in a region.
The recent excavations in Odisha have revealed beads of various shapes, sizes pertaining to a wide range of raw materials like semi‐precious stone, terracotta, glass and organic material. The proper understanding of these particular objects may help us in getting the information about the beads that were prevalence during this period. It also tells about requirement of a site in relation to its economic viability, aesthetic expectations and consciousness of the people, excellence in craftsmanship, development of technology, manufacturing of the sites, probable trade activity, and cultural relationship with other part of the India. The present paper intended to focus on the beads found from the recent excavations carried out at Sisupalgarh, and Manikpatna an early Historic and port site in Odisha respectively (Fig. 1). Here an attempt is made to see whether the beads were locally made or they were procured in the process of trade and commerce from outside the region as some of these stone beads appeared to be non‐local as the raw materials are used are not locally available.
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Figure 1: Map of Odisha Showing the Two Excavated Early Historic Sites
(Adapted: Debasish Misra)
The costal part of Odisha and eastern part of Andhra Pradesh was known as Kalinga one of the powerful territory in ancient India. Kalinga is well known for the part it played during Ashok’s invasion and subsequent propagation of Buddhism. The excavations and explorations in the east coast of Odisha have revealed many unknown facets of the achievements of the people of the then Kalinga (Mohanty 1999: 79‐83). Some of the major urban centers like Radhanagar, Sisupalgarh, Jaugarh, Asurgadh and recently Talapada have been subjected to intensive investigation. Besides these sites Narisar and the Early Historic port site Manikpattana have given similar type of evidence. Though they have yielded a good amount of data only a few objects have been taken for a preliminary study.
Sisupalgarh Sisupalgarh is situated in the outskirt of Bhubaneswar. It was first excavated by B.B. Lal in 1948 and subsequently excavated by Prof R. K. Mohanty, Deccan College, Pune and Prof. Monica. L. Smith, University of California, Los Angles, from 2005 – 2009. Earlier excavation has given the date of the period from 4th century BC to 3rd century AD, and the recent excavation has stretched the date on either side by couple of centuries (7th century B.C to 6th century A.D.) (Mohanty et al. 2013).
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The excavation in Odisha has revealed a large number of beads made out of especially glass, terracotta and stones. The shapes included mostly the common ones that are found almost all the historical sites in India. Some of the shapes continue to appear from the Harappa period also. They include areca nut shape, pear shape, barrel shape, round/globular shape, tiny circular/tablet, collared shape, gadrooned shape and floral shape. The most important feature of the bead findings from Odishan site is the material that is terracotta. The recent excavation has produced around 800 beads and 90 percent of these beads are made out of terracotta (Figs. 2 ‐ 11). The beads of other material are very less. A few specimen of glass beads (Figs. 12 and 13) and stone beads like carnelian (Fig. 14), agate (Figs. 15 and 16) were also discovered from the site. The high amount of terracotta beads and the finding of mould from Sisupalgarh suggest that this site might have been a terracotta bead manufacturing Centre (Mohanty etal. 2013: 55‐65).
Manikpatna Manikapatana is a small village located in the Brahmagiri tahsil of Puri district in Odisha. The village is situated about 45 km south‐west of Puri town near to the coast where the Chilika Lake merges in the Sea .It was first excavated by Odisha Institute of Maritime and Southeast Asian Studies and the Department of State Archaeology, Odisha 1989‐90 and 1991‐92. Excavations revealed two cultural periods. In the absence of radiocarbon date, the first period at the site has been dated from 2nd century BC to 5th ‐6th century AD. The second period starts after a hiatus and is dated from around 9th century A.D. to 19th centuryA.D. The site was re‐examined and re‐excavated by Prof. R.K. Mohanty, Deccan College in 2010 with the intention to understand east coast trade network and role of the site as port at the time of Early Historic urban growth in Odisha (Mohanty and Joglekar 2010). The ceramic evidence from this excavation suggested its role as a port around the 5th to 6th century AD, if not earlier than this (Mohanty and Joglekar 2010). No material evidence was found to testify the early beginning of the settlement at the site proposed by previous excavators (Mohanty and Joglekar 2010). The chronology of the site is still debated. However, both excavations has revealed a large number of Chinese ceramics along with Chinese coin and coins coming from Srilanka. These evidences tell about the trading activity with South‐east Asian countries from 9th century to 19th century A.D. (Pradhan et al. 2000, Mohanty and Joglekar 2010).
The recent excavation in Manikpatna was limited in nature. So far the bead is concerned Manikpatna has given very less number of terracotta beads (Fig. 17) or of any other material. The dominating type of the bead found in this place is the glass. And the glass beads are micro in nature (Fig. 18).
Discussion and Conclusion The excavations at Sisupalgarh have provided a large number of terracotta ornaments besides beads especially belonging to the 1st – 2nd century A.D. Prior to this phase as well as later phase (4th – 5th c. A.D) do not show such evidence of beads. The technique
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The stone beads recorded from Odisha are very few and the raw material used (mostly agate and carnelian), shapes and technology applied seems have close relationship to that of beads found from the contemporary sites from Deccan. The raw materials are not locally found and appear in plenty in Deccan Trap. The excavations at Narisar in Cuttack District and Badmal in Sambalpur Distict in Odisha have given evidence of a small quantity of bead production. However, the beads produced at Badmal are basically are from aquamarine, which have not been found as yet in other excavated early historic site in Odisha.
Hence, it can be concluded that occasionally, some terracotta bead processing might have taken place in these sites as there was a small bead polisher was located while investigating the surface at Sisupalgarh. Use of terracotta bead in large quantity in the sculptural depiction in Odisha of the contemporary period also suggests this fact. So far the glass beads are concerned if we will look into the sculptural depiction in Odisha of the contemporary period, it can be noticed that they do not show a large number of glass beaded necklace. Even in today society, glass beads are not found extensively, whereas the beads made out rudraksha, conch shell and tulsi are most common. Hence the use of glass beads is negligible in Odishan context. Whatever found in archaeological context are seems to be imported from outside if compared to the other contemporary sites in different parts of the country. The bead manufacturing sites of this period found in Central India especially Deccan (Mohanty 1999, 1999a) might have been the source for the beads found in Odishan Early Historic sites. Though, we have stone bead manufacture at upper Mahanadi valley, but they basically produced beads from local raw material of aquamarine. This analysis in this study is preliminary. More study will be carried out to establish a strong hypothesis.
Acknowledgement We would like to convey our special gratitude to our research supervisor Prof. R. K. Mohanty who always suggested the ideas as well as inspired us in each and every matter of the research. We also express our gratitude Prof. R. K. Mohanty along with Prof. Monica L. Smith and Prof P. P. Joglekar for providing us the excavated beads from the sites Sisupalgarh and Manikaptna for our study.
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