ANIMAL REMAINS EXCAVATED FROM NAGDA ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE ( MADHYA PRADESH ) AND THEIR RELEVANCE TO THE CHALCOLITHIC CIVILIZATION

The various excavations carried out in central, western and south India for developing an understanding of the prehistoric civilization have revealed the nature of the Chalcolithic civilization that existed in past on the Indian soil. This culture had evolved almost at a time when Indus civilization in Harappa and Mohenjodaro .was disappearing. This culture had a wide expanse from Jammu to Daimabad in Maharastra and from Sutkagendor in the west to Alamgirpur in the Ganga plains. On the basis of cultural objects and related items the Chalcolithic cultures of India were divided into five regional groups, viz., (I) South western Rajasthan, (II) Malwa region, fed by the rivers Chambal and Narmada and under which comes Nagda, (III) Northern Deccan, (IV) Southern India, and (V) Eastern India.


Arabian Sea
, .• ." height of about 27.9 metres above the bed of river Chambal that flows north-south through the western side of the mounds.The site was first noticed in 1945, and occurrence of microliths, potteries etc. around the site indicated potentiality of the place from the archaeological viewpoint.
Later on, more than twenty such sites were identified in the Chambal valley and exploration of these sites revealed that Malwa region in ancient days was an important area of settlement by the Chalcolithic people (Banerjee, 1986).

HISTORY OF EXCAVATIONS AND TERMINOLOGY OF SITES
The excavations at Nagda was carried out (by the Archaeological survey of India) mainly for tracing the characteristics of the Chalcolithic culture of that site, and to trace its stratigraphic link with other known cultural sites of India.For this purpose one main trench, NGD-l, and three subsidiary trenches called respectively, NGD-2, NGD-3 and NGD-4 were laid by the Archaeological Survey of India.The main trench was excavated in 1955-1956, and the others in 1956-1957.Many animal remains along with the objects of archaeological importance were recovered from the excavations.These animal remains were sent to the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) for examination.Earlier, Nath (1966) worked out skeletal parts of some animals obtained during the excavations.A systematic inventory of the available animal remains preserved in the ZSI, are documented here and their relevance in the ancient culture are discussed for the first time in the present account.

AGE OF THE CIVILIZATION
The Carbon-14 study of various material at the Chalcolithic sites, Navdatoli near Nagda indicated a date range of 1631-1375 BC, and the beginning of the culture on the basis of available material was estimated by Sankalia (1963) to be about 1800 BC.It is thought that the culture at Nagda" began little earlier than that of Navdatoli (Banerjee, 1986).The pale red ware, a ceramic painted variously in black and a black-and-red characterize the culture.The Chalcolithic culture of Nagda had three different phases viz., period-I, period-II and period-III.Period-I is represented by 16 ft.(6.24 m.) of strata containing an average 23 layers; Period-II is represented by 7.5 ft.(2.92 m.) of strata containing an average 9 layers; and Period-III is represented by 8.5 ft.(3.315 m.) of strata.

ANIMAL REMAINS RECOVERED FROM NAGDA ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE
The animal remains of Nagda archaeological site are worked out and the result of it is presented in Table I.
Table 1.: Systematic analysis of animal remains recovered from Nagda archaeological site.

DISCUSSION
The Malwa region, situated almost in the centre of India, forms a unique geographical unit from.the view point of physiography, human culture and economy (Dhavalikar, 1979).The region forms the link between the Indo-Gangetic plain and the peninsular part of India.It may further be considered as a part of the northernmost tip of peninsula.The region is drained by two river systems viz., (i) rivers Narmada, Tapti and Mahi which fall on the Arabian Sea, and (ii) rivers Chambal and Bewa which join the river Yamuna.The climate of the region is tropical monsoonal type, and its black soil is well known for its fertility.Dhavalikar (ioc. cit.) presumed that the earliest settlers of Malwa were attracted by the fertility of the region.He also commented that the Chalcolithic people seem to have selected this spot obviously because of the environment, which must have been quite congenial to them.
It is revealed that the past inhabitants or Chalcolithic folk of Nagda during the period-I had certain degree of diversity in their livelihood and culture, but the extent of which were not as wide and developed as were seen in the Harappan cultures.The people lived most probably in the mud or mud bricks houses and seldom in the shelters on rubble base.The design of the houses suggests their group structure and living jointly in large numbers.In fact, the presence of large size kitchens (c.20 ft.x 6 ft. or 11.7 sq.m.) with multiple ovens are clear indications of this assumption.The finds of grains like, wheat, rice, gram, peas, pulses etc. are quite suggestive of the vegetable diet of the folk (Sankalia, Subbarao & Deo, 1958).These also point out to their skill in farming and agriculture.The presence of sharply cut bones of animals indicates consumption of animal proteins by this ancient folk.Ornaments made up of molluscan shells and ivories have been recovered.It appears from the microliths recovered from the excavations, that the tools of this Chalcolithic folk comprised microlithic blades, knives, crescents and trapezes for cutting vegetables, fruits, crops and animals (Banerjee ,1986).
Animals with hard exoskeletons (molluscs, turtles) and endoskeletons (vertebrates) have been recovered from the excavations (vide Table 1).The presence of molluscan shells, turtles and even the marsh crocodile reveal that river Chambal had enough flow on those days and was well connected with the river system of south of this zone.It was also navigable and was utilized by the people for movement to other places.Among the three turtles, ChUra indica still in these days are found in the river system in wide area of India, and Lissemys punctata occurs in Indo-gangetic plain; the marsh crocodile, Crocodilus porosus had a wider distribution but now-a-days it has disappeared from many parts of India.The river Chambal, flowing from the central highland of India, merges into Yamuna and eventually into the Gangetic drainage system.It is presumed that the highland area had substantial vegetation cover and the drainage had increased flow due to higher precipitation.Many riverine animals, which in these days are not naturally occurring Proximal fragment of scapula . .

Table 2 .
: Animal forms recovered from Nagda excavations and their present state of distribution.